Anthony Gilbert (born 1934) - Nine or Ten Osannas, Op.10

Psappha Ensemble

Nine or Ten Osannas, Op.10

by Anthony Gilbert

Osanna for M.
For the various summer mornings of 28^th June
Osanna for the colours about some people
and for the 9 lost colour years
Osanna for B.
For the various summer mornings of 28^th June
Osanna for C.
For the various summer mornings of 28^th June
For a ghostless spring
For a still autumn
For one wild grey ghost
For the various summer mornings of 28^th June
Osanna for S.

The seemingly casual title of this 1967 composition for five instruments - clarinet and horn, violin and cello, and piano - is strictly accurate: the musicians are required to play a selection of nine or ten pieces from the fourteen supplied by the score. Around a third of the work will therefore remain unheard at any performance; rather like the dark side of the moon, this music is known to be there (at least by people reading the programme note), hidden and out of reach. There is always more than we can experience.

Even so, there is plenty we can. Though Gilbert calls his pieces by the Biblical shout of praise, they are highly varied in instrumentation and tone, with loud ejaculations balanced by fragments that are atmospheric or mysterious, and bright bursts intercut with more developed movements. Each has a title, sometimes poetic: 'Osanna against the iceman' (one of the longest pieces, ending with the instruments winding down on repeating notes), 'Osanna for the colours about some people' (a short sequence of crescendo-decrescendo chords), 'For my three stars' (sudden contrasts, no piano), 'For a ghostless spring' (violin and piano together in loudening chords).

Of course, it is possible that none of these four will be included. The only ones that have to be played are three the composer designates just with an initial and asks to be placed first ('Osanna for M.', a clarinet solo with intermittent cello), centrally ('Osanna for C.', a little litany of duets, a trio and adamant tutti sections) and last ('Osanna for S.', another long and changeable movement, begun by the two strings). Also likely to be present is the very brief, vociferous - a real osanna - 'For the various summer mornings of 28th June', which may appear several times, like a refrain.

Paul Griffiths ©

About the composer: Anthony Gilbert

Anthony Gilbert was born in South London in 1934.  Technically, if not idiomatically, his musical influences are wide-ranging but interlinked: Hebrew chant, an interest initiated by a young Viennese refugee sharing his home and piano in 1939; French via his own linguistic and cultural background;  plainchant thanks to years as a choirboy;  French and Viennese again thanks to his principal composition teacher, Alexander Goehr;  Hindustani classical music thanks largely to Ustad Vilayat Khan;  and the indigenous music of Bali and Australia thanks to much time spent in those countries.  Hopefully, none of this shows.  Nine or Ten Osannas were largely written in Tanglewood, where some of these influences were just beginning to bear fruit, bearing at the same time warnings not to allow themselves to affect his musical language.  This is a warning he has frequently given to his own students during three decades of teaching at the RNCM. Gilbert does not enter competitions on principle, so it was a great surprise and honour to find that Osannas had been selected for the 'Encore' project, and a huge pleasure to find that Psappha would be the performers.

ENCORE SCHEME

Nine or Ten Osannas by Anthony Gilbert is the third work to be performed in the Encore series - an initiative by the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC Radio 3 that offers performances of works that have been unjustly neglected from the concert stage. This series focuses on chamber music and showcases a total of twelve works from across the repertoire by living British composers.

Nine or Ten Osannas was premièred in 1967 and it was last performed in 1987.

In keeping with Encore's aim of creating new audiences for neglected works, Psappha's performance of Nine or Ten Osannas will be filmed and made available to view, for free, online at the Royal Philharmonic Society and Psappha websites.  The film will also include an interview with Anthony Gilbert.

Encore is supported by The D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Idlewild Trust, The Mercers' Company and PRS for Music Foundation.

Psappha Ensemble

Psappha, Manchester's new music ensemble and one of the UK's top contemporary music groups, was formed in 1991 by its Artistic Director Tim Williams and specialises in the performance of music by living composers and that of the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble has an extensive and varied repertoire of hundreds of works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretive flair. Attracting attention from audiences and music press internationally, it won the Manchester Evening News Award for Opera in 2000 and has twice been shortlisted for a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award. Psappha has commissioned and premiered many works by a wide range of composers including the award-winning music-theatre work, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, by its Patron, Peter Maxwell Davies, also recorded by the original performers.

Psappha has appeared throughout the UK, featuring regularly at most of the country's major music festivals, including the BBC Proms, in special Henze and Maxwell Davies portrait series and in the recent Bernstein Project at London's Southbank Centre, and in a residency at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney in 2009. To celebrate its landmark 20th anniversary this season, Psappha has lined up an exciting and diverse array of commissions from John Casken, Sally Beamish, Gordon McPherson and Ian Wilson.

It has made highly successful tours to North and South America, Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Jersey, Portugal and Spain and this season appears in the United States as part of a residency at Princeton University. Having made a number of recordings on various labels, Psappha launched its own CD label in 2004 with Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot. The most recent release, Busted Micro Shorts, features music by Steven Mackey.

Contemporary Ensemble in Residence at the University of Manchester, Psappha encourages the breaking down of barriers between artistic and educational experiences, inspiring creativity and the exchange of ideas with students through interactive and collaborative projects. Autumn 2010 saw the launch of 'Composition Lab (www.compositionlab.co.uk), an online resource designed to accompany the composition element of GCSE and A-level music. In August 2011 Psappha became the official University of Salford MediaCityUK Ensemble in a unique partnership which will use the latest in media and digital technology based at MediaCityUK to create exciting new ways of performing. Tireless champions of the music of today, Psappha is continually seeking to develop new audiences, breaking fresh ground in its innovative development of the digital dissemination of its work through free-to-view films of live performances on its website. Psappha welcomes people of all ages to try something new, and become involved with the ensemble and its composers through its online resources, in performances and projects and at its pre- and post-concert events.

Psappha has developed an extensive digital presence and online activity through an innovative new website which includes 32 works filmed live in performance.