It is a big thing that we will be able to listen to new piece by Howard Skempton in Berlin, in Germany! – “our most delightful miniaturist” Ivan Hewett, The Guardian. – We cordially invite you to join us.

HOWARD SKEMPTON, born 1947, is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organize the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skempton's work is characterized by stripped-down, essentials-only choice of materials, absence of formal development and a strong emphasis on melody. The musicologist Hermann-Christoph Müller has described Skempton's music as "the emancipation of the consonance".

Works have been commissioned and performed by leading artists including the BBC, Kathryn Tickell, New Noise, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra's 'Ensemble 10/10'. A work for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Only the Sound Remains, for viola and ensemble, was premièred in February 2010 in a Skempton portrait concert. Other recent commissions include a choral work, Song's Eternity for the 2010 Aldeburgh Festival, and Skempton was taking part in the New Music 20*12 Cultural Olympiad project - He wrote a piece for eight church bells for the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers which was performed to mark the opening of Spitalfields Festival at Christ Church, London, in June 2012.

Recent commissions include two from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group — a work for oboe and string trio, Field Notes, and a setting of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner for baritone (Roderick Williams) and ensemble — and a Piano Concerto for John Tilbury commissioned by the BBC for a premiere at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2015. 2016 he scores a string quartet for Harrogate Festival’s 60th anniversary (July 2016) and „The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly“ for trombone and viola (7hours, Berlin).

About the new piece Skempton writes:
“The surprising title of my new piece will be The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly, the title of a poem by the nineteenth-century artist and writer, Edward Lear. Lear is best known for his nonsense verse and The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly is a fine example. The Daddy Long-legs tries to persuade the Fly to come to court, but the Fly explains that he cannot, because his legs are "so extremely short". In turn, the Fly invites the Daddy Longlegs to sing, but this is impossible, he bemoans, because his legs "are grown too long".

With ANDREW DIGBY, trombone; NIKOLAUS SCHLIERF, viola.

Entry: 25 € supporting ticket/ 15 € Standard/ 8 € erm.  Reserv. 7hours@7hours.eu