About the Work

Program note courtesy of the composer:

Far from being a seasonal event, Spring tides occur twice each lunar month, all year round. Spring Tide Arabesque opens with a gentle motif reflecting the Earth's steady rotation. Immediately following these preparatory measures, a flowing Arabesque figure is introduced by the first bass clarinet. The ornate pattern is not confined to just one voice, but interlaced between the two players. Over the course of the composition, no one player is intended to be more of a tide-generating force than the other, since there is no upper or lower part. The two contending bass clarinets twist and overlap with the elaborate tracery as they are afforded considerable registral freedom. A surge of intertwined pitches reach high tide just before the half way mark and this is followed by a somewhat freer, more agitated central section, where disjointed gestures are presented. The brief episode is not concerned so much with the alignment of the two instruments, but with exploiting the gravitational pull as they reinforce each other. In the last quarter or so of the piece, the activity significantly decreases to reveal what's left behind by the subsiding water. Peace and tranquillity return to the remote shoreline.

Extended-range instruments NOT required.

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.