Paul Rhys studied at Keele University and spent nine months at Northwestern University in the USA supported by a Wingate Foundation scholarship. Funded by the British Academy he gained a PhD in Composition in 1996, creating music both for computer and for traditional instruments. His music has been performed throughout Europe and in the USA, broadcast on Australian national radio and recorded on the Metier CD label. Current projects include a piano concerto, three songs for soprano and large orchestra and a commission from the recorder quintet Fontanella. He conducts the Hanover Choir in London, which performs repertoire from Byrd to Bernstein.
Ebb and Flow (1989)
computer-generated stereo tape (11 minutes)
Ebb and Flow was created in the computer music studios at the University of Keele over a period of about ten weeks. The piece draws on six sound sources, five of them purely synthetic, the last the recorded sound of a breaking twig. For creation of the synthetic materials I developed my own software to implement granular synthesis via deterministic fractal organisation. My hope is that this technique yields synthetic sounds whose inner vitality approaches the richness of the natural soundworld. Synthetic and natural sounds are subject to spatial processing, once again using my own software.
Gloria (1995)
soprano solo, choir, orchestra and organ (25 minutes)
The work interleaves two separate texts: the Latin Gloria of the liturgy, sung by the choir, and the mediaeval hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, sung by the soloist. This second text speaks of the Holy Spirit in a rich succession of metaphors quite void of religious doctrine: ‘...tu fons, tu rivulus, fruttex et surculus, doctor discipulus, servorum coronator - you the fountain and stream, stem and shoot, teacher and pupil, crowner of slaves’.
Not I (1995)
piano solo (14 minutes)
This piece draws its structure directly from Samuel Beckett’s wonderful play Not I : a monologue for a woman whose mouth, illuminated by a single spotlight in a pitch-black theatre, is all that is visible to the audience.
The score carries Beckett’s text alongside the musical notation, in the hope of inspiring the pianist and guiding their interpretation.
String Quartet No.1 (1993-94 revised 1998)
(17 minutes)
The String Quartet No.1 is played in one continuous movement. Its rhythmic architecture, designed using my own computer software, pushes to a limit rhythmic independence of the four parts, whilst tight control of harmony ensures an even greater coherence between the parts. The music becomes rather like a dance which, to the casual glance seems wildly chaotic, but to the enlightened view beautifully ordered.
The Fruits of One Tree (2001-2)
(12 minutes)
In the course of the piece the viola emerges as the principal soloist. Its melodic style consciously evokes music from across the Islamic world (North Africa, the Middle East, Indonesia). The title of the piece is taken from the writings of Baha'u'llah (1817-1892) who urges all the races of mankind to regard themselves as 'the waves of one sea', 'the fruits of one tree'. The piece is one small offering to this vision of the unity of all mankind in its wonderful diversity of culture.