David Ward

Vanderbeek & Imrie Composers

http://www.composers-uk.com/davidward

DAVID WARD’S music has been commissioned by, amongst others, the BBC, London Festival Orchestra, Edinburgh Quartet, Bingham String Quartet, Saltire Quartet, Shetland Arts Trust, Woodend Music Society, Ross Pople, Michael Beeston, Shinobu Miki, Nigel Boddice and Richard Stilgoe, with funds from the Arts Council of GB, the Scottish Arts Council, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the National Lottery as well as sponsors, subscribers and trust funds. DW has also received direct grants from the Arts Council of GB, the Scottish Arts Council and Enterprise North East, as well as from the Hope-Scott Trust and other trusts and foundations.

Keep up to date with David’s latest work on the News page of his website.

A full list of works is available at the bottom of this page.

New Issues and Selected Works

The Garden of the Sun

David Ward has provisionally finished his opera The Garden of the Sun to a libretto by NZ poet and novellist Kevin Ireland derived from the ancient Sumerian Gilgamesh epic.

Click here to view or download the full score, or here for a two page synopsis.

The Garden of the Sun tells the story of the legendary ancient Sumerian king Gilgamesh and his furious rejection but final acceptance of the inevitability of his mortality. It starts in gloom, rage and despair, but ends in transcendence, albeit with a slight twist.

Although it has some of the characteristics of an oratorio, in particular several sections of flashbacks and indirect narrative, the piece is intended to be staged as an opera, but not necessarily in a theatre. It might lend itself to a ‘concert staging’ in a church or other suitable non-theatre venue, with simple action and movement (including the four minute dance of the snake), plus lighting and projections. In such a performance the down-stage area should be as close as practical to the audience in front of the orchestra.

The quality, stamina and stage presence of the baritone who takes on the role of Gilgamesh will be crucial to the success or failure of any performance of the piece. The stage presence of the mezzo who sings Ishtar is also crucial, although her role is fragmented and she only sings for a total of about eight minutes in the two hour piece. She has the final silent gesture.

Cupid and Psyche

In August 2012 David Ward finished writing a new opera, this time based on the Cupid and Psyche myth, with a libretto written for him in 1985 by Kevin Ireland. Cupid and Psyche is a large chamber opera lasting 90 minutes for 6 singers and 23 instrumentalists (plus dancers ad lib.).

Click here to view or download the full score, or here for the libretto (including a synopsis and some general information).

These fragments of text from Scene 1 hint at the wide ranging variety of the libretto and music, including the darkly sardonic, the dreamily sensual and the tongue-in-cheek cynical. The four lines beginning ‘Love is a liar’ are repeated at the very end of the opera by the Olympian gods, representing those in authority piqued at the thwarting of their plans, and perhaps wrily amused at the thought that Psyche believes Cupid – one of their own, after all – will be a good husband.

Love is a liar
with a bloated smile,
a heart of briars
and an eye of bile …
* * *
… where mysteries become new pleasures
and pleasure is the only mystery,
where the sea of my love
swirls across the land –
and air and earth and water
become the warm shadows
of creation.
* * *
It’s so lamentably unfair
that she should have
so much to spare
yet be worth so little
in herself.
Putting on all these
magnificent airs
before her own sisters.
It’s so lamentably unfair.

Dreaming of Distant Love, a miniature paraphrase of Cupid and Psyche, was recorded in 2014 by Victoria Soames Samek (alto sax), Steve Bingham (violin), Chris Brannick (percussion [vibraphone, temple blocks and glockenspiel]) and Adrian Sutcliffe (electric piano [in a Fender-Rhodes simulation]) playing under the collective name FourSight. The miniature starts with the identical sax solo to Cupid and Psyche for about half a minute and then goes on to use material associated with the lovers, which in the opera is at its most developed and expansive for the duet which begins on page 297 of the full score.

You can listen to the recording here (also available on SoundCloud).

Sybil or The Two Nations

An opera in two acts loosely based on aspects of the novel of the same name by Benjamin Disraeli, words and music by David Ward. The events depicted in the novel begin in 1837.

My piece is loosely based on aspects (no more) of the convoluted novel, but ends up going its own way… The personal stories are set against conflict and misunderstanding between the very rich and the very poor in early Victorian England. This is a metaphor for all such conflicts between the haves and the have-nots, the powerful and the weak, today as well as in the past. The story that is told of a developing love across this divide has as much relevance now as ever in the past. Disraeli has Sybil’s family turn out to be disinherited aristocrats, but for the 21st century that can be left to Mills & Boon. In my opera, Sybil remains working-class in her family origins, albeit successful rather than impoverished working-class.

I have felt unable, or at least unwilling, to provide an unequivocal ‘they lived happily ever after’ ending for the lovers, given my own downwardly mobile family background (why do politicians speak of mobility as necessarily upwards?), my sardonic sense of humour and my mildly cynical view of life. David Ward.

Click here to view or download a synopsis, as at September 2011.

Evolutionary Metamorphoses

Evolutionary Metamorphoses was commissioned by the Institute of Evolutionary Studies to celebrate the Theory of Evolution and to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth in 1809 of Charles Darwin.

