Brian Ferneyhough
Encyclopedia
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (icon, born 16 January 1943) is an English
composer
. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet
notation (sometimes called irrational rhythm) which features in all his works. He has written for many different formations from solo, to chamber works, to orchestral pieces, to opera.
and received formal musical training at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music
from 1966–67. His teachers there included Lennox Berkeley
, a respected teacher though a conservative figure who preferred the works of French impressionism
to the internationalist avant garde. Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship
in 1968 and moved to mainland Europe
to study with Ton de Leeuw
in Amsterdam
, and later with Klaus Huber
in Basel
. Between 1973 and 1986 he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
, Germany.
His profile rose in the middle of the 1970s, as the Royan Festival
of 1974 saw the premiere of Cassandra's Dream Song, the first of several pieces for solo flute, as well as Missa Brevis, written for 12 singers. In 1975, performances of his work for large ensemble Transit and Time and Motion Study III were given; the former piece being awarded a Koussevitzky
prize, the latter performed at the prestigious Donaueschingen
festival. In many of these events he was twinned with fellow British composer, Michael Finnissy
, whom he became friends with during his student days. In 1984 he was given the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
.
Between 1987 and 1999 he was Professor of Music at the University of California at San Diego. 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. Between 1978 and 1994 Ferneyhough was a composition lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and, since 1990, has directed an annual mastercourse at the Fondation Royaumont in France.
In 2007, Ferneyhough received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
for lifetime achievement, which includes a 200,000 Euro
cash award. In 2009 he was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
.
Coincidentally, he was born on the same day as another prominent English composer, Gavin Bryars
.
; Cardew enjoyed a prestigious continental reputation, but a poor one in his homeland. Swarsenski said of Ferneyhough: 'I've taken on an English composer who is I think is enormously talented. If this doesn't work, this is the last time'. Ferneyhough continued to struggle, but the aforementioned Royan festival marked a breakthrough for Ferneyhough's career.
From here, Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity
school of composition (indeed, he is often referred to as the "Father of New Complexity"), characterized by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalization (particularly as in integral serialism). 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. A recurring feature of his works is the use of rhythmic tuplet
notation, and layered polyrhythms. 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 pieces rarely use 12-note rows, but do include microtones and frequent use of glissando
.
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. The compositions have, however, attracted a number of advocates, among them the Arditti Quartet
, ELISION Ensemble
, the members of the Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Exposé, Armand Angster, James Avery
, Massimiliano Damerini, Arne DeForce, Friedrich Gauwerky, Nicolas Hodges
, Mark Knoop
, Geoffrey Morris, Ian Pace
, Carl Rosman
, Harry Spaarnay, and EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble.
Recently, he has started writing works which allude to past composers; his Dum transisset are based on Elizabethan composer Christopher Tye
's works for viol
. In addition, the fourth string quartet references Schönberg
. 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 25 May 2004, and recorded in 2005 for CD release in 2006. As is usual for Ferneyhough's works, the opera received mixed reviews. In addition, the production was picketed by a group called Militant Esthetix over the treatment of and association with Walter Benjamin
, amongst other things.
Ferneyhough uses the software packages OpenMusic
, PatchWork (PW) and the PatchWork successor PWGL.
Interviews
Articles
Films
Other
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet
Tuplet
In music a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the...
notation (sometimes called irrational rhythm) which features in all his works. He has written for many different formations from solo, to chamber works, to orchestral pieces, to opera.
Life
Ferneyhough was born in CoventryCoventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
and received formal musical training at the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
from 1966–67. His teachers there included Lennox Berkeley
Lennox Berkeley
Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley was an English composer.- Biography :He was born in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Gresham's School and Merton College, Oxford...
, a respected teacher though a conservative figure who preferred the works of French impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
to the internationalist avant garde. Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship
Mendelssohn Scholarship
The Mendelssohn Scholarship refers to two scholarships awarded in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Both commemorate the composer, Felix Mendelssohn, and are awarded to promising young musicians to enable them to continue their development.-History:...
in 1968 and moved to mainland Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to study with Ton de Leeuw
Ton De Leeuw
Antonius Wilhelmus Adrianus de Leeuw was a Dutch composer. He was known for his experiments with microtonality....
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, and later with Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...
in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
. Between 1973 and 1986 he taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
The Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Freiburg is a public music academy subsidized by the State of Baden-Württemberg for academic research and artistic and pedagogical training in music.-History:The Hochschule was initially founded as a municipal institution in 1946 under the direction of Gustav...
, Germany.
