O Ecstasy!
These SATB settings are of four vivid poems by Mervyn Peake. They alternate between the nonsensical and the heartbreakingly tragic.
1. ‘O Love!, O Death!, O Ecstasy!’
2. ‘And I Thought You Beside Me’
3. ‘The Trouble with Geraniums’
4. ‘Out of the Chaos of my Doubt’
Score available from me https://johnhawkinsmusic.co.uk/contact/
No longer distant Echo
In 1991, director Wilf Judd at Covent Garden developed a wonderfully imaginative scheme (The Garden Venture) to commission short chamber operas. Mine, titled ‘Echoes‘, had a brilliant libretto by Anne Harris whose skills – developed writing for television – were perfect for opera. I’ve just revised the music and the score is now available from me in PDF.
Crossing borders
I wrote ’Crossings’ for viola and guitar this year for violist Patricia McCarty and guitarist Bill Zito. Their first, video, performance was streamed online from the InterHarmony International Music Festival:
https://www.interharmony.com/
The concert is posted on the festival’s YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCM2S3TJUk
Crossings is at about 55 mins into the video.
Canon and Toccata
A new slow, winding, passionate introduction is added to my Toccata for two violins which has a dizzy ending!
Hear it on Soundcloud
Period Pieces
Written in lockdown, these four short keyboard pieces follow an imagined baroque suite in form (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande and Gigue) but not in style: not quite old and not quite new! PDF available from me.
Hear the Gigue on Soundcloud
John Hawkins studied composition with Malcolm Williamson and Elisabeth Lutyens. He has written a wide range of chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral pieces, which have been performed worldwide.