“The composition of Evolutionary Metamorphoses came about as a result of a conversation I was having with a group of people at the University of Glasgow. They were bemoaning the fact that there were so many pieces of music being written in praise of God (MacMillan, Tavener, Pärt, etc.); but it seemed there were none being written in praise of Evolution.” David Ward.

Click here to view more information.

In Memoriam Simon

In Memoriam Simon was commissioned by Heather Barrington-Ward and is dedicated to the memory of her son Simon Jocelyn Barrington-Ward, 14th November 1957 – 25th July 1985.

First performance by the Morley Quartet (members of the Scottish Opera Orchestra) at Higham Hall, Bassenthwaite, Cumbria on 7th June 1992.

Performance time: ca. 8 minutes.

Click here to view or download the score.

List of works

Date Completed	Title	Category	Duration	CD available?
2017	There and Back	2 Cellos	4 min
2017	Arias and Cadenzas	Cello, Percussion (Vibraphone, Temple Blocks, Drum Kit) & Piano	23 min	Y (CD, DVD & Youtube video)
2016	In Memoriam Keith	Violin & Trombone (Baroque Violin & Sckbut)	2 min
2016	The Garden of the Sun	Opera (medium house or flexible ad hoc, semi-staged etc)	2 hours
2015	The Abbot of Bingham	Soprano Voice, Trombone & String Trio	4 min
2014	Divertimento	Mixed Octet (similar to Schubert’s)	25 min
2014	Lukkaminnie’s Oo	Violin and Cello	2 min
2014	Pleasures are Like Poppies Spread	Mezzo and Piano	2 min
2013	String Quartet No 7	String Quartet	12 min	Y
2013	Duo for Violin and Cello	Violin and Cello	6 min
2012	Dreaming of a Distant Love (miniature paraphrase of music from Cupid & Psyche)	Alto Sax, Violin, Percussion, Electric Piano	2 min	Y
2012	Cupid and Psyche	Opera (chamber plus)	1 1/2 hours
2011	Sybil: a Nation Divided	Opera (large house)	2 3/4 hours
2010	e-mails from Palestine (1)	Voice, Trombone, Violin, Electric Violins, Percussion”	25 min	Y
2008	Evolutionary Metamorphoses	23 Solo Strings	25 min
2007	String Quartet No 6	String Quartet	20 min	Y
2005	Variations on a Waltz	Piano	7 min
2004	More for H & S	Clarinet and violin	2 min
2004	Bassoon Concertino	Bassoon and small orchestra	11 min
2003	Two Romances	Violin and small orchestra	16 min
2003	Cello Song	Cello, Hp, Keybd, Strings	11 min
2002	Cello Concerto No 2	Cello & Medium Orchestra	22 min
2002	Overture and Scena	Soprano & Medium Large Orchestra	13 min
2002	String Quartet No 5	String Quartet	11 min	Y
2001	Little Duet	Clarinet and violin	4 min
2001	Sonata Fantasia	Cello & Piano	17 min	Y
2000	Improvisation	Bass Trombone & Piano	3 1/2 min	Y
2000	Mute Play	Bass Trombone & Piano	8 min	Y
2000	Doctor Foster	Opera (large house)	2 1/2 hours	view/download libretto
1999	Songs for Patti	Mezzo and Piano	6 min
1999	Piano Sonata	Solo Piano	23 min	Y
1997	Concerto for Viola & Piano	Reduction of Vla Concerto	32 min	Y
1997	Viola Concerto	Viola & Medium Orchestra	32 min
1996	Overture to Jack’s Engagement	Medium Large Orchestra	6 min
1995	Entrance, Sonata & Exit	Trumpet & String Quartet	30 min
1995	Clarinet Quintet	Clarinet & String Quartet	30 min	Y
1995	Stock Exchange Ballet (Timone)	Full Orchestra	13 min
1995	Timone	Opera (large house)	2 hour
1994	String Quartet No 4	String Quartet	19 min	Y
1993	Three Orpheus Sonnets (Rilke)	Mezzo & Piano	10 min	Jane Manning guide
1993	Three Poems by J M Synge	Mezzo & Piano	7 min
1993	String Quartet No 3	String Quartet	30 min
1992	Violin Sonata	Unaccompanied Violin	13 min	Y
1991	7 Pieces	Basset Clarinet Solo	15 min
1990	2 Minute Caprice	Basset Clarinet Solo	2 min
1990	String Quartet No 2	String Quartet	38 min	Y
1989	In Memoriam Simon	String Quartet (solo Viola)	7 min
1989	Beyond the Far Haaf	Mezzo, Bar, & Full Orch.	55 min	Y
1988	String Quartet No 1	String Quartet	25 min	Y
1988	Jack’s Engagement (revised 1996)	Opera (medium house)	1 1/2 hours	Y
1987	Concert Overture on Themes from Jack’s Engagement	Medium Large Orchestra	13 min	Y
1985	3 Bagatelles	Brass Band	8 min	Y
1984	Variations	Cello & Classical Orchestra	18 min	Y
1983	Burlesque	Bass Trbn & Brass Band	4 min
1983	Canzona	Clarinet & Piano	3 1/2 min
1982	The Snow Queen	Chamber Opera	52 min	Y
1978	Cello Concerto No 1	Cello & Full Orchestra	37 min	Y
1974	The Death of Ferdia	Chamber Opera	33 min	Y
1968	A Full Moon in March	Chamber Opera	40 min	Y