His profile rose in the middle of the 1970s, as the Royan Festival
Royan Festival
The Royan Festival was held in Royan from 1964 to 1977. It was a multi-disciplinary annual event, bringing together:* an important contemporary music festival;...
of 1974 saw the premiere of Cassandra's Dream Song, the first of several pieces for solo flute, as well as Missa Brevis, written for 12 singers. In 1975, performances of his work for large ensemble Transit and Time and Motion Study III were given; the former piece being awarded a Koussevitzky
Koussevitzky
Koussvitzky is a surname, may refer to:*Moshe Koussevitzky , Belarusian-born cantor*Sergei Koussevitzky , Russian-born conductor...
prize, the latter performed at the prestigious Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen
Donaueschingen is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar Kreis. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river Danube ....
festival. In many of these events he was twinned with fellow British composer, Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy is an English composer and pianist. His music is characterised by the range of extremes often found in his work; opposing binary structures are found commonly, often seen as juxtaposing textures, register and tempi...
, whom he became friends with during his student days. In 1984 he was given the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
.
Between 1987 and 1999 he was Professor of Music at the University of California at San Diego. As of 1999, he is William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. For the 2007–08 academic year, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Harvard University Department of Music. Between 1978 and 1994 Ferneyhough was a composition lecturer at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse and, since 1990, has directed an annual mastercourse at the Fondation Royaumont in France.
In 2007, Ferneyhough received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
The international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung , established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens...
for lifetime achievement, which includes a 200,000 Euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
cash award. In 2009 he was appointed foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
Royal Swedish Academy of Music
The Royal Swedish Academy of Music or Kungl. Musikaliska Akademien, founded in 1771 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden...
.
Coincidentally, he was born on the same day as another prominent English composer, Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
.
Works
Ferneyhough's initial forays into composition were met with little sympathy in England. His submission of Coloratura to the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) in 1966 was returned, with a suggestion that the oboe part should be scored for clarinet. However, whilst Ferneyhough did find it hard, one source of support came from Hans Swarsenski who saw the same thing happen to Cornelius CardewCornelius Cardew
Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...
; Cardew enjoyed a prestigious continental reputation, but a poor one in his homeland. Swarsenski said of Ferneyhough: 'I've taken on an English composer who is I think is enormously talented. If this doesn't work, this is the last time'. Ferneyhough continued to struggle, but the aforementioned Royan festival marked a breakthrough for Ferneyhough's career.
From here, Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity
New Complexity
In music, the New Complexity is a term dating from the 1980s, principally applied to composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered interplay of evolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within every dimension of the musical material" ....
school of composition (indeed, he is often referred to as the "Father of New Complexity"), characterized by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalization (particularly as in integral serialism). Ferneyhough's actual compositional approach, however, rejects serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
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. A recurring feature of his works is the use of rhythmic tuplet
Tuplet
In music a tuplet is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat into a different number of equal subdivisions from that usually permitted by the...
notation, and layered polyrhythms. 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 pieces rarely use 12-note rows, but do include microtones and frequent use of glissando
Glissando
In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...
.
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. The compositions have, however, attracted a number of advocates, among them the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...
, ELISION Ensemble
ELISION Ensemble
The ELISION Ensemble is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music,concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works....
, the members of the Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Exposé, Armand Angster, James Avery
James Avery
James Avery may refer to:*James Avery , American TV actor*James Avery , Connecticut colonist, legislator, and military commander*James Avery Canadian baseball player...
, Massimiliano Damerini, Arne DeForce, Friedrich Gauwerky, Nicolas Hodges
Nicolas Hodges
Nicolas Hodges is a British pianist and composer. He specializes in avant garde music. He was educated at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, Winchester College, and the University of Cambridge....
, Mark Knoop
Mark Knoop
Mark Knoop is an Australian pianist.Knoop was born in Hobart, Tasmania. He studied piano at the Victorian College of the Arts and later in Europe with Stephen McIntyre, Herbert Henck, James Avery and Peter Feuchtwanger, as well as conducting with Robert Rosen...
, Geoffrey Morris, Ian Pace
Ian Pace
Ian Pace is a British pianist.Pace studied at Chetham's School of Music, The Queen's College, Oxford and the Juilliard School in New York. His main teacher was the Hungarian pianist György Sándor....
, Carl Rosman
Carl Rosman
Carl Rosman is an Australian clarinettist.Rosman studied with Phillip Miechel in Melbourne, then with Peter Jenkin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music...
, Harry Spaarnay, and EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble.
