Rebecca Saunders (born 19 December 1967) is a London-born
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
who lives and works freelance in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of
art music
Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...
since 2000, Saunders' compositions received the third highest total number of votes (30), surpassed only by the works of
Georg Friedrich Haas
Georg Friedrich Haas (born 16 August 1953 in Graz, Austria) is an Austrian composer. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, pieces by Haas received the most votes (49), and his composition ''in vain'' (20 ...
(49) and
Simon Steen-Andersen
Simon Steen-Andersen (born 1976) is a Danish composer, performer, director and media artist.
Biography
He studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde, and Bent Sørensen in Aarhus, Freiburg, Buenos Aires ...
(35). In 2019, writers of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' ranked ''Skin'' (2016) the 16th greatest work of art music since 2000, with
Tom Service
Tom Service (born 8 March 1976) is a British writer, music journalist and television and radio presenter, who has written regularly for ''The Guardian'' since 1999 and presented on BBC Radio 3 since 2001. He is a regular presenter of The Proms f ...
writing that "Saunders burrows into the interior world of the instruments, and inside the grain of
Fraser Fraser may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands
Australia
* Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen
* Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ele ...
's voice
..and finds a revelatory world of heightened feeling."
Biography
Saunders studied violin and composition at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, earning a PhD in composition in 1997. As a
DAAD scholar, she studied with
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm (born 13 March 1952) is a German composer and academic teacher. He is musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Sa ...
from 1991 to 1994 at the
Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe's University of Music (Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe in German) is a college of music in Karlsruhe, Germany. Originally the Baden Conservatory of Music, it was elevated to a Hochschule under the direction of Franz Philipp, who led ...
;
Nigel Osborne
Nigel Osborne (born 23 June 1948) is a British composer, teacher and aid worker. He served as Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh and has also taught at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He is known fo ...
supervised her doctoral thesis.
Her awards include the Busoni Prize of the
Berlin Academy of the Arts, Sponsorship award (1994), the
Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize (1996), the
Hindemith Prize
The international Paul Hindemith Prize promotes outstanding contemporary composers within the framework of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF). The award commemorates the musical pedagogy of Paul Hindemith, who wrote the composition ''P ...
of the
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany.
History
The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist Justus Frantz.
In 2006, the 21 ...
(2003), the composition prize of the
ARD, and the
Mauricio Kagel Music Prize The Mauricio Kagel Music Prize provided by the German arts foundation Kunststiftung NRW was established in 2011. The prize money is €50,000. Of the prize money, €30,000 goes to the prizewinner and €20,000 has to be used for an art project in N ...
(2015). In 2019 she won the
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize
The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (short: Siemens Music Prize, german: link=no, Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis) is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) on behalf of the Ernst v ...
(main prize), the second woman, and first female composer to be awarded.
In 2010 and 2012, she taught at the
Darmstadt International Summer Courses and was composer-in-residence at the
Konzerthaus Dortmund
Theater Dortmund is a theatrical organization that produces operas, musicals, ballets, plays, and concerts in Dortmund, Germany. It was founded as the Stadttheater Dortmund in 1904. Supported by the German Government, the organization owns and o ...
from 2005 to 2006,
Staatskapelle Dresden
The Staatskapelle Dresden (known formally as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden) is a German orchestra based in Dresden, the capital of Saxony. Founded in 1548 by Maurice, Elector of Saxony, it is one of the world's oldest and most highly re ...
from 2009 to 2010,
and
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featured ...
in 2010.
Fabio Luisi
Fabio Luisi (born 17 January 1959) is an Italian conductor. He is currently principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Biog ...
and the Staatskapelle Dresden gave the UK premiere of Saunders' revision of ''traces'' at the 2009
Proms
The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...
.
Her music has been performed by notable ensembles worldwide, including Ensemble Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Quatuor Diotima, Ensemble Dal Niente, the
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. T ...
,
Ensemble Resonanz
The Ensemble Resonanz is a German string ensemble that combines the performance and promotion of Neue Musik with the interpretation of classical repertoire. It sees itself at the interface between chamber orchestra and soloist ensemble ...
, Ensemble Recherche, ICE, the Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Remix, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Music
Saunders's music is characterized by limited pitch material and a wide breadth of timbral complexity.
She is fascinated with resonance and extraneous noise created by instrumentalists, such as the scratch of a bow change, the thud of the pedals of a piano or harp, and the taps and slides of the left hand on a string instrument's fingerboard.
Due to the subtleties and specificity of the sounds she creates, Saunders includes lengthy textual explanations in many of her scores to describe each effect that she wishes the performer to produce.
Much of Saunders's music is based upon a single pitch, or sometimes a small collection of pitches which govern large sections of music.
Therefore, development and elaboration are determined more by sonority and texture rather than traditional voice leading. However, she does sometimes include “quasi-diatonic” pitch collections, which suggest a more traditional context than that of her music based on single notes.
Rebecca Saunders has also explored physical space in her music. In an interview for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, she described her music thus:
By describing the “mass and weight” of her music, and comparing her art to that of a sculpture, she is attempting to bring sound into a physical plane. Additionally, in works like ''chroma'', she invites the listener to wander around and explore the influence of physical space on the audience's experience.
