The Fires of London , founded as the Pierrot Players , was a British chamber music ensemble which was active from 1965 to 1987.
23-495: The Pierrot Players was founded by Harrison Birtwistle , Alan Hacker , and Stephen Pruslin . From 1967 it was under the joint direction of Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies . The ensemble was formed to play Schoenberg 's Pierrot Lunaire and new works, often with a theatrical element, for a similar scoring (usually with the addition of percussion). The instrumentation proved to be too limited for Birtwistle and he left in 1970. Maxwell Davies took over as sole director, renaming
46-503: A low media profile, but occasionally gave interviews. In 2019, he was interviewed for Composer of the Week on BBC Radio 3 . He married Sheila Duff, a singer, in 1958. The couple had three sons, two of whom, Adam and Silas , are artists. Sheila died in 2012. Birtwistle had a stroke in 2021 and died at his home in Mere, Wiltshire , on 18 April 2022, aged 87. Birtwistle's music
69-503: A ritualistic feel. These were toned down in Birtwistle's later decades as his compositional style developed. Even when not creating a visual piece involving stage action, Birtwistle's musical output remained frequently theatrical in conception. The music does not follow the logic and rules of classical forms such as sonata form , but is structured more like a drama. Furthermore, different musical instruments can almost be seen to take
92-514: Is a mixed 11-16 Academy in Accrington , Lancashire . It has designated specialisms in Sports and Mathematics . It is situated in the centre of Accrington. Accrington St Christopher's C of E High is nearby to the west. The school, run by United Learning , opened on 1 September 2008 on the site of the former Accrington Moorhead Sports College, itself the successor Moorhead High School which
115-549: Is not categorised as belonging to any particular school or movement. For a time, he was described as belonging to the Manchester School , a phrase invented as a parallel to the Second Viennese School to refer to Birtwistle, Goehr, and Davies. Birtwistle's music is complex, written in a modernistic manner with a clear, distinctive voice, with sounds described as of "sonic brashness". His early work
138-523: Is sometimes evocative of Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen , whom he acknowledged as influences, and his technique of juxtaposing blocks of sound is sometimes compared to that of Edgard Varèse . Hearing the work of Boulez ( Le Marteau sans maître ) and Stockhausen ( Zeitmaße and Gruppen ) in his youth was also inspirational, with that of the latter composer in particular influencing his wind quintet , Refrains and Choruses (1957). His early pieces made frequent use of ostinati and often had
161-640: The Rue Fürstenberg and The Viola in My Life 1 by Morton Feldman , Ocean de Terre by Oliver Knussen , and Der langwierige Weg in die Wohnung der Natascha Ungeheuer by Hans Werner Henze . The group collaborated with the Early Music Consort of London on the soundtrack for the film The Devils . Maxwell Davies described the basic instrumentation as flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, keyboards, percussion. Principal players in
184-535: The classical music world, Birtwistle was relatively unknown to the general public until the mid-1990s, when two events increased his profile with the wider audience. In 1994 two anti-modernist musicians, Frederick Stocken and Keith Burstein , calling themselves "The Hecklers", organised a demonstration at the first night of a revival of his opera Gawain at the Royal Opera House , London. The following year, Birtwistle's saxophone concertante work Panic
207-404: The disruption of the nature by modern technology would affect his later work profoundly. Other youthful activities included the construction of amateur theatrical sets, and the subsequent imagining of dramas taking place inside them. Birtwistle became proficient enough to play in the local military-style band and also played in the orchestra that accompanied Gilbert and Sullivan productions and
230-611: The establishment of the Pierrot ensemble (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) as a standard instrumentation in contemporary music. This article about a classical ensemble is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions , his better known works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and
253-410: The formative years included Judith Pearce (flute), Alan Hacker (clarinet), Duncan Druce (violin), Jennifer Ward Clarke (cello) and Stephen Pruslin (piano). The Fires of London was one of many ensembles created to play Pierrot Lunaire , and the presence of these ensembles led to many new works being written for the same instrumentation. This in turn led to the formation of yet more groups, leading to
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#1732775486027276-706: The group the Fires of London. It was disbanded after its 20th anniversary concert in 1987. Maxwell Davies subsequently endorsed a new group Psappha , based in Manchester. During its existence, the Fires of London was particularly associated with Maxwell Davies' music, and gave first performances of many of his works, including Eight Songs for a Mad King , Vesalii Icones , The Martyrdom of St Magnus , Ave Maris Stella and Revelation and Fall . However it also premiered works by other composers, including Elliott Carter 's Triple Duo , Birtwistle's Cantata, I Met Heine on
