Commissions of Orchestral Works

During the 2006-07 season the Endcliffe Orchestra commissioned for the first time two new compositions that were performed at a concert held in May 2007.  The works are entitled "Sunrise" by Joseph Cooper and "The Brewing Storm" by Rosie Reading.  Joseph and Rosie were both GCSE pupils at Silverdale School and attended rehearsals to hear their works-in-progress being performed.

John Earwaker, a former member of the orchestra who passed away in 2007, arranged a suite of English folk songs for the Endcliffe Orchestra which will be performed at a concert to be held in January 2008.

John Earwaker - An English Folk Song Suite

John was an ordained priest in the Church of England whose background was mostly in church music. At school John learned to play the piano and organ, and since the age of about ten until his death in 2007 was always in at least one choir. Most of John's working life was spent at Sheffield Hallam University where he was for a number of years a lecturer in Education and, later on, a lecturer in Social Studies and University Chaplain.

From time to time John wrote and arranged music for choirs. In early 2007 he was surprised to discover that one of his hymn tunes appears in an Australian hymnbook. At the age of 40 John started to play the double-bass which enabled him to play in a jazz band as well as local amateur orchestras, including the Endcliffe Orchestra.

Following retirement John wrote a full-length musical show ‘Cousin John’ about the life and death of John the Baptist, which was performed as part of Sheffield's Broomhill Festival in 1999 and repeated again in 2003. Over the years he wrote or arranged a good deal of music, some of which can be accessed from his homepage on the Sibelius Music website.  For the last 6 years of his life John was learning to play the cello.

An English Folk Song Suite

"When I was a teenager I found a book of Cecil Sharp’s piano arrangements which belonged to my father, and I played them through again and again. I have occasionally performed some of them unaccompanied if asked to provide impromptu entertainment. The 5 chosen songs are all tunes I know well and I think they are particularly beautiful melodies. I had to think carefully about what key each should be in, and how the 5 songs could be put into a satisfactory musical sequence. But the main challenge of arranging them for the Endcliffe Orchestra was to try and provide everyone with something interesting to play without spoiling the basic simplicity of these traditional tunes."

Joseph Cooper - Sunrise, 2007

I started by writing the opening violin line and then echoed this in the second violin and viola parts.  I used this two-bar phrase as the theme for the piece, and varied it many times.  I later added a timpani part to the opening section, which begins pianissimo and gradually rises with each note to end at forte.  At this point, the clarinet enters with a descending scale, and then there is a diminuendo where the bassoon ground bar starts playing.  From this point the first violin and viola play the tune repeatedly while the other instruments play assorted phrases on top of this. 

Next, the double bass and cello enter with a repeated bass line and that structure continues until a pause at bar 42.  Here, the bassoon line passes to the violin and viola and is played cantabile, and the original opening violin melody is played dolce by the woodwind section.

Following this, the horn then plays the clarinet's entering melody, then at bar 59 the violins play the double bass and cello lines but up an octive.

At bar 63 the bassoons play a soli accompanied by pianissimo staccato brass parts, and then the opening trio is played again, this time by the brass section and with timpani.  Later there is an eight bar section where the violins, viola and cello play a variation on the tune in the style of a string quartet.  Then most instruments enter and the clarinet and cello play soli.

Following this is the final eight bar section which begins mezzo forte and crescendos on all instruments.  In bar 96 the trumpets play staccatisimo, and there is a ritardendo before the final paused note.  Some instruments enter with a paused minim played sforzando in the last bar.

The piece met my brief by not being above grade five level, and by being just over three minutes long.  It used the classical idea of repetition and contrast in a modern and exciting way.  The entire piece is in C major, with few accidentals.

Rosie Reading - The Brewing Storm, 2007

GCSE music students at Silverdale were invited to compose a piece for a full orchestra, set around the theme of classically modern music. When I first heard about this, I thought it sounded challenging as I’d had little previous composing experience, but knowing what a great opportunity it would be, I was keen to give it a go.

In order to stick to the theme that had been suggested, I began exploring styles and musical techniques that would help me to compose my piece appropriately. I decided that by using and developing classical ideas of repetition and contrast, but modernizing by the use of contemporary characteristics, I could compose a suitable piece for the orchestra.

Feeling rather daunted being faced by 12 blank parts; I began with the strings section. I began by writing an 8 bar ostinato for the cello, and based a chord structure and melody around this original score. The cello keeps the beat throughout the piece with an almost continuous crotchet beat rhythm, which may seem an unusual technique but I felt it gave structure. I used a rondo structure which originated in the baroque period but is most commonly found in classical pieces and involves the use of a refrain, and an episode (a contrasting theme) which also develops the technique of a theme and variation style format.

The title, the Brewing Storm, emerged after the majority of the piece had been written. I felt it fitted appropriately, as there is a general build in tension up until the final note, though I have used quirkier characteristics which may at first sound unnatural; I decided these were the odd flashes of lighting in a storm! Furthermore, the dynamics gradually crescendo from pianissimo to fortissimo throughout the piece, though they fluctuate with texture and mood.