Rian Evans, 12 November, 2004, Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
Tansy Davies, primed as to the context in which her piece would be set, tailored a contemporary concerto grosso using John Dowland's theme The Galliard to Lachrymae, thus stretching the time span even wider than Tippett's.
Residuum - named after the residual energy ghost-hunters detect in old buildings - had a rather chill atmosphere that warmed distinctly when the two solo violins were possessed by the spirit of Dowland viols dancing in distorted canon. The work's most intriguing aspect was of time fractured, both in the sense of complex rhythmic patterns coexisting with simple ones and music bridging a fault opened up between centuries.
 Christopher Morley, 8 November 2004, Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon
Tansy Davies' 'Residuum', commissioned by TOOTS and premiered here, takes the Tippett model for its homage to Dowland's Lachrymae (and therefore nods to Britten who reworked the same melody). Meticulously scored and organic in its growth this 17-minute piece deserves a place in the repertoire. |
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Tansy Davies
The Guardian included Tansy Davies in their '50 women to watch' feature last year and her music has been performed by ensembles including the BBC Singers, Endymion Ensemble and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
The London Sinfonietta first commissioned her in 2000. The success of that work, Torsion, has led to a number of other Sinfonietta performances, including Neon and The Void in this Colour in London and for the BBC. The Sinfonietta has performed Small Black Stone in London and Switzerland and recorded it for NMC. Her most recent Sinfonietta commission was a saxophone concerto, Iris, premiered at the Cheltenham Festival.
Other close working relationships have grown with the Brunel Ensemble, the Composers Ensemble and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Tansy Davies has written five works for the Composers Ensemble: Picking Raspberries at Eagles Nest Lake, Patterning (a Brighton Festival commission which the ensemble also recorded for NMC), Gintrap, Neon and Genome (for the 2003 Almeida Festival). She wrote Manivelles for the BCMG in 2003 and it has since performed Inside Out 2 with Diego Masson at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Her most recent composition is Spiral House, a trumpet concerto for Mark O'Keefe and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Tansy Davies is Composer in Residence at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Commissions and Performances
Residuum - 2004
8 October 2004: Grange Hall, Southam (world premiere)
9 October 2004: Townsend Hall, Shipston-on-Stour
8 November 2004: Civic Hall, Stratford-upon-Avon
9 November 2004: Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
4 September 2005: Rye Festival
20 September 2005: St Asaph Festival
30 September 2005: St George's, Bristol
8 November 2005: St Andrew's Festival, Gorleston
9 November 2005: Cope Auditorium, Loughborough University
10 February 2006: St Aldate's Church, Oxford
11 February 2006: Wiltshire Music Centre
28 April 2006L Corsham Festival
Residuum
I began the process of writing 'Residuum' by looking at a much earlier piece of music - Dowland's 'Galliard to Lachrymae' - and I wanted somehow to make an imprint of this piece on the one I was about the compose. Much of 'Residuum' is made up of what I think of as being my own 'medieval dances' made up of musical material taken from the Dowland. This is altered rhythmically and then set into sometimes quite complex counterpoint often involving two or three different tempi or pulses going on at the same time.
The brightness of these dances is countered by slow moving passages and chords which hover over the piece like a ghost of the Dowland. The two types of energy- bright and dark- are mainly heard in stark juxtaposition but a solo cello passage links the two worlds by playing brittle and ethereal fragments from one of the dances above a dark chorale.
Ghost hunters often talk about finding residual energy in old buildings; past events are replayed in the present as a result of energy being retained by the building. Residuum' is an imaginary replay the residual energy of Dowland's 'Galliard to Lachrymae', heard like an echo of ancient music in a modern time.
Tansy Davies
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