Dalwyn Henshall - Composer

The composer is not a pianist by training, but he has essayed pieces for the instrument throughout his compositional career: as well as a Concerto for Piano (commissioned by the North Wales Youth Orchestra, and premiered by Llyr Williams)  compositions for solo piano include a number of studies: Études, and free-standing pieces such as Paraphrase on a Theme of Keith Ramon Cole and the Five Pieces for Piano.

Études

I: ". . . fingerteasing task . . ."

The three Études were written in 1989 at the request of the North Wales Music Festival for the pianist Iwan Llywelyn Jones.  The commission was funded by the Welsh Arts Council.   (Works previously commissioned by the Festival at St Asaph and funded by the Welsh Arts Council include the Variations on a Welsh Lullaby, for guitar, Variations and Fugue on "Hyfrydol", for organ.  An earlier Trio, for piano, violin and cello, was perfomed at the Festival during the Young Welsh Composers' Forum.)

1989 marked the centenary of the death of Gerard Manley Hopkins and most of the new works commissioned by the Festival in 1989 featured Manley Hopkins' work in one form or another.  The Études are no exception, each of which takes as its inspiration a phrase from Hopkins' work.  The first ". . . fingerteasing task . . ." is, precisely, that.  Again, the climactic chord features prominently and the title (of the collection) should not be taken at face value.

The complete score and Scorch file can be downloaded from sibeliusmusic.com.

 The companion studies are ". . . this is yours . . ." (which, again, is literally true), and "You knew, didn't you . . .".  This was inspired by a comment made to the dedicatee of the Etudes by a more senior composer with reference to a piece in 11/8 time.  One can hazard a guess that the piece in question was "Arfon", for solo harp, by Ian Parrott.  The study is designed to test the pianist's ability to project and combine two utterly different tecnhiques: a rapid martellato effect, and a langorously smooth and uninterupted legato.

The emotional core of the entire work is found in the central section. 

Paraphrase

Paraphrase was written in 1998 as a special birthday present for Keith Cole - the finest composer and pianist living in Kent.  The quotation from Schubert's Impromptu and the evocation of Brahms refer specifically to him. 

Five Pieces for Piano

As with the orchestral music (and, particularly, the concerted works) there is a very strong autobiographical element running through all the piano music.  This is nowhere more in evidence than in each of the Five Pieces for Piano written at various times over the last three years: each has a special significance and, sometimes, a sinister undertone and not one of the five should be taken at face value!  The last one to be completed is the fourth, Evocation,for left hand alone, which completes the cycle the composition of which was interrupted by a change fo residence.  Each piece can be performed separately, but they were concieved as a set.  All of the Five Pieces are now available for dowload at sibeliusmusic.com: the lastest to be uploaded (but the first to be composed) is ¡SaTango!  It has been suggested that the nature of the piece - especially the rhythmic construction - is more akin to a habanera, as opposed to the tango, pure and simple.  (Although, of course the tango is never pure and seldom simple.)  It should be performed with massive showmanship and huge irony.  Hand crossing should always be visible!  A short extract is available here:

Cradle Song for Charon, like ¡SaTango! is not what it seems to be.  Firstly, it uses an unorthodox but not unpianistic effect: namely undamped strings being made to resonate.  The effect itslef is not new at all, but was partly inspired (on the composer's part) by a passing reference a freind made to the use of aliquot strings.  The reference to Classical mythology places the lullaby in context: it can be read at many levels from the lugubrious to the strictly factual.  In any case, however, much of the musical (and non-musical) symbolism gives the game away! 

Evocation is the fourth and Kitty the last of the Five Pieces.  Whereas Evocation is entirely self-explanatory, Kitty requires some explanation as a musical souvenir of five cats who owned the composer at various times: Mabli (a waif and stray), Arthur (aka E.T., a big, bluff cat with a penchant for filched smoked mackerel), Alice (a large, sweet-natured, home-loving cat), Dotty (who was as dotty as they come, with a  thing about builders and decorators) and Sukie (who started life in the cats' refuge as a boy: but was really a girl).  The tune on which the variants are based is partially hidden, but obvious really!

Events have militated against the composer - until very recently - undertaking new public commissions!  His output has, therefore, tended to focus on solo and chamber groupings.