Sinfonia, A New Composition Inspired by Early English Music

Breaking down movements within a Sinfonia

I am working on Sinfonia, a piece for large ensemble inspired by the sound of English music from c.1400-1600.

My Sinfonia is influenced by early English notated music and each section echoes the work of a composer or piece written down between about 1400 and 1550. Its harmonic language is likely to be influenced by the thirds and sixths which composers from that place and period noticeably favoured, but it will definitely have rhythmic and polyphonic aspects that are my own.

The music will have starting points in vernacular/popular and Latin/sacred forms, because early English music was subject to many influences and in constant transition, but use this as a way to acknowledge that all music, including today's, is in transition and that it has to be this way in order to have vitality. Without an aesthetic sense of history you cannot make anything new.

The work is for the New Music Players conducted by Nicholas Smith, to whom the work is dedicated. Performance by the New Music Players at the Warehouse, London on Fri 28 Sept. http://nmp28sept.eventbrite.com