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Colin Matthews

Composer

Matthews’ statement has a power and elegance that are quite his own.

— Paul Driver, The Sunday Times

Crossing the Alps (2009). Voices & Organ

Crossing the Alps is written for chorus in eight parts, and although the harmonic language is not complex in itself, it moves in unexpected directions which I felt needed the underpinning of an organ pedal (as well as optional part for the manual).  It was composed between July and October of 2009, and lasts approximately 7 minutes.

The text is from the ‘crossing the Alps’ sequence from Book VI of Wordsworth’s The Prelude, and I’ve taken the liberty of conflating the 1805 and 1850 texts.  It deals with the liberation of the imagination, the decisive moment (although no the climax of the piece) being the words ‘Our destiny, our nature, and our home, Is with infinitude, and only there’.  The text was suggested to me by Paul Driver, to whom the work is dedicated.

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20 January, 2021 - La cathédrale engloutie (Debussy/Matthews)
Orchestre de Paris, Ludovic Morlot (conductor)
Philharmonie, Paris, France

4 February, 2021 - Eleven Studies in Velocity
Royal Academy of Music
Livestreamed from the David Josefowitz Recital Hall

27 April, 2021 - Seascapes (World Premiere)
Nash Ensemble
Wigmore Hall, London

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Useful Links

Faber Music
NMC Recordings
The Holst Foundation

© 2021 Colin Matthews · Website by Bookswarm

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