The Dying Swan, Music For 1-7 Players

blackbox Joby Talbot The Dying Swan Musk- f<>r l to / Players BBM1078

2. Blue cell for saxophone quartet +

3. minus 1 500 for string quintet, vibraphone and bassoon

4. String Quartet no. 1 *

The Dying Swan (suite) for piano trio

5. 1

6.

2

9.31

7.

3

»

8.

6/11/98 fo^plo piano

2. ft,

9.

Falling for electric cello

6.46

10.

String Quartet no.2 *

4.15

74.37

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rob farre:

EVERTON N)

JONATHAN
NATALIA B<

JOEL HUNTS
CHRIS WORSEY - q|

PHILIP SHEPPARD j
LUCY SHAW - bass (3) 1;,.

JOANNA CACKETT - bassoon (3)
IVOR TALBOT - guitar samples (9)

iectric cello (9)

Do young composers nowadays face different problems to their counterparts in the past? Up to Haydn,
Mozart (and early Beethoven), composers’ livelihoods were tied to their courtly or religious employment,
while the freedom afforded by itinerant virtuosity (e.g. Liszt and Paganini), as well as both the rise of
sheet music sales (first explored by Corelli and Vivaldi) and the formation of independent orchestral
institutions, allowed 19th-century composers more freedom. Yet in the 20th century, with the rise of
‘popular’ music, the goalposts seemed to change again and ‘serious’ music from Schoenberg to
Stockhausen became ghettoised, while the ease with which music can be accessed has increased
exponentially with the invention of, and continued innovation in, the recorded medium.

So what’s a young composer to do? Joby Talbot bridges a divide. On the one hand (not to be heard on
this disc) he writes for television (the third series of The League of Gentlemen was unveiled in Autumn
2002) and was in Neil Hannon’s The Divine Comedy, for which, between 1993 and 2001, he contributed
his distinctive arrangements as well as co-writing original songs. The band’s 1997 Flux collaboration
with Michael Nyman won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and Talbot provided songs and arrangements
for Ute Lemper’s 2000 album Punishing Kiss. His new band is Billiardman.

|pn the other hand (Janus Joby, perhaps?), is his ‘serious’ classical music side. Talbot studied with Brian
Elias, Simon Bainbridge and Robert Saxton and, although his works can be overtly racy and pacy (the
percussion concerto Incandescence for example), the pieces represented on this disc for the most part

1 hide their modernisms and are immediately attractive to the ear (how refreshing!).

The opening work on this disc, “... similarities between diverse things...”, was composed in memoriam
Fred Hutchins Hodder, who died between Christmas and New Year 2001. A violinist and gifted
mathematician, 20-year-old Hodder had been at Pembroke College Cambridge and the title derives from
the pleasure he used to get when finding unexpected connections between seemingly unconnected
'/mgs. For piano trio and vibraphone, the work was written for Hodrier’s parents, Monroe and Fred.

s saxophone quartet Blue Cell - inspired by Odilon Redon’s 1892 painting Golden Cell (using oil and
Id metallic paint on paper and to be found in the British Museum, but with a definite blue quality as
*1 as the gold) - was a commission by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet, premiered in 2001. Listening to
Quartet’s virtuosic performances of fast and brilliant works, Talbot opted for the exact opposite (but
St as difficult to bring off): a soft, almost entirely sotto voce work, concentrating on the distinct,
illating voices of each instrument.

*

minus 1500 - also commissioned in 2001, this time by the London Sinfonietta for its annual South
Bank State of the Nation weekend for a prescribed ensemble of string quartet, percussion and bassoon
(the version recorded is revised to include a specially prepared piano, providing the opening gamelan-
like chimes) - was inspired by literature. Peter Weigold suggested the theme “ Farewells take place in
silence ” quoting from Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Packed full of wonderful fantasies about imaginary
cities, it is revealed belatedly that all are inspired by Venice. One describes the use of thread looped
between buildings to denote relationships, and how - over time - the tangled web of material becomes
impassable, so the inhabitants simply up-sticks, abandon that cocoon of intricacies and set up
somewhere else. Coupled with the fact that it is estimated that 1,500 people leave Venice each year,
Talbot happened on the title of this piece.

One of the earliest works on this disc, dating from 1998, the single movement String Quartet no.l was
composed for the Duke Quartet, who premiered it at that year’s Brighton Festival. This disc closes with
its successor - String Quartet no.2 - composed in 2002, again at the long-standing request of the Duke
Quartet. Couched similarly in one movement (Talbot envisages a continuing set of single movements,
which could be programmed in any order), this developed out of a piece for Billiardman called
Incubator.

The Dying Swan, a score to a 1916 Russian silent film made by Yevgeny Bauer, was commissioned by
the British Film Institute in 2002. One of the unsung heroes of film pioneering, Bauer’s place in the
history of cinema has only come to light since the 1980s after the discovery of films that had been
gathering dust since his death in 1917. Not the first silent film Talbot has scored (Hitchcock’s early
classic The Lodger was performed in Edinburgh and London in 1999; the following year in Paris), The
Dying Swan is intriguing because its heroine is a mute. She turns to ballet dancing after losing out in
love. She dances the famous Dying Swan (the images match Saint-Saens’ music so perfectly that Talbot
retains the music, although not in the Suite) and, in so doing, fascinates an aristocratic dabbler in the
arts who wants to catch the essence of death on canvas. He invites her to be an artist’s model, and all is
going well until her lover finds her again. She is overjoyed but, going for her final sitting, the painter is
angry that her pallor of death has turned to tears of joy, and he murders her.

