Description
Stephen Goss (1964-), “Under Milk Wood Variations”.
[checklist style=”circle”]
- Score & Parts
- 16+6+6+6+6 Pages
[/checklist]
The Under Milk Wood Variations were commissioned by the Dylan Thomas Society of Great Britain for the Tetra guitar quartet, who gave the first performance at St John’s, Smith Square, London on the 24th February 1990. The quartet recorded the piece with Karl Daymond (narrator) on “Tetra” (Tantallon Records CDDB2 © 1991).
The front cover painting, titled ‘Sir John’s Hill, Laugharne’ (2009), is by Brian Dunce. The painting depicts the corner of Dylan Thomas’ boathouse and includes the view over the estuary to Sir John’s Hill. The painting, painted specifically for this edition, includes many references to Under Milk Wood in general and some to Under Milk Wood Variations in particular.
[checklist style=”circle”]
- CONTENT:
1.- First Voice
2.- Mr. Mog Edwards & Miss Myfanwy Price
3.- Lord Cut-Glass
4.- Captain Cat & Rosie Probert
5.- Mrs. Dai Bread Two
6.- Mr. Waldo
[/checklist]
[checklist style=”circle”]
- THE COMPOSER SAYS:
This set of miniatures, for guitar quartet and narrator, evokes characters and scenes from Dylan Thomas’ play for voices “Under Milk Wood” (1954). The piece can be performed with or without narrator.
[/checklist]
[checklist style=”circle”]
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Stephen Goss was born in 1964. His music receives hundreds of performances worldwide each year and has been recorded on over 40 CDs by more than a dozen record labels, including EMI, Decca, and Telarc. Xuefei Yang’s recording of Goss’s The Chinese Garden (2008) was nominated as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone Magazine and won ‘Best Instrumental CD’ in the Canton Radio Classical CD Awards in China. Recent commissions have come from: Grammy® winner David Russell, William Bennett, The Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral, London and The Yehudi Menuhin School. His piece The Garden of Cosmic Speculation (2005), for violin, cello, bass clarinet and piano, was profiled on The South Bank Show, the UK’s top Arts TV programme. Stephen’s music was featured at the 2008 Classical BRIT Awards at London’s Royal Albert Hall and has been broadcast on BBC2, GMTV, Classic FM and BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 in the UK and various radio and TV stations in the US and overseas. He has received funding from Sir Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, the Wellcome Trust, and the Arts Council England. His next project is a guitar concerto commissioned by EMI for Xuefei Yang and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.As a guitarist, Stephen Goss has worked with many of today’s leading composers, such as Toru Takemitsu, Hans Werner Henze and Elliott Carter. He has toured and recorded extensively with the Tetra guitar quartet, and performed alongside John Williams and Paco Peña. Stephen Goss studied at the Royal Academy of Music (where he won the Julian Bream Prize) and holds a PhD from the University of London. He is currently head of composition at the University of Surrey, UK. Despite the eclectic nature of his influences, which range from Beethoven’s late piano music to the films of former Python Terry Gilliam, Goss’s musical language comes across as brilliantly integrated….” “One of the guitar’s finest living composers” International Record Review, April 2008.
[/checklist]
