Helen Grime composed Luna for the 2012 McEwen commission. This was premiered by Red Note Ensemble on Thursday 15 October 2011, 1.10pm at the Concert Hall, University of Glasgow. The concert also featured Density 21.5 for solo flute by Edgard Varèse, Life Studies (selection) for clarinet and piano by William Sweeney, in angustiis ..I for solo piano and in angustiis ..II for solo oboe by James MacMillan.
The composer introduces the piece at its premiere
Listen to… the Luna premiere
Programme Note
Helen Grime (b. 1981) – Luna (Fl/Picc, Ob/Cor, Cl/E♭, Hn, Perc & Pnf)
I took my starting point for Luna from a poem by Ted Hughes called Harvest Moon. The piece is cast in one continuous movement but falls into a number of well- defined sections. As I was working on the piece, I started combining the instruments in small groups. Although there is much interaction between all members of the ensemble, the instrumental groups became a defining characteristic of the piece. The piano and percussion often form a duo, breaking into somewhat virtuosic solo passages scattered throughout. The flute, oboe and clarinet form a sort of unified trio, sometimes playing a unison line or combining lyrical lines in the slower final section of the work. The horn takes on a distinctly soloist role, with solo passages building to a mini cadenza, which eventually leads the piece into its final section.
Helen Grime (2011)
Performer biographies & full details of the Luna premiere can be found in the McEwen concert programme 2011.
Helen Grime
Helen Grime studied oboe with John Anderson and composition with Julian Anderson and Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of Music. She graduated from the BMus course with First Class Honours and completed her Masters with Distinction in 2004. From 2005-07, Helen was a Legal & General Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music. In 2003 she won a British Composer Award for her Oboe Concerto, and was awarded the intercollegiate Theodore Holland Composition Prize in 2003 as well as all the major composition prizes in the RCM. In 2008 she was awarded a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship to study at the Tanglewood Music Center where she studied with John Harbison, Michael Gandolfi, Shulamit Ran and Augusta Read Thomas. Helen has had works commissioned by some of the most established performers and organisations including ENO, London Symphony Orchestra, BCMG, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center. Conductors who have performed her work include Daniel Harding, Oliver Knussen, Pierre Boulez and Yan Pascal Tortelier. Helen is the 2010 recipient of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund and Associate Composer of The Hallé for the 2011/12 season.