Pete M. Wyer (born 24 March 1964) is a British composer.

Early life

Wyer was born in

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, England.

Career

He began his career as a guitarist with pop and jazz bands in the 1980s. He became a music teacher in the 1990s, while developing as a composer.

Concert works

He composed ''May Peace Prevail On Earth'', for the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

, with London voices, Burntwood girls choir and baritone Matthew Sharp, which premiered at

The Barbican, London ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, in 2003. ''If I Had Known I Was Dreaming'' (for Japan 2001 Festival) premiered at The Purcell Room, London with soprano, Evelyne Beech and the Tippett String Quartet. ''Chelsea-Chelsea'' (for the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

) premiered at

Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orches ...

, New York in 2005, with two saxophones and string quartet and live link from Chelsea London, with poetry read by Steve Rubie at the 606 Club, London. ''Insomnia Poems'' is a one-hour work inspired by the Insomnia Poems of

Steve Dalachinsky Steven Donald Dalachinsky (September 29, 1946 – September 16, 2019) was an American downtown New York City poet, active in the music, art, and free jazz scenes. He wrote poetry for most of his life and read frequently at Michael Dorf's club th ...

that was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's 'Jazz on 3' in March 2009. Wyer is the Associate Composer of the

Orchestra of the Swan Orchestra of the Swan is a British professional chamber orchestra based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. It is Resident Orchestra at the Royal Birmingham ConservatoireThe Courtyard Hereford Warwick Hall and the Stratford Play House with reg ...

, Stratford on Avon.

Opera and ballet

Wyer's music has often been inspired by other art forms, particularly dance, for which he has written many scores, including: ''Discoveries Uncovered'', choreographed by Jessica Lang for the

in 2003, and 'Senbazuru' also with Lang, created for Juilliard's centenary in 2006 for soprano, alto, tenor and bass with large orchestra. ''The Far Shore'' was commissioned by the British Council and

English National Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish ...

in 2010, and recorded by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

. It was to be performed for "Great Britain Day" at the

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in front of Prince Andrew and other public figures, but was withdrawn. He has a long-standing relationship with film-maker Tobin Rothlein and choreographer Amanda Miller, artistic directors of the Philadelphia-based company, Miro Dance Theatre. His operatic works include ''Cremenville'' in 2006, for which he also wrote the libretto and ''Numinous City'', a work in progress commissioned by the Royal Opera House's development arm, ROH2. In 2002 he formed the music-theatre company, SharpWire, with actor, singer and cellist, Matthew Sharp. Together they created a 'multi-media song-cycle' at Battersea Arts Centre, London, entitled ''Adam's Apple,'' based on Wyer's settings of poets

Charles Simic Dušan Simić ( sr-cyr, Душан Симић, ; born May 9, 1938), known as Charles Simic, is a Serbian American poet and former co-poetry editor of the ''Paris Review''. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for ''The World Doesn't ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experim ...

and others. The work featured acting, singing, choreography and film (by Tobin Rothlein, who also designed the set) and toured the United Kingdom in 2004, with additional performances at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and a guest performance and interview on the long-running show, New Sounds, on WNYC, New York. The company produced several experimental works including ''Saccades And Fixations'' and ''Cremenville'', written for

Opera North Opera North is an English opera company based in Leeds. The company's home theatre is the Leeds Grand Theatre, but it also presents regular seasons in several other cities, at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, the Lowry Centre, Salford Quays and ...

's Resonance programme in 2006. In 2007, Wyer wrote an opera-storytelling work ''Johnny's Midnight Goggles'' as a one-man show, later performed by Sharp. It premiered at the

Brighton Festival Brighton Festival is a large, annual, curated multi-arts festival in England. It includes music, theatre, dance, circus, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and family events, and takes place in venues in the city of Brighton and Hove in Engla ...

in 2008, with performances at Chichester,

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Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury ...

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and other festivals. Sharp also performed the sequel, ''Finkelstein's Castle''.

Time structured mapping

Time Structured Mapping Time Structured Mapping (TSM) is a score based system created and used by the composer Pete M Wyer. It uses the bar-lines found in conventional musical scores to indicate durational periods during which performers, who may include actors, sing ...

is a scoring system that uses the convention of barlines to indicate durations and gives guidelines for improvisation, text, movement, alongside standard musical notation. It is in a way similar to graphic notation scores and the scores of

Musique Concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...

composers. It led to a variety of exploratory new works, including the one-hour ''Insomnia Poems'' based on the book of poetry by

. It was recorded for BBC Radio 3's 'Jazz on 3' programme and subsequently nominated for their 'Best of 2009' broadcast. The work featured musicians Chris Cundy Robert Perry, Evelyne Beech, Mike Cross with Wyer performing on guitar, piano and sound manipulation performing from a 'time-structured map' with stopwatches on music stands, allowing coherent movement from section to section. Other works featuring Time Structured Mapping include the one-hour ''Listening to the Sky'' performed in the atrium of Birmingham Symphony Hall in 2010 by members of the Orchestra of the Swan along with components from local schools, according to directions given from the 'map'. The system was used by Welsh National Opera for the educational element of their 2010 tour. A 20-minute film, ''Beware Inanimate Objects (Bearing Grudges)'' was created by Gavin Porter, with a Wyer score for the first half of the film and a time-structured map for the second half, giving musical guidelines to groups of students in order for them to create the second half of the score in a one-day workshop.

References

External links

*
Pete M Wyer , Orchestra of the Swan

Atmospheres - Welsh National Opera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyer, Pete M Living people 1964 births British classical composers British male classical composers 21st-century classical composers British ballet composers 21st-century British male musicians Thirsty Ear Recordings artists