A composition lesson from David Matthews

Posted on June 10th, 2012 by


The annotated score/birthday card-7th June 2012

David Matthews-Birthday Piece for Richard June 2012

Peter Sheppard Skaerved (Workshop recording-Baroque violin and bow, June 10th, Wapping)

The premiere of Mihailo Trandafilovski’s Diptych  dedicated to Richard Bram on his 60th birthday was very well attended by composers, including John McCabe, David Gorton and David Matthews. Richard was delighted that David had made him a very musical birthday card, a tiny piece constructed from the notes of this surname B(flat)-R (re=D)-A-M (mi=E). I swiped a photocopy, and could not resist posting it, with a very crude analysis, an elegant demonstration of how to make tremendous atmosphere with minimal resources. Just the four letter/notes, with three raised Bs-in German notation, this makes H-H-H-which, I suspect, is, Hip-Hip-Hooray! So a birthday composition lesson!!!

Photo by Richard Bram of David Matthews en route to Italy, 2007.