Simon Rackham (born 1964) is an English composer and artist. He is probably best known for his work;‘Which ever way your nose bends’ the first commission by the six piano ensemble

Piano Circus Piano Circus is a musical ensemble consisting of six pianists. The original six-piano ensemble formed in 1989 to perform Steve Reich's ''Six Pianos''. Founding members included Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly, Richard Harris, Kate Heath, Max Richter, ...

, composed as a companion piece to Steve Reich’s ‘

Six Pianos ''Six Pianos'' is a minimalist piece for six pianos by the American composer Steve Reich. It was completed in March 1973. He also composed a variation for six marimbas, called ''Six Marimbas'', in 1986. The world première performance of ''Six Pi ...

’ & released on their eponymous album by

Argo Records (UK) Argo Records is a record label founded by Harley Usill and Cyril Clarke in 1951 with the intention of recording "British music played by British artists", but the company's releases expanded to include spoken word recordings and other proje ...

in 1992.

Early life

From 1983-1988, he studied composition and

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

at the Royal Academy of Music (London).

Career

In the late eighties he co-founded the group ‘3 or 4 composers’ (with Laurence Crane, Helen Ottaway,

Melanie Pappenheim Melanie Pappenheim (born 1959) is an English soprano and composer, notable for her vocal work with various British cross-disciplinary composers, with avant-garde theatre companies and on soundtracks (notably for several films and the 2005 reviva ...

and

Jocelyn Pook Jocelyn Pook (, rhyming with "book"; born 14 February 1960) is an English composer and viola player. She is known for her scores for many films, including ''Eyes Wide Shut'', ''The Merchant of Venice'' and '' The Wife''. Education Pook gradua ...

). He has released over seventy albums (mainly music for piano) through CD Baby, recorded using

Finale (software) Finale is a proprietary music notation software developed and released by MakeMusic for Microsoft Windows and macOS since 1988. Functionality Finale's tools are organized into multiple hierarchically organized palettes, and the corresponding ...

to write the score and then 'Pianissimo'

virtual piano A virtual piano is an application (software) designed to simulate playing a piano on a computer. The virtual piano is played using a keyboard and/or mouse and typically comes with many features found on a digital piano. Virtual player piano softwa ...

software for the performance. In 2012 his authorized arrangement for solo piano of Steve Reich's ‘

Clapping Music ''Clapping Music'' is a minimalist piece written by Steve Reich in 1972. It is written for two performers and is performed entirely by clapping. Reich and his ensemble were on tour in Europe in 1972. After a concert in Brussels, the promoter ...

’ was released on the album ''Which way is up?''.

Musical work

His music is broadly described as

postminimalist Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. ...

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

, influenced by

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for ...

, Philip Glass et al. Another important influence was the work of the so-called English experimental composers such as Howard Skempton, Michael Parsons and

Christopher Hobbs Christopher Hobbs (born 9 September 1950) is an English experimental composer, best known as a pioneer of British systems music. Life and career Hobbs was born in Hillingdon, near London. He was a junior exhibitioner at Trinity College London, t ...

and his association with Laurence Crane and

Graham Fitkin Graham Fitkin (born 19 April 1963) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. His compositions fall broadly into the minimalist and postminimalist genres. Described by ''The Independent'' in 1998 as "one of the most important of our younger co ...

. Many of his works have a conceptual basis, or work through various processes as in Systems music. Rackham's works are mainly composed within a Diatonic scale.

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

and dynamics (music) generally remain constant throughout the entirety of a piece. Various albums containing longer pieces ('Harmonium Music', 'Man Made Music', 'Slow Motion Music', 'Audiophilia', 'Triadic Variations' etc.) could be described as Ambient. A series of works dealing with fundamental aspects of music; 'Tune', 'Harmony', 'Rhythm' & 'Sixty Minutes' (which is primarily concerned with time) were released in the 2010s. His music has been used by dance companies and he has composed incidental music for plays including the first British production of ''

The Man Outside ''The Man Outside'' (, literally ''Outside, at the door'') is a play by Wolfgang Borchert, written in a few days in the late autumn of 1946. It made its debut on German radio on 13 February 1947. ''The Man Outside'' describes the hopelessness of ...

'' by Wolfgang Borchert. He performed in the original production of

Tony Harrison Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse w ...

's ''

The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus ''The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus'' is a 1990 play by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison. It is partially based on ''Ichneutae'', a satyr play by the fifth-century BC Athenian dramatist Sophocles, which was found in fragments at the Egyptia ...

'' in Greece and at the Royal National Theatre London.

Visual art

Rackham's work has been exhibited in the UK, the

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and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. He has produced a large and diverse body of work, switching between more conventional painting and sculpture (including ceramics) and more

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

including

Artist's book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

s. Some of his text-based work was exhibited through Tanya Peixoto's bookartbookshop (London) in 2002, in an exhibition called In Black and White. He has produced photographic and video works.

External links

Official website

info on 'The Holy Brook' performance in Reading

binbinFactory dance company video

'Music for Nothing' Free Download

References

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

, Thursday 11 June 1998, Phil Johnson * ''The Independent'', Monday 5 May 1997, Phil Johnson * * *

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

, Artist's Book Yearbook 2003-2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rackham, Simon 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers English classical composers Experimental composers Minimalist composers 1964 births Living people English male classical composers 20th-century English composers 20th-century British male musicians 21st-century British male musicians