Brian Ferneyhough

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Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (born 16 January 1943 in Coventry) is an English composer. Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1968 and moved to Europe to study with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam, and later with Klaus Huber in Basel. As of 1999, he is William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University. For the 2007-08 academic year, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Harvard University Department of Music.

Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity school of composition, characterized by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalization (particularly as in integral serialism)[citation needed]. Ferneyhough's actual compositional approach, however, rejects serialism and other "generative" methods of composing; he prefers instead to use systems only to create material and formal constraints, while their realisation appears to be more spontaneous[1]. Unlike many more formally-inclined composers, Ferneyhough often speaks of his music as being about creating energy and excitement rather than embodying an abstract schema.

His scores make huge technical demands on performers; sometimes, as in the case of Unity Capsule for solo flute, creating parts that are so detailed they are likely impossible to realize completely. As he acknowledges, numerous performers have refused to take his works into their repertoire because of the great commitment required to learn them and a perception that similar effects can be achieved through improvisation. The compositions have, however, attracted a number of advocates, among them the Arditti Quartet, the members of the Nieuw Ensemble, and EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble.

One of his latest works, an opera, Shadowtime, with a libretto by Charles Bernstein, and based on the life of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin, was premiered in Munich on 25th May 2004, and recorded in 2005 for CD release in 2006.

In 2007, Ferneyhough received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for lifetime achievement.

He was born on the same day as another prominent English composer, Gavin Bryars [2].

Contents

[edit] Selected Works

  • Carceri d'Invenzione I for fl,ob,2cl,bn, hn,tpt,trb,euphonium, 1perc, pf, 2vn,va,vc,db [1121, 1111.2111] (1982)
  • Etudes Transcendantales (1985)
  • Kurze Schatten II for solo guitar (1989)
  • Bone Alphabet for solo percussion (1991)
  • Allgebrah for Oboe and 9 Solo Strings (1996)
  • Unsichtbare Farben for Violin (1999)
  • The Doctrine of Similarity for Chorus (SATB), 3 Clarinets, Violin, Piano and Percussion (2000)

[edit] Bibliography

  • James Boros and Richard Toop, editors: The Collected Writings of Brian Ferneyhough Publisher: Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995
  • Brian Ferneyhough: Brian Ferneyhough by Brian Ferneyhough Publisher: Paris : L'Age d'homme OCLC: 21274317 (French)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Toop, Richard: `Ferneyhough, Brian', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 21 April 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com/>
  2. ^ [1]

[edit] External links