- Giles Swayne
Giles Oliver Cairnes Swayne (born
June 30 ,1946 ) is a Britishcomposer .Biography
Swayne is a cousin of
Elizabeth Maconchy . He spent much of his childhood inLiverpool , and began composing at a young age. He was educated atAmpleforth College and atCambridge University , where he worked withRaymond Leppard andNicholas Maw before spending three years at theRoyal Academy of Music as a student ofBirtwistle ,Alan Bush and, once again, Maw. During the years 1976 to 1977 he attended several ofOlivier Messiaen 's classes at theParis Conservatoire and from 1981 to 1982 made a study visit to theGambia and southernSenegal – a formative experience he put to creative use as composer-in-residence to the London borough of Hounslow, 1980–83. Together with his second wife, the Ghanaian, Naaotwa Codjoe, he lived in a village near Accra,Ghana , from 1990 to 1996; he has now settled in London.Selected compositions
* "CRY", opus 27 for 28 solo voices and electronics, commissioned by the
BBC and premiered in 1980 (recorded on the label NMC by the BBC Singers conducted by John Poole)
* "Magnificat", 1982
* "String Quartet s" 1 – 3 (1971 to 1993)
* "Goodnight Sweet Ladies" for soprano and piano, commissioned by Lord Harewood and written 1994–5 ( [http://www.chester-novello.com/work/14609/main.html] )
* "The Silent Land", for cello and choir, premiered in 1998
* "HAVOC", for accompanied choir - a sequel to "CRY"; premiered 1999
* "Le Nozze di Cherubino" (opera, premiere 22 January 1985 London)External links
* [http://www.gonzagamusic.co.uk/composers-swayne.htm Autobiography at Gonzaga Publishers] Included instead of the biography at Schirmer, which mostly duplicates it.
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/havoc.htm Review of performance of HAVOC at MusicWeb]
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