Hayne Down, with Bowerman’s Nose on the left. 30 11 13

Turner Hall, Vanderbilt University Nashville 16th September 2015. Rehearsing Michael Alec Rose’s ‘Water’ and ‘Stone’

Michael Alec Rose-Water

Michael Alec Rose-Stone

Link to more on the ‘Il Ritorno’ project
A lovely addition to the project. I have been contacted by a musician/writer in Iran,  Mehdi Aghamohammadi, who has sent me this-a poem made from our first day’s work. How lovely.

On Dartmoor with Michael Alec Rose

to ‘find’ his new piece,

which we are sure is out on the Moor somewhere.

Hayne Down,

Bowerman’s nose.

Hound Tor,

Swine Down,

Jay’s Grave,

hut circles,

nightjars, kestrels,

Thor Heyerdahl’s cottage

(Swallerton Gate),

Cripdon Down.

Just a start. Mehdi Aghamohammadi

November 30th 2013  

On Dartmoor with Michael Alec Rose to ‘find’ his new piece, which we are sure is out on the Moor somewhere. Hayne Down, Bowerman’s nose. Hound Tor, Swine Down, Jay’s Grave, hut circles, nightjars, kestrels, Thor Heyerdahl’s cottage (Swallerton Gate), Cripdon Down. Just a start. 

Undergrowth. Swineside. 301113

Shared work table with Michael Alec Rose-the Bothy, Manaton. While working on his ‘Erme Plains’ the result of today’s walk Dartmoor, we realised that his ‘Horror’ movement of the new work for the wonderful pianist, Zubin Kanga, transcribes very well for solo violin.

Workshop on ‘The Horror’ Michael Alec Rose and Peter Sheppard Skaerved in conversation

December 1st

Ideas beginning to build. Owley Corner-Scad Brook-Spurrell’s Cross-Glascombe Ball-Ugborough Moor-Leftlake Mires-Hook Lake-Erme Plains-Stalldown Barrow-Piles Copse-Sharp Tor.

On Sharp Tor 1 12 13

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Stone Row/Stone Circle

<strong>Peter Sheppard Skaerved-‘Ugborough Moor-Erme Plain-Stalldown Barrow-Clitter-Sharp Tor’ </strong><strong>Workshop Recording 5 12 13</strong>

<a href=”https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/P1030895_Edited.jpg”><img class=”size-medium wp-image-16745″ alt=”Walk cross-section/score” src=”https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/P1030895_Edited-300×228.jpg” width=”300″ height=”228″ /></a> Walk cross-section/score

Stone Row towards the miraculous Stone Circle on Stall Moor. 1 12 13

 December 2nd

Workshop session. After walking Cosdown-Hound Tor-Taw Vallery-Ivy Tor. After the day of walking-rock, mud, light, and silence. The opening of this movement, inspired by the stillness of the moor, is beginning to emerge.

Michael Alec Rose on Hound Tor. 2 12 13

Michael Alec Rose (in conversation)-‘Bearings’

Looking west to Willhayes from Cosdon 2 12 13

Nashville 24th Febuary 2014 The work Contimes

The work begins. Revelling in the latest movement of Michael Alec Rose?’s series based on Dartmoor, in the lovely space of the Ingram Hall Foyer, Nashville. https://www.sheppardskaerved.com/2013/09/michael-alec-rose-pre-amble-world-premiere/

A wonderful hour with Michael Alec Rose working on ‘Silence’, the third movement of his set of pieces inspired by Dartmoor. LINK to the project. The lovely resonant foyer of Ingram Hall, the perfect piece for experimentation. What was fascinating about this session, for me, is the fun that can be had when with a composer, you find the stuff which is hiding behin the notes. Michael’s music looks elegantly simple on the page (this is a compliment), but there is a deeply felt expressive shape which animates it, and which cannot be notated. It’s thus with Schubert, with Kurtag, with Torelli: and just like those composers I find that I need to get the ‘passport’ (as Stravinsky put it about his Concerto); which might be better expressed as the knowledge of the shapes and meanings which are fundamental to the work. In this context, our workshop was a little ‘nerdy’, ranging from the hunt for articulations which might reveal the ‘micro-sphere’ of the piece, through work on voice-leading, which is always fundamental to solo writing/performance, and perhaps most important of all for this piece, the shaping of silence-through rhythmic notation, and spatial.

Michael Alec Rose – ‘Pre-Amble’ World PremierePeter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin

Red Earth-out of Devon. 3 12 13 The final stage of this stage, on the train back to London with Michael Alec Rose, hard at work on ‘Bearings’ at my table.

The Erme River, from above Piles Copse. 1 12 13

Prelude to Pre-Amble. Michael Alec Rose and I will be walking Dartmoor at the end of November. In the meantime, the granite, the water, the heather, the moss, the folklore, the darkness seeps in….15 10 13

Nashville TN 13th September 2013

Michael Alec Rose-the composer ambling. Couchville Cedar Glades, TN  15th September 2013