Recently, he has started writing works which allude to past composers; his Dum transisset are based on Elizabethan composer Christopher Tye
Christopher Tye
Christopher Tye was an English composer and organist, who studied at Cambridge University and in 1545 became a Doctor of Music both there and at Oxford.He was choirmaster of Ely Cathedral from about 1543 and also organist there from 1559...
's works for viol
Viol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
. In addition, the fourth string quartet references Schönberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
. One of his latest works, an opera, Shadowtime, with a libretto by Charles Bernstein
Charles Bernstein
Charles Bernstein is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language poets . In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American...
, and based on the life of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
, was premiered in Munich on 25 May 2004, and recorded in 2005 for CD release in 2006. As is usual for Ferneyhough's works, the opera received mixed reviews. In addition, the production was picketed by a group called Militant Esthetix over the treatment of and association with Walter Benjamin
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin was a German-Jewish intellectual, who functioned variously as a literary critic, philosopher, sociologist, translator, radio broadcaster and essayist...
, amongst other things.
Ferneyhough uses the software packages OpenMusic
OpenMusic
OpenMusic is an object-oriented visual programming environment for musical composition based on Common Lisp.It may also be used as an all-purpose visual interface to Lisp programming.-History:...
, PatchWork (PW) and the PatchWork successor PWGL.
Selected works
Some works at Sound and Music include score samples- Carceri d'Invenzione I for fl,ob,2cl,bn, hn,tpt,trb,euphonium, 1perc, pf, 2vn,va,vc,db [1121, 1111.2111] (1982) (analysis, score sample)
(inspired by the "Carceri d'Invenzione by Giambattista Piranesi). - Kurze Schatten II for solo guitar (1989) (essay, analysis, analysis, score sample)
- Bone Alphabet for solo percussion (1991) (score sample)
- Allgebrah for oboe and 9 solo strings (1996) (score sample)
- Incipits for solo viola, obbligato percussion and six instruments (1996)
- Unsichtbare Farben for violin (1999) (score sample)
- The Doctrine of Similarity for Chorus (SATB), 3 Clarinets, Violin, Piano and Percussion (2000) (score sample)
- Etudes TranscendantalesEtudes TranscendantalesEtudes Transcendantales is a song cycle in 9 movements for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble composed by Brian Ferneyhough between 1982 and 1985.-Background:...
(1985) - ShadowtimeShadowtime (opera)Shadowtime is the first opera by Brian Ferneyhough written to an English libretto by Charles Bernstein. It was written in 1999-2004 and was premiered on May 25, 2004 at the Prinzregententheater in Munich. The City of Munich commissioned the composition and libretto in 1999 for the Munich Biennale...
(1999–2004), premiered at the Munich BiennaleMunich BiennaleThe Munich Biennale is an opera festival in the city of Munich. The full German name is Internationales Festival für neues Musiktheater, literally: International Festival for New Music Theater. The biennial festival was created in 1988 by Hans Werner Henze and is held in even-numbered years over... - 5th String Quartet (2006)
- Plötzlichkeit for large orchestra (2006)
- Chronos-Aion for large ensemble (2007–8)
- Dum transisset I–IV for string quartet (2007)
- Exordium for string quartet (2008)
- Renvoi/Shards for quarter-tone guitar and vibraphone (2008)
Reception
Ferneyhough has been called "the most controversial composer of his generation". "In the same year [1974], the performance of several of his works at the Royan Festival established Ferneyhough as one of the most brilliant and controversial figures of a new generation of composers". "Brian Femeyhough may well be one of the most important composers to emerge from the latter half of this century. Simultaneously famous and infamous, he is a controversial figure of world renown, bent on making the most out of music."Positive/Neutral
Negative/Neutral
External links
Biographical- Info at Brian Ferneyhough's publisher, Edition Peters – includes biography, works and selected discography
- Info at Stanford University Department of Music
- Living Composers Project
Interviews
- Interview (SOSPESO)
- Open questions for Brian Ferneyhough (also applicable to other composers of our day) – turned into an interview, since Ferneyhough replied (Stanford IP address...)
- NewMusicBox cover: Brian Ferneyhough in conversation with Molly Sheridan, July 22, 2005 (video excerpts from NewMusicBox)
- An Interview with Brian Ferneyhough by Felipe Ribeiro, James Correa, Catarina Domenici (Search Journal for New Music and Culture; Summer 2009)
Articles
- The Experience of Complexity by Larson Powell (Search Journal for New Music and Culture; Summer 2010)
Films
- Electric Chair Music / Time & Motion Study II; (film by Colin Still, cello: Neil Heyde, electronics: Paul Archbold)
Other