Premiered by Liverpool Philharmonic Children’s Choir, Melody Makers, Resonate Youth Philharmonic and Everton Junior Philharmonic, conducted by Rod Skipp, on 8 July 2018 at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. programme note Ian Stephens: To the Atlantic To the Atlantic was commissioned by Liverpool Philharmonic for a joint concert of the organisation’s junior choirs (Liverpool Philharmonic Children’s Choir and Melody Makers) and the orchestras of In Harmony Liverpool (Resonate Youth Philharmonic and Everton Junior Philharmonic). I set a text by the wonderful Liverpool poet Roger McGough, whose poetry shot to prominence with The Mersey Sound in 1967. The poem is titled ‘Gateway to the Atlantic’, and explores Liverpool’s relationship with the sea.

Premiered by by the Salisbury Cathedral Choirs and organist John Challenger, conducted by David Halls, Salisbury Cathedral, 19 November 2016. buy sheet music here programme note Ian Stephens: Salisbury Service Magnificat Nunc Dimittis I have known Nick and Eleanor Steinitz for many years, through our association with Pigotts Music Camp, an inspirational place in the Chiltern Hills. My music came to their attention through some of the works that I’ve performed there with friends. It must have made a favourable impression as they then approached me with this commission for an Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury Service is in memory of their son Chris, who had been a chorister at Salisbury. I never had a chance to meet Chris, but he was about my age and was known by many of my friends. I would have loved to have known him. Nick and Eleanor asked for the work to be more a celebration than a doleful piece of remembrance, and I have kept this in mind while writing the piece.   I am inevitably aware of the many wonderful previous settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and I have taken the opportunity to acquaint – and in some cases reacquaint – myself with some of these. So while the varied and ever-evolving world of Anglican church music is an important reference point, it is balanced with my own individual compositional style, itself an almost indefinable bunch of harmonic, melodic and rhythmic tics that I find myself turning to again and again. I am grateful in particular to Ian Tracey, organist of Liverpool Cathedral, for his invaluable help with the organ registrations, to David Halls for agreeing to take on the first performance, and above all to Nick and Eleanor Steinitz for the faith they have in my ability to carry out this precious commission. David Halls on Salisbury Service “I was really pleased with the way my choristers and men rose to the challenges of this work. At first sight, it seemed to be very complicated but as we grew to understand and learn it, we were able to discern its stylistic unity and the composer’s particular way of writing for voices. It meant that the Salisbury Service was easier than it looked and, once we had mastered a section, that section really stuck in the memories of the choir members. The organist had a lot of fun with the detailed organ writing too.” (David Halls, Director of Music, Salisbury Cathedral)

Premiered by the Senior and Chamber Choirs and Instrumental Group of Finchley Children’s Music Group, and pianist John Evanson, conducted by Grace Rossiter, 14 November 2015 at St Pancras Church, Euston Road, London.   buy sheet music here programme note On Goes the River: Three Songs of Childhood The Wind
Matilda
Where Go The Boats? I have known Nick and Eleanor Steinitz for many years, through our association with Pigotts Music Camp, an inspirational place in the Chiltern Hills. My music came to their attention through some of the works that I’ve performed there with friends. It must have made a favourable impression as they then approached me with this commission for a piece for children’s choir in memory of their daughter Corinna, who had tragically died at the age of six many years before. The Steinitzes and I settled on three poems: the over-the-top cautionary tale ‘Matilda’ by Hilaire Belloc framed by two more wistful poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, ‘The Wind’ and ‘Where Go The Boats?’ The setting is for upper voices and piano, with an optional sextet of oboe, string quartet and double bass; the piece can either be performed just with choir and piano, or with choir, piano and sextet. Grace Rossiter, the conductor, kindly wrote some words about the piece after the first performance: “The young singers and instrumentalists from the Finchley Children’s Music Group thrived on the challenges offered by Ian Stephens’ piece, On Goes the River: Three Songs of Childhood. They enjoyed singing the well-chosen poetry, which was beautifully set, offering a full range of mood and colour to explore in rehearsal and in performance.  The vocal writing was pitched at the appropriate level of difficulty for the choir (boy trebles and girls aged 9 – 18 yrs, SSAA), which was appreciated by the singers.  It can be hard to musically engage every singer given the age range, but Ian Stephens managed to achieve this with his clever and sensitive writing, fully exploiting the sounds available to him.  The punchy and humorous vocal lines in the 2nd movement were perfectly sandwiched between two more reflective and moving settings.  Again, this variety of mood and style was something the choir thoroughly enjoyed.  It made for a much variation during rehearsals, and a powerful performance during our concert programme. I had asked Ian Stephens to write a piece that also offered the opportunity for the gifted instrumentalists within the choir to shine. Again, he found the right level of difficulty for these players in On Goes the River. The players rehearsed the work chorally in addition to their separate ensemble rehearsals, so they knew the piece for both angles. We have on occasion performed other works with an ensemble taken from within the choir (eg Britten’s St Nicolas), and so it was fantastic to have a piece written for us in this way.  The choir members were delighted to have a piece tailored for them in this way. We look forward to future performances of the work.  It sits very easily around a wide range of choral repertoire and, as the instrumental lines are optional, it is possible to perform the short cycle as a choral work with piano accompaniment alone. Equally, I feel all three movements would successfully stand alone as part of a concert programme.” Grace Rossiter (Musical Director, Finchley Children’s Music Group)

