Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (born 16 January 1943 in Coventry) is an English composer. January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Precinct in Coventry city centre. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the  United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130... A composer is a person who writes music. ...

Biography

Ferneyhough was awarded the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1968 and moved to Europe to study with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam, and later with Klaus Huber in Basel. As of 1999, he is William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University. Year 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1968 Gregorian calendar. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... Ton de Leeuw (born Rotterdam, 16 November 1926 - died Paris, 31 May 1996) was a Dutch composer. ... Nickname: Motto: Heldhaftig, Vastberaden, Barmhartig (Valiant, Determined, Compassionate) Location of Amsterdam Coordinates: , Country Netherlands Province North Holland Government  - Mayor Job Cohen (PvdA)  - Aldermen Lodewijk Asscher Hennah Buyne Carolien Gehrels Tjeerd Herrema Maarten van Poelgeest Marijke Vos  - Secretary Erik Gerritsen Area [1][2]  - City 219 km²  (84. ... Klaus Huber (born November 30, 1924 in Bern, Switzerland) is a Swiss composer. ... Basel (British English traditionally: Basle and more recently Basel , German: , French: , Italian: ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (166,563 inhabitants (2004); 690,000 inhabitants in the metropolitan area stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel Switzerlands second-largest urban area as of 2003). ... Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly known as Stanford University (or simply Stanford), is a private university located approximately 37 miles (60 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco and approximately 20 miles northwest of San José in Stanford, California. ...

Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity school of composition, characterised by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalisation (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. 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. The New Complexity is a primarily British movement of avant garde classical music dating from the 1970s. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ... Serialism is a rigorous system of composing music in which various elements of the piece are ordered according to a pre-determined ordered set or sets, and variations on them. ... Serialism is a technique for composing music that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the composer manipulations of those sets to create music. ...

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 realise completely. Contrary to the widespread belief that Ferneyhough is merely attempting to tie down interpretative possibilities by stipulating everything with such precision, the purpose here is to give the performer creative freedom in deciding which aspects to focus on, which elements may be omitted and so on.^{[original research?]} As he acknowledges, numerous performers have refused to take his works into their repertoire because of the great commitment required to learn them and a perception that similar effects can be achieved through improvisation. The compositions have, however, attracted a number of advocates, among them the Arditti Quartet, the members of the Nieuw Ensemble, and EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble. The Arditti Quartet is an internationally acclaimed string quartet founded in 1974. ...

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 25th May 2004, and recorded in 2005 for CD release in 2006. Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (July 15, 1892 – September 27, 1940) was a German Marxist literary critic, essayist, translator, and philosopher. ...

Ferneyhough was the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2007 for lifetime achievement.

Works

• List of works at Ferneyhough's publisher: Edition Peters (incl. Downloadable pdf list of works, and Works-link)

• Works available at the British Music Information Centre (bmic) (includes score samples)

Selected Works (with score samples from bmic)

• Carceri d'Invenzione I for fl,ob,2cl,bn, hn,tpt,trb,tuba, 1perc, pf, 2vn,va,vc,db [1121, 1111.2111] (1982) (score sample)
• Kurze Schatten II for solo guitar (1989) (info from sheerpluck, info from IRCAM) (score sample)
• Bone Alphabet for solo percussion (1991) (score sample)
• Allgebrah for Oboe and 9 Solo Strings (1996) (score sample)
• Unsichtbare Farben for Violin (1999) (score sample)
• The Doctrine of Similarity for Chorus (SATB), 3 Clarinets, Violin, Piano and Percussion (2000) [1] (score sample)

Bibliography

A volume of Ferneyhough's articles and interviews has been collected which, despite his sometimes obfuscatory style, is invaluable in understanding his very dense, initially inaccessible works.

• James Boros and Richard Toop, editors: The Collected Writings of Brian Ferneyhough Publisher: Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1995
• Brian Ferneyhough: Brian Ferneyhough by Brian Ferneyhough Publisher: Paris : L'Age d'homme OCLC: 21274317 (French)

References

• Developing an interpretive context: learning Brian Ferneyhough's 'Bone Alphabet.' (Complexity Forum) by Steven Schick (published in Perspectives of New Music)

Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. ...

External links

About Brian Ferneyhough

• Info at Brian Ferneyhough's publisher, Edition Peters - includes biography, works and selected discography
• Info at Stanford University Department of Music
• Living Composers Project
• Brian Ferneyhough wins 2007 Siemens Prize for Music

Interviews

• Interview (SOSPESO)
• Interview (incl. video) (NewMusicBox)
• Open questions for Brian Ferneyhough (also applicable to other composers of our day) - turned into an interview, since Ferneyhough replied (Stanford IP address...)

About works

• Works available at the British Music Information Centre (bmic) (includes score sample)
• Shadowtime web site: reviews, synopsis, pictures, interviews

Performers of Ferneyhough's works

• EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble

Performances

• Performance Video of Ferneyhough's Bone Alphabet (Tracktime of Bone Alphabet: 15:10 - 23:40) by Steven Schick - percussion (2001) (alternative)
• Recording: Carceri d'Invenzione IIb–John McMurtery, flute