Works
*''Behind the Velvet Curtain'' (1991–92), for trumpet, harp, piano and cello
*''Trio'' (1992), for clarinet, violoncello and piano
*''Mirror, mirror on the wall'' (1993–94), for piano
*''The Under Side of Green'' (1994), for clarinet, violin and piano
*''Molly's Song 1—crimson'' (1995), for twelve soloists, metronome, whistle, music box and conductor
*''Molly's Song 2—a shade of crimson'' (1995), for voice, viola, flute, steel string guitar and shortwave radios
*''Molly's Song 3—shades of crimson'' (1995), for alto flute, viola, steel-stringed guitar, four radios and music box
*''Duo'' (1996), for violin and piano
*''Into the Blue'' (1996), for clarinet, bassoon, cello, double bass, piano and percussion
*''dichroic seventeen'' (1996), for piano, two percussionists, two double basses, accordion and electric guitar
*''G and E on A'' (1996–97), for orchestra and 27 music boxes
*''String Quartet'' (1997)
*''QUARTET'' (1998), for piano, B-flat clarinet/bass clarinet, double bass and accordion
*''cinnabar'' (1999), for violin, trumpet and ensemble
*''duo four – two exposures'' (2000–01), for solo trumpet, solo percussion and orchestra
*''albescere'' (2001), for twelve instruments and five voices
*''Chroma (I–XIX)'' (2003–13), for twelve to sixteen performers
*''vermilion'' (2003), for clarinet, electric guitar and cello
*''insideout'' (2003), for woodwinds, brass, timpani, percussion, piano, strings, accordion, electric guitar — music for the choreographic installation by
Sasha Waltz
Sacha, Sasha, Sascha, or ''variant'' may refer to:
People
* Sasha (name), includes list of people with the name and the variants Sascha or Sacha
Musicians
* Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alexander Coe
* Sasha (German singer) (born 1972), born Sas ...
*''blaauw'' (2004), for double-bell trumpet
*''Choler'' (2004), for piano duo
*''Miniata'' (2004), for accordion, piano, choir and orchestra
*''Crimson'' (2004–05), for piano
*''Fury I'' (2005), for double bass
*''Blue and Gray'' (2005), for two double basses
*''rubricare'' (2005), for strings and organ
*''rubricare'' (2005), for baroque string orchestra
*''A Visible Trace'' (2006), for seven soloists and conductor
*''Traces'' (2006–09), for orchestra
*''Soliloquy'' (2007), for six voices a cappella
*''Stirrings Still I'' (2007), for alto flute, oboe, clarinet, piano and bowed crotales
*''Stirrings Still II'' (2008), for six players: alto flute, oboe, clarinet in A, crotales, piano and double bass
*''Company'' (2008), for counter tenor, trumpet, violoncello, accordion and electric guitar
*''Disclosure'' (2008), for five players: bass clarinet (doubling clarinet), trumpet, trombone, piano and violin
*''murmurs'' (2009), Collage for ten players
*''Fury II'' (2010), Concert for double bass and ensemble
*''To and fro'' (2010), for violin and oboe
*''Stratum'' (2010), for orchestra
*''Stasis I'' (2011), a special collage for 16 soloists
*''Stasis collective'' (2011–16), a special collage for 23 musicians
*''Stasis II'' (2011–14), quartet for trumpet, oboe, percussion and piano
*''Caerulean'' (2011), for bass clarinet
*''Dialogue'' (2011), for viola and percussion
*''Neither'' (2011), for 2 double bell trumpets
*''Stirrings'' (2011), for nine players: alto flute, clarinet in A (boehm system), oboe, crotales (top octave with 2 violoncello bows), piano (grand), harp, violin, violoncello (IV scordatura), double bass (with five strings, V scordatura)
*''Still'' (2011), for violin and orchestra
*''Ire'' (2012), Concerto for violoncello, strings and percussion
*''Fletch'' (2012), for string quartet
*''Shadow'' (2013), for piano
*''...of waters making moan'' (2013), for accordion
*''Solitude'' (2013), for violoncello
*''Void'' (2013–14), for two percussionists and chamber orchestra
*''Alba'' (2014), for trumpet und orchestra
*''Six for AK'' (2015), for 2 percussionists, piano (2 players), guitar (steel strings) and harp
*''White'' (2015, revised 2016), for double bell trumpet solo
*''Skin'' (2016), for soprano and ensemble
*''Myriad'' (2015–2016) sound installation of 2464 identical musical box mechanisms
*''Still / Aether/ Alba'' (2020)
*''Solo - Klangforum Wien'' (2021)
References
External links
*
Rebecca Saunders interviewed at the time of the premiere of ''albescere'' Ensemble Modern (in English)
SoundCloud profile*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, Rebecca
1967 births
Living people
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Women classical composers
English classical composers
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
20th-century English composers
Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize winners
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners
20th-century English women musicians
21st-century British composers
21st-century English women musicians
20th-century women composers
21st-century women composers