composers

Howard Skempton

• La Gora di Mulino

Howard Skempton was born in Chester in 1947, and has worked as a composer, accordionist, and music publisher. He studied in London with Cornelius Cardew from 1967 and Cardew helped him to discover a musical language of great simplicity. Since then he has continued to write undeflected by compositional trends, producing a corpus of more than 300 works - many pieces being miniatures for solo piano or accordion. Skempton calls these pieces “the central nervous system” of his work.

A number of his compositions have been recorded, including the hugely successful Lento for orchestra on the NMC label by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the piano compilation Well, well, Cornelius performed by John Tilbury on the SONY Classical label and more recently Shiftwork by Ensemble Bash, also on the SONY Classical label. Over recent years, Skempton has concentrated increasingly on vocal and choral music. Of the major pieces, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven was written for the Belfast Philharmonic Society and first performed in the Waterfront Hall in 2000; The Voice of the Spirits was written in 1999 for the 750th anniversary of University College, Oxford and premièred in St John's, Smith Square in 1999. The Bridge of Fire, a setting of James Elroy Flecker, was first performed by the BBC Singers in May 2001, and Lamentations, for bass and theorbo, was premièred by Paul Hillier and Nigel North in July of that year.

Skempton's catalogue of chamber works is also as diverse as it is long, ranging from pieces for solo cello (Six Figures, 1998), and guitar (Five Preludes, 1999), to the Chamber Concerto for fifteen players, and the Concerto for Hurdy-Gurdy and Percussion which received its German première in 2003. Skempton’s works include Concertante (solo violin and strings) for the English Chamber Orchestra (1998), Suite from Delicate for 2 cellos and percussion (1999) Other major works include the Concerto for Oboe and Accordion (1997). Ben Somewhen, a commissioned piece from the BCMG for solo double bass and ensemble was premièred in April 2005. Inspired by the matchstick drawings of Ben Hartley depicting rural life, a "rural tour" of Ben Somewhen followed the first performance..