About the Work

Nymphéas was originally written in 1995 for a mixed ensemble of 8 players: clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, French horn, vibraphone, piano, viola and double bass. This reworking of the piece for clarinet choir was completed in 2016. The work was inspired by Monet's series paintings of water lilies. The movement in the sixteenth-note septuplets creates harmonic saturation and is intended to suggest an aquatic environment. The structure, punctuated by periodic changes in the bass, takes on an arch-shape, where a melodic element is presented. The single-movement work has a duration of ca. 4 minutes.

The first performance of the original version took place whilst Andrew was studying at the Royal College of Music in July 1995. Later that year, Andrew was awarded the Cobbett & Hurlstone Prize for the piece. In 2006, Nymphéas was recorded for Volume 11 of ERM Media's "Masterworks of the New Era" with players from the Kiev Philharmonic. In 2001, Andrew reworked Nymphéas for two pianos, for pianist brothers, Peter and Patrik Jablonski. The duo premiered the piece at Royal Palace Stockholm in the Autumn of 2002.

Clarinet Choir Instrumentation: 1 E-flat clarinet, 3 B-flat clarinets, 2 E-flat alto clarinets, 2 B-flat bass clarinets, 1 contrabass clarinet. Extended-range instruments NOT required for bass clarinet part. Score: 47 pages, spiral bind; Parts: 2-3 pages each, single sheet.

About the Composer

British composer Andrew March was born in 1973. In 1992, he attended the Royal College of Music, London, to study composition. Shortly after graduating, Andrew won the Royal Philarmonic Society Composition Prize 1996 for his symphonic poem, Easdale. His orchestral piece Marine - à travers les arbres (1997) won first place in the inaugural Masterprize International Composing Competition, and was recorded by the BBC for the European Broadcasting Union and by the London Symphony Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios for EMI Classics Debut Series. A cover-mount CD was included on the BBC Music Magazine in 1998. Marine - à travers les arbres has been played by orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic and has received a total of 13 international live performances including the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy which was televised for the BBC Proms in 1998.

In 2001, Nymphéas for Two Pianos was written for pianist brothers duo Peter & Patrik Jablonski, who gave the World premiere in the Royal Palace, Stockholm, in the Autumn of 2002, and then followed with a tour that programmed the piece in and around Scandinavia. In July 2005, A Stirring in the Heavenlies (2000) was successfully recorded, in full, by the Kiev Philharmonic under composer/conductor Robert Ian Winstin for the landmark 12-CD series Masterworks of the New Era.

In 2009, Andrew composed an elegy for strings, Sanguis Venenatus which was recorded in the Czech Republic and released towards the end of 2012. The elegy has subsequently been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and internationally, with repeat airings during drive-time programmes on stations such as Sweden's P2 Klassiskt, Estonia's Klassikaraadio, and South Africa's Classic FM.

In October 2013, Three Pieces for Solo Cello were premiered in New York by Romanian-born cellist Ovidiu Marinscu at the Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall. The three pieces were also recorded. Also in 2013, Paraclete Press published De Profundis. In 2015, Colla Voce Music published two pieces, Marian Antiphon No. 3 and How Long, O Lord?. In January 2016, Amoration for Piano and Strings was recorded at the MRTV studios in Skopje with the Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra.

Listen to the work in its original instrumentation: