Posted: 7 October 2001
This year the Prize has been awarded to Stephane Altier, a postgraduate composition student at the Royal Academy of Music, taught by Dominic Muldowney, for his work Nox.
The music is simply scored for clarinet and piano and is described by Stephane as a nocturnal work. It is his attempt to create music that focuses on the sound qualities of the clarinet by composing long slow notes to enable the instrument to be heard more intensely. He says: "I also found that I would have to balance the slowness with a more active piano part and, finally, based my work on the following metaphoric idea: slow breathing (the clarinet) and fast thoughts (the piano) make up a kind of emotional counterpoint, linked to the falling of night. The work is divided into eight short moments or gestures that lead both instruments to find a common attitude and, finally, to share the same quiet acceptance of darkness."
The Prize Adjudicator this year, Gregory Rose, said in his report of the work: "What attracted me most to these pieces was the daringness of the simplicity, and yet the dramatic variety the composer has created…. (the) piece would benefit highly from repeated playings, full of subtlety and beautifully created colours."
Stephane was born in Avignon in 1969 and studied Musicology at Nice University. He went on to study Composition at Rueil – Malmaison and then at the Conservatoire Superieur de Paris, where he won several prizes. He is now studying for his PhD at the Academy under Simon Bainbridge.
The work will have its premiere performance at a concert which will take place at 6pm on 29th November 2001 in the New Recital Room at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Pilvet, a work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano by another postgraduate student, David Gorton, was commended by the Adjudicator who described it as: "a gritty, complex work, full of subtle discourse between instruments (with) a particularly interesting and fluid piano part..." Partly written whilst the composer was in Finland, the title translates from Finnish as The Clouds. The work is concerned with how material can change and transform while, in some way, remain exactly the same. Born in 1978, David read Music at Durham, went on to study at King's College with Harrison Birtwhistle and is now working for his PhD also with Simon Bainbridge.
The prize of £500 is awarded annually from an endowment established in 1999 by the Alan Bush Music Trust in memory of Alan Bush, who was both a student and eminent Professor of Composition for 53 years at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
The prize, open to students of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, is awarded as a result of competition to the composer who submits the best "serious" work in chamber music for up to seven instruments of the candidate's choice, which may include voice(s) but must include a substantial piano part.
The prizewinners for the previous years' competition were: Maciej Zielinski in 1999 for Lutoslawski in Memoriam for oboe and piano, and Tim Smith in 2000 for To Find Trees and Stars for clarinet, piano, violin, cello and viola.