SampleSounds

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Unique Music

171 Main Street,

Willoughby on the Wolds,

Loughborough,

Leics. LE12 6SY

UK.

Unique Music

www.uniqmusic.co.uk

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The excerpt illustrates the dramatic transition as Icarus nears the apex of his flight, flies too near to the sun, and falls from the sky to the sea.

Duration of excerpt 2 min 06 secs.

for tape (1968)

The first composition in the newly-formed electronic music studio at the University of York, made mainly with lips on a contact microphone.

Duration of excerpt 1 min 20 secs.

for Recorder Consort (2004)

A composition composed in honour of Wilfrid Mellers for his 90th birthday. Wilfrid was the founding professor of the York University Music Department. This excerpt is taken from the end of the work.

Duration of excerpt 2 min 04 secs.

for bass trombone, piano and tape (1977)

James Fulkerson, bass trombone; Richard Orton, piano.

The excerpt is from the beginning of the piece.

Duration of excerpt 2 min 20 secs.

for string orchestra (1996)

European Community Chamber Orchestra, cond. Eivind Aadland.

The design of this short composition was taken from the proportions in the geometry of the final stellation of the icosohedron—hence the title. The five sections get proportionately shorter, the last section being only two bars long. The excerpt spans from the end of the first section to the beginning of the third.

Duration of excerpt 1 min 27 secs.

(1959)

First of four movements.

Written at the age of nineteen, this work exhibits an exploratory tendency, moving from this modal first movement to greater harmonic and rhythmic endeavours in the later movements..

Duration 1 min 51 secs.

(1993)

Commissioned and recorded by the Sorrell String Quartet, who were York University Music Department’s resident ensemble at the time of writing. The work is dedicated to the memory of John Lloyd. This excerpt is from the beginning of the work.

Duration 1 min 36 secs.

(1984)

Timescape is a one-hour long electroacoustic work with participating instrumentalists and soprano solo. It was performed and recorded in York Minster during the York Festival of 1984. This excerpt is the opening section of the work, entitled ‘Eternity, Before Time’.

Duration 5 min 0 secs.

(1984)

This excerpt, coming after the creation of time, represents the many choices faced by every human being in the passage of life—the ‘forking paths’ are often beguiling in their offerings.

Duration 3 min 53 secs.

(1984)

Yvonne Seymour, soprano; David Lancaster, trumpet.

This is taken from near the end of the work, where the Virgin Mary supplicates on behalf of that division of humanity that has been doomed to abide in hell for the rest of eternity. The Virgin, high in the nave of the Minster, is placed in antiphonal position opposite the virtuoso trumpeter.

Duration 9 min 30 secs.

(1993) Tape composition.

This work was created with a real-time computer language written by Richard Orton, called Tabula Vigilans. The work can be performed live, with the computer mediating between the actions of the performer operating a computer keyboard and mouse. However, this realisation was recorded for a festival performance in Sydney, Australia.

Duration 2 min 44 secs.

Play:

Scatter

Stellations

String Quartet No. 1

String Quartet No. 2

Timescape - Beginning

Timescape - The Garden of Forking Paths

Timescape - The Last Judgement

Timeshadows

Pyramid Consort

Kiss

Each day, travelling to the University, I passed Clock Farm on the B1224 past Elvington. It gave rise to a fantasy promoted in this tape composition—that of a farm of clocks. The excerpt given is representative of its sound world.

Duration of excerpt 1 min 52 secs.

Solo Guitar, ’cello and orchestra (1984)

Arthur Nestrovski, guitar; Cathy Fells, cello, and Festival Orchestra

cond. John Godfrey.

This excerpt is taken from the opening of the work.

Duration of excerpt 1 min 53 secs.

Solo Guitar, ’cello and orchestra (1984)

Arthur Nestovski, guitar; Cathy Fells, cello, and Festival Orchestra

cond. John Godfrey.

A contemplative passage from later in the work.

Duration of excerpt 1 min 32 secs.

for solo violin and tapes (1978)

Christopher Rowland, violin; Richard Orton, sound diffusion.

Play:

Icarus

Guitar Concerto (2)

Guitar Concerto (1)

Bass Trombone and Tape (1975)

James Fulkerson, Bass Trombone; Richard Orton Sound Projection.

This is the opening section of the work, with the bass trombone apparently improvising or ‘getting ready to play’; the tape sounds are providing the ambient sounds of furniture being moved, audience sounds, etc. Then the true ‘play’ begins…

Duration of excerpt: 2 min 4 secs.

Tape composition (1983)

This tape piece was composed with reference to John Dunstable, some of whose music I was performing at the time of composition, 1983. ‘Conscious of the Stars’, the excerpt begins with star data mapped to sine-wave traces, reminiscent of the ‘Whistlers’ derived from the earth’s magnetic field. Later in the excerpt we hear more concrete evidence of Dunstable’s music.

Duration of excerpt 1min 58 secs.

Tape composition (1970)

Play:

Clock Farm

Astrorum Conscius

Ambience

Excerpts from some Recorded works of Richard Orton