Premiered by Kathryn Tickell (solo fiddle), Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Ian Tracey, 17 December 2015, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. youth choir text: traditional Scots Gaelic
mixed choir text: Charles Causley programme note Ian Stephens: Sailor’s Carol / Gàir na mara Sailor’s Carol / Gàir na mara was commissioned by Liverpool Philharmonic for performance at the 2015 Spirit of Christmas concerts in Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. A theme of folk music was running throughout the season, and the special guest for the concerts was legendary Northumbrian pipes player Kathryn Tickell. Kathryn is also a fine folk fiddler, and in this piece I wrote a solo part for her, alongside the massed forces of Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Choir and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra. The text combines two sources, with the mixed choir singing ‘Sailor’s Carol’ by the Cornish poet Charles Causley, and the youth choir singing ‘Gàir na mara’ (Sea sounds) in Scots Gaelic, a traditional rowing song from Skye. The melody and words were noted from the singing of Frances Tolmie and published in Songs of the Hebrides(1909), edited by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. Grateful thanks to Liam Redmond for his generous help with the pronunciation and translation of the Scots Gaelic.

Premiered by Camerata Kernow conducted by Nigel Wicken, 10 December 2017, St Mary’s Church, Penzance. buy sheet music here programme note Ian Stephens: Three Cornish Songs Elizabethan Sailor's Song
John Polruddon
The Seasons in North Cornwall Three Cornish Songs was commissioned by my father Nicholas Stephens, a partial Cornishman, a keen singer in various choirs in Cornwall, and a lifelong sailor. In it I've set three poems by the great Cornish poet Charles Causley (1917-2003). Something of the windswept, salt-drenched nature of the Cornish coast – a land that I have known and loved since earliest childhood – has made its way into this music. Each song has a sharply drawn character, from the modern-day lute-song of 'Elizabethan Sailor's Song' to the galloping tale of suspense and cliff-top abduction of 'John Polruddon'. (In July 2017 I sailed with my father past the very cliffs, above Mevagissey, where John Polruddon lived before he was snatched away to sea by Frenchmen at the time of Henry VII.) And finally, a passionate meditation on the passing of the year from North Cornwall, with the Atlantic to the west glimmering and raging by turns. I originally wrote Three Cornish Songs for male voice choir and piano, then later made a version for mixed voice choir and piano. Both versions are equally valid.

text: from the Song of Songs, in Hebrew 

Premiered by Bristol University Chamber Choir and instrumentalists from Bristol University at the Victoria Rooms, Bristol, conducted by Grace Rossiter, on 4 February 1998. The solo string parts can be performed by a larger string group of similar proportions. The narrators should be amplified. 

programme note

Ian Stephens: Shir Ahava

I composed Shir Ahava (Song of Love) in 1997-98 at the request of Grace Rossiter, then conductor of the Bristol University Chamber Choir, which I had sung in for four years up to 1997. Though I was not brought up in any religion, my mother is Jewish (her family moved from Lithuania to Manchester in the 1890s), and through this work I went some way to exploring the Jewish side of my ancestry. I decided on two verses of the Song of Songs which I felt an affinity with, and which I felt could be set effectively. Though I don't speak or read Hebrew, I wanted to set it in the original language.

 

To this end, I visited the very helpful Rabbi Simon of Bristol, who I asked to read the relevant Hebrew verses into a tape recorder. I then transliterated it to make it as easy for singers to read as possible. I also wanted a poetic translation of the verses read out as part of the piece, and came across a lovely translation by American writer Marcia Falk, who has given me her permission to use the verses.

 

Shir Ahava draws on klezmer, which is basically a modern take on Eastern European traditional Jewish music. It makes use of the characteristic harmonies, melodic contours and rhythms of that tradition, though does not quote any actual tunes. A typical pattern in a klezmer performance is to move from the doina, a rhapsodic improvisation, through a selection of tunes of increasing vigour to a final bulgar or freylakhs, a type of fast, celebratory tune associated with weddings. In its brief framing episodes – meandering clarinet solo at the beginning and jubilant fast dance at the end – Shir Ahava follows this framework.