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Review of Graham Fitkin’s Lecture Recital for Roseland Music Society on 9th October 2021

By Tim Smithies







Its not often you get to hear a composer talk about his or her music with such clarity and sincerity as Roseland Music Society heard from Graham Fitkin in their first music event since lockdown  last Saturday 9th October.    This was a rocket fuelled launch to a season of 8 concerts the society has lined up until July 2022.  An increasingly engrossed audience  experienced a huge range of creative ideas performed with illustrations from the piano,  recordings of concert work (from the Proms, Tokyo, the USA) featuring unusual combinations of instruments introducing new sound worlds e.g. for three marimbas,  sampled music with vibraphone, but also full symphony orchestras and memorably a cello concerto (for YoYo Ma) inspired by one note…B flat.


After a rapid trot through his Cornish musical education (his mother taught piano in West Penwith and he is fulsome about the variety and scope of  musicmaking opportunities available to him when young in Cornwall):  he began dabbling in piano, violin (set aside), clarinet and percussion,  leading to studying composition at Nottingham University and subsequently at The Hague with one of the early adopters of minimalism Louis Andriessen…..A common denominator which Graham explained began to shape his own musical identity as composer,  was employing formal mathematical  and rhythmical structures, stripped down economy of expression, layering of thematic materiall with Stravinsky and other minimalist composers like Steve Reich as critical influences.  


At that point the audience  had a live performance by Graham and his partner Ruth Wall (happily on hand) in Steve Reich’s classic Clapping Music (1972).   We were stunned and clapped too (albeit not quite so rhythmically)..


A lively Q&A session then took place with audience keen to know more about the realities of being a composer. 

The talk ended with Graham’s account of the development of his latest commission, (from Cornwall’s  Three Spires Singers) to be performed in Truro Cathedral in November…with narrator Sam West, multiple choirs ……and the title “Humphry Davy…the Age of Aspiration”.   The Cornish engineer’s self-experiments with hazardous gases and  breathing apparatus and experimentation was Graham’s  starting point fo the new work ………. to find out the outcome .don’t miss this red letter day on the Cornwall musical calendar.


This format of asking a contemporary composer to speak about and demonstrate his music seems one that is popular with our audience.  We will be inviting Ian Stephens to introduce his music next year on 18th March in Tregony Church Hall




The next two concerts at the Gerrans Parish Memorial Hall are on 12th November….Chapel Street Ensemble plays Schumann Piano Quintet, Faure Piano Quartet, Judith Weir and Richard Strauss.

26th November – William Howard concert pianist plays a programme of Czech Music and Chopin- more details at www.roselandmusicsociety.org.uk and on Facebook.    


All are welcome  tickets can be booked at Cornwall Riviera Box Office (01726) 879 500or in person at Truro, St Austell and St Mawes Tourist Information Centres or online 



(Note  Tim Smithies is now programming the Roseland Music Society series so declaring and interest)

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