David Charlton 
The Music of Simon Holt [PDF ebook] 

Bringing together well-known writers with composers and performers, this volume gives a complete overview of Holt’s creative work up to 2015.


British composer Simon Holt (b. 1958) has been a leading presence in contemporary music since the early 1980s and
Kites. His output is diverse, comprising chamber music, concertos for diverse instruments, songs, piano musicand opera. Holt is a composer who demands unusual commitment from his interpreters – the intricate sound-worlds he creates often contain complex, rich textures, offset by ‘still centres’ – for the purpose of making music which speaks with extraordinary power.

Bringing together well-known writers with composers and performers, this volume gives a complete overview of Holt’s creative work up to 2015 and
Fool is hurt. It uses a variety of approaches to help readers, listeners and players to find ways into the pieces and to understand the influence of visual art and poetry on Holt’s work. Colour illustrations, music examples, tables and sketch facsimiles offer a rounded impression of Holt’s inspiration and thought to date. Also included are a wide-ranging conversation between Simon Holt and the artist Julia Bardsley, and a text by the conductor Thierry Fischer. The volume also offers the first detailed catalogue of Holt’s compositions, drawn up together with the composer. It reveals that the last twenty years have seen no slowing-up in his rate of creative production, notwithstanding that the nature of his writing has changed during this time.

DAVID CHARLTON is Professor Emeritus of Music History, Royal Holloway, University of London.


Contributors: JULIA BARDSLEY, DAVID BEARD, DAVID CHARLTON, THIERRY FISCHER, ANTHONY GILBERT, STEPHEN GUTMAN, MELINDA MAXWELL, RICHARD MCGREGOR, STEPH POWER, PHILIP RUPPRECHT, SIMON SPEARE, REBECCA THUMPSTON, EDWARD VENN

Tabella dei contenuti

Introduction: Memories of Magical Moonlight: Simon Holt’s years as a composition student – Anthony Gilbert

Duende y Duelos: the Andalusian spirit in the Lorca settings – Anthony Gilbert

An Interplay of Passion and Spirit:
The Nightingale’s to Blame –

Images in Sound: Movement, Harmony and Colour in the Early Music – Philip Rupprecht

Myth and Narrative in
3 for Icarus – Edward Venn

Sound, Sense and Syntax: The Emily Dickinson Settings – Steph Power

Piano music – Stephen Gutman

Redefining the cello’s voice: Musical agency in
feet of clay – Rebecca Thumpston

Performance and reflections: Holt’s music for oboe and cor anglais – Melinda Maxwell

Shaking the Bars:
The Yellow Wallpaper – Steph Power

Listening to the River’s Roar: Stance, Texture and Space in the Concertos – David Beard

Orchestral Works in Performance – Thierry Fischer

Oblique themes and still centres: a conversation between Julia Bardsley and Simon Holt – Julia Bardsley

Sketching and Idea-Gathering – Simon Speare

Art, Conceptualism and Politics in Holt’s music – David Charlton

Appendix A: Overview and Catalogue of Pieces – David Charlton

Appendix B: Texts by Simon Holt for
Raju Raghuvanshi is a ghost and
The Legend of Melusine

Bibliography