299-489: The local choral society's performances of Handel's Messiah . From around this time Birtwistle first composed, later describing his early pieces as "sub- Vaughan Williams ". In 1952 he entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in Manchester on a clarinet scholarship. While there he came in contact with contemporaries including Peter Maxwell Davies , Alexander Goehr , the pianist John Ogdon , and
322-416: The musicians who performed his works are conductors Pierre Boulez , Sir Andrew Davis , Daniel Barenboim , Christoph von Dohnányi , Oliver Knussen and Simon Rattle , violinist Christian Tetzlaff , the soloist in the world premiere of his violin concerto in 2011, and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard , the soloist in the first performance of his Responses for piano and orchestra in 2014. Birtwistle had
345-692: The newly established Royal National Theatre in London, a post he held until 1983. He received a knighthood (1988) and was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (2001). From 1994 to 2001 he was Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King's College London . Birtwistle was the 1987 recipient of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his epic opera The Mask of Orpheus . Though well-established in
368-610: The operas The Mask of Orpheus (1986), Gawain (1991), and The Minotaur (2008). The last of these was ranked by music critics at The Guardian in 2019 as the third-best piece of the 21st century. Even his compositions that were not written for the stage often showed a theatrical approach. A performance of his saxophone concerto Panic during the BBC's Last Night of the Proms caused "national notoriety". He received many international awards and honorary degrees. Harrison Birtwistle
391-474: The part of different characters in the drama. This is especially apparent in a performance of Secret Theatre (1984). For various portions of the piece, a number of the instrumentalists perform in a soloist capacity. For this, they leave their seat in the ensemble and stand separately, to one side of the ensemble, returning to the group when they are no longer given that role. Source: Honorary degrees Accrington Grammar School Accrington Academy
414-532: The trumpeter Elgar Howarth . Between 1955 and 1957 he completed national service in the Royal Artillery (Plymouth) Band, based in Oswestry . Birtwistle served as director of music at Cranborne Chase School from 1962 until 1965, before continuing his studies at Princeton University on a Harkness Fellowship , where he completed the opera Punch and Judy to a libretto by Stephen Pruslin . It
437-506: Was born in Accrington , a mill town in Lancashire around 20 miles north of Manchester . His parents, Fred and Madge Birtwistle, ran a bakery, and his interest in music was encouraged by his mother. She bought him a clarinet when he was seven and arranged for him to have lessons with the local bandmaster. He attended Accrington Grammar School . Much of his youth was spent roaming the countryside near his home, and his frustration with
460-661: Was on Cromwell Avenue off Queens Road West. The school was founded in 1895 on Blackburn Rd, Accrington as a 'Technical School' In 1968, it moved to the Moorhead site. In 1975, following the Labour government's educational reforms, it ceased to exist. In 2008, Nosheen Iqbal wrote in The Guardian that Moorhead High School had been "failing". Her article described a "startling transformation" from 17% of children achieving 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C, to 78% of children doing so in
483-624: Was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival ; Benjamin Britten is said to have left during intermission. This work, together with Verses for Ensembles and The Triumph of Time , led to greater exposure for Birtwistle in the classical music world. The orchestral work The Triumph of Time , inspired by a woodcut by Pieter Bruegel , premiered in 1972. In 1972, he wrote the music to the film The Offence , starring Sean Connery , his only film score. In 1975, he became musical director of
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#1732775486027506-639: Was premiered in the second half of the Last Night of the Proms , as the first piece of contemporary music ever, to an estimated worldwide television audience of 100 million. According to the Daily Telegraph , it met with incomprehension from many viewers. In 1995, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize . At the 2006 Ivor Novello Awards he criticised pop musicians at the event for performing too loudly and using too many clichés . Among
529-400: Was the successor of the one-time Accrington High School for Girls. All pupils previously at Moorhead automatically transferred to the new school, which has had a sixth form provision from September 2009 up until July 2024. Accrington Grammar School had around 500 boys and 100 in the sixth form in the 1970s. Accrington High School for Girls had around 600 girls. Accrington Moorhead High School
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