Four Anglesey Beaches
Andrew Lewis
Programme notes
- Composer(s): Andrew Lewis
Works in this cycle
Penmon Point
To Maurice Lock
“A cold, clear Advent day. In the distance, snow-capped mountains appear still and at peace, yet close by the sea relentlessly pounds the Point on three sides. The steep pebble beach is dragged and drawn by waves that crackle and seethe with the mass of moving stone, while frozen pools on the shore splinter and craze in joyful counterpoint. Half a mile distant an island rises up, almost touchable — Seiriol’s Island, home of the hermit, now lifeless yet still echoing with ancient worship. Even the lighthouse, beacon of guidance, tolls in ceaseless praise, as if to continue the songs of men who now sing before God.” (Penmon Point, Isle of Anglesey, North Wales, December 2001)
Penmon Point is a place of extraordinary sights and sounds. This piece draws together its three main sonic elements.
Musica Mundana
Musica Humana
Musica Instrumentalis
All three musics are linked by their periodicity, the ebb and flow of the waves, rise and fall of the voices, and regular tolling of the bell creating a variety of rhythmic interactions.
[xi-07]
Penmon Point was realized in the winter 2002-03 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on March 22, 2003 during the Electric Spring Festival in Huddersfield (UK). It was awarded the 1st prize at the 5th Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo (CIMESP ’03, Brazil). Penmon Point was recorded on the compact disc Música Maximalista / Maximal Music 10
Premiere
- March 22, 2003, Electric Spring 2003
: The Welsh Connection, St Paul’s Hall — University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield (England, UK)
Awards
- Year of composition: 2002-03
- Cycle: Four Anglesey Beaches
- Duration: 15:26
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD500722630
Llanddwyn Skies
To Christian Calon
“Spring equinox
Llanddwyn Skies is based mainly on recordings made at the time of an unseasonably warm spring equinox in 2003, and tries to capture the solitude and stillness of dawn in Newborough Forest and on nearby Llanddwyn Island. There was a sense at the time that the wonderful tranquillity and peace of the moment was a result of many forces held in perfect balance
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Llanddwyn Skies was realized in the spring and early summer 2003 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on October 30, 2003 in Powis Hall, Bangor University (Wales, UK). It was also presented on February 13, 2004 during the Rien à voir (15) concert series presented by Réseaux at Espace GO in Montréal.
Premiere
- October 30, 2003, Concert, Neuadd Powis — Bangor University, Bangor (Wales, UK)
- Year of composition: 2003
- Cycle: Four Anglesey Beaches
- Duration: 14:49
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD500722640
Benllech Shells
To Esme
“High summer, a crowded, baking beach. Noise, movement, ice cream, diesel. Children and adults alike are drawn to the foaming shore, melodious squeals and cries bobbing up momentarily through the noise of the surf. Away from the water families stake their claim with colourful fortifications
Putting a shell to our ear to see if we can ‘hear the sea’ is perhaps the earliest experience any of us has of transforming sound artificially, creating a wholly fictitious but nevertheless magical aural impression of the sea. Benllech Shells employs computer technology to much the same end, lending an extraordinary aspect to ordinary and familiar sounds (those of a crowded beach in high summer). It also tries to draw some parallels with the way that memory transforms childhood events — in this case the sights and sounds of the seaside — to create an often fictitious but nevertheless magical impression of the past.
[xi-07]
Benllech Shells was realized in the summer 2003 at the Electroacoustic Music Studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK)
Premiere
- October 30, 2003, Concert, Neuadd Powis — Bangor University, Bangor (Wales, UK)
- Year of composition: 2003
- Cycle: Four Anglesey Beaches
- Duration: 8:33
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD500722650
Cable Bay
To Francis Dhomont
“A very still late-summer evening. Lengthening shadows from the high ground at either side of the bay dapple the rock pools and swirling inlets, so that whatever is not bathed in sunset colours is retreating into gloom. A couple sit at one end of the beach
This was the setting in which the original sea recordings for Cable Bay were made, and although it was always intended to be something of a portrait of the place, I found that during work on the piece my approach to the recorded sounds was much more heavily influenced by my memories of that evening than I had expected
[xi-07]
Cable Bay was realized in April 1999 in the studios of the Institut international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB, France), with preparatory work undertaken in 1998 in the studios of Bangor University (Wales, UK) and premiered on May 29, 1999 as part of Synthèse, the Festival international de musique électroacoustique de Bourges (France). The piece was commissioned by the IMEB. Cable Bay was awarded the 1st prize at the Concurso Internacional ART’S XXI (Valencia, Spain, 2001).
Premiere
- May 29, 1999, Synthèse 1999
: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)
- Year of composition: 1998-99
- Cycle: Four Anglesey Beaches
- Duration: 10:04
- Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: IMEB
- ISRC: CAD500722660
