840 New music for violin and piano

Looking forward to the next instalment of the 840 concert series at St James’ Church, Islington on 16th December.

My piece, ‘St Andrew’s Lyddington’ for violin and piano will be premiered by violinist Ruben Zilberstein and pianist Mateusz Rettner, along with new works by Alex Nikiporenko, James Luff and Matteo Fargion, plus Linda Catlin Smith’s fantastic, ‘With Their Shadows Long’ (1997).

Thanks to all involved in making this happen! More info and tickets here.

Post note – concert was brilliant! Thanks to all who came. You can listen to recordings of three of the pieces (including mine) here: https://soundcloud.com/840series/sets/16dec2017

Post post note – Ruben and Mateusz gave a repeat performance of the whole programme in Norwich in April 2018.

This piece uses the acoustic characteristics of a real space as its basis. The impulse response of St. Andrew’s church was analysed to reveal its room modes—those frequencies which it best supports. The strongest nine frequencies were extracted, along with the corresponding twelve tone equally tempered pitches and deviations in cents. The frequencies are approximated in various ways by the violin and piano, creating an abstracted (or extracted?) version of the sonic space.

St Andrew’s church in Rutland is known for its ‘acoustic jars’ dating from the 15th century which are set into the chancel walls. These features were supposedly meant to help amplify the voice of the priest, but there is some doubt as to whether they would have worked or not.

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Apartment House 14.11.17

Very excited that Apartment House will be playing my string quartet as part of Textures Festival at Cafe Oto in November.

Thanks to all involved!

More info and tickets here.

Post note: AH are going to perform my string quartet for a second time at Music We’d Like to Hear on July 20th 2018 – exciting!

29.01.19 – Just found this lovely review of AH’s performance at MWLTH by Ben Harper in Tempo 73 (287) 94-104. Thanks to everyone involved in making this happen.

“A much newer work, Georgia Rodgers’ Three pieces for string quartet, also built upon the work of others and directed it in a new way, drawing on modern playing techniques and subjecting them to close analysis. As with abstract painting, each piece took a technical effect and made it into the subject. The act of bowing or touching the string was placed under the microscope, starting with whisperings of lightest contact, slowly resolving into stacks of fifths, fourths and denser harmonies, and ending with brittle textures of grinding and popping sounds of extreme pressure. This happened slowly enough to appreciate the sonic ramifications of each type of playing, how the string sound is affected, perceiving it as aural phenomena beyond timbral novelty.”