| Summary: | A portfolio of original compositions with an accompanying commentary The compositions are: ‘Pomes Penyeach’ with texts by James Joyce for soprano, harp and string quartet; ‘Orb of Earth to Arch of Sky’ for mixed choir; ‘Spire’ for orchestra; ‘Ampletude’ for pedal harp; ‘Chromatetude’ for lever harp; ‘A Score and Thirteen’ for B flat clarinet and piano; and ‘In Mary’s Eye’ for solo cello. The works address a number of compositional focal points: to bring together diverse strands of musical influence into sustained musical argument across various large-scale media; to enlarge and explore the musical language of the harp, including the lever harp; and to integrate received materials into new music so as to create a different context while acknowledging musical inheritance. These combine with the exploration of inherent instrumental colour within my approaches to rhythm, harmony, melodic transformation, structure, and the use of text to demonstrate the development of my compositional style in recent years. The commentary opens with three contextual chapters which outline my compositional approach and which discuss prominent aspects common to the attached works. These chapters are ‘My Main Compositional Concerns’, ‘Use of Received Materials’ and ‘Writing for Voice’. Commentaries on individual works follow, providing discussion of dimensions of the pieces which are not addressed in the opening chapters.
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