From the 45-minute score (now available on DVD), Talbot has extracted a three-movement Suite for
Piano Trio, an eloquent example of the need for music that works not only in sustaining the atmosphere
of a visual image, but also on its own musical terms.

Talbot’s sensitive side is again apparent with the piano solo 6/ 1 1/98, the date of his \
Claire Burbridge. On returning home from the ceremony, Talbot played the work writte
the assembled guests, affecting his new brother-in-law to the point of tears.

g;to artist
for Claire to

Earlier that same year Talbot wrote a work for Philip Sheppard and his electric cello, prStpier® at that
year’s Dartington Summer School. It was written just as Talbot met Claire and, while h«$mp%ed, she
made a print with the common title Falling. The electric cello’s harder edge (especially^ahe extended
upper range) and more extreme timbral palette is exploited in the arch fro® soft to sevKk loud, where
the cellist activates a guitar sample which angrily and insistently harps on one chordttefo® falling
back down to piano. One suspects that Bach would have been investigating such ptpjj&iliSbs if he
were around today to add to his cello suites. Sj§,

® Nick Bredkei

Joby Talbot

Born in 1971 in Wimbledon, Joby Talbot initially studied composition at Royal Holloway!
New College and then privately with Brian Elias. Talbot was a pupil of Simon Bainbridge a
Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he won the Dorothy Adams Sti
competition and was awarded the Wainwright Memorial Bursary. His percussion piece Do
was published by the Guildhall as part of its young composers’ series.

His work has been performed by Icebreaker, the Britten Sinfonia, the Brunei Ensemble, tlwLondon
Contemporary Percussion Trio, Crouch End Festival Chorus and the BBC Philharmonic, whose
performance of his octet Animisation was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1996. Talbot vp^wie of four
compqj^rs chosen to write a new piece for the BBC Philharmonilland the jHRant work
Luminescence for string orchestra was premiered in 1997 under Sir Pet®Maxwel| Dayffes, and has
since jbeen broadcast twice on BBC Radio 3. |

In 1993j&E§lbot met Neil Hannon and began arranging and performing with his grouMpie Divine
Comedy. Sir^^^^lhe band has released four albums and four top-30 singles. Talbot a|d Hannon
also collabomtedon the theme music for BBC TV’s Tomorrow’s World and have written &f|§|s for the
Ute Lemper album Punishing Kiss. Other works for TV written by Talbot include the theme ®usic for

Young Musician of the Year, the score for a short film for BBC 2 called Queen’s Park Story and the
music for the BBC 2 comedy series The League of Gentlemen which was awarded the Golden Rose at
the Montreux International TV Festival. Other TV projects include the BBC comedy series Chambers
starring John Bird.

In 1997, Talbot and The Divine Comedy collaborated with Michael Nyman at the Flux Festival and
were awarded Edinburgh Festival’s Critics’ Choice. Recent concert works include a percussion
concerto for Julian Warburton and the Brunei Ensemble entitled Incandescence which was performed
in 1998 by Evelyn Glennie as part of the London Sinfonietta’s CMN tour, the chamber version
premiered at the Festival van Vlaanderen in Belgium. In 1999 he was commissioned by the British
Film Institute to write a new score to Alfred Hitchcock’s silent movie The Lodger which has been
performed live to film in Edinburgh, London, France and Germany.

Recent commissions have included The Same Dog for Crouch End Festival Chorus, Lovers Ink for
strings written for the Sarum orchestra, Falling for electric cello, toured in the US by Philip Sheppard,
and works for The Apollo Saxophone Quartet and the London Sinfonietta.

Produced by Joby Talbot ft Mark Wyllie (tracks 1, 3, 4, 8- 10)/ Tim Redpath [Horizon Music Production]
(track 2)/Christopher Austin (tracks 5-7)

Recorded ft mixed by Mark Wyllie (tracks 1, 3, 4-8, 10)/Tim Redpath [Horizon Music Production] fr
(track 2)/Jon Gardner (track 9)

Recorded at Winterbrook Studios, Morphonic Studios ft Intimate Studios, London/St. Peter’s Church,
Ruthin, February-July 2002

Mixed at Stanley House Studios, London. Mastered by Karen Thompson at The Exchange, London
Blue Cell commissioned by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet with funds made available
by North West Arts

First performed at the Brighton Festival 2001
Joby Talbot photograph ® Simone Canetty-Clarke
Front cover image - ‘False Moon 1’ (detail) by Claire Burb ridge
Design by xinc

BBM1069 KEVIN VOLANS
hunting : gathering
The Duke Quartet

kevin volans

. . this Black Box release underlines why Volans has been described as a
‘composer of staggering gifts’ and ‘one of the planet’s most distinctive
and unpredictable voices’, supported by sensational playing from the
Duke Quartet ” Music Week

BBM1033 STEVE MARTLAND
Horses Of Instruction
The Steve Martland Band

“ . . this is a superb disc, and indispensable guide for anybody who
wishes to get to know Steve Mar Hand’s music or to hear the unmistakable
sound of his marvellous band. There is playing on this recording of such
virtuosity that it really beggars belief" Gramophone Awards Issue 2001

BBM1079 GAVIN BRYARS
String Quartets
The Lyric Quartet

“ The players of the Lyric Quartet, for whom the third quartet was written ,
are wonderful advocates for this music" ****/* BBC Music Magazine

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