Kenneth Hesketh

A little something I’ve been working on…

Score complete. Happy to have finally completed this project (though there are other in memoriam pieces of mine I'm considering to make a set...)

Orchestration now complete! Another score to tidy up...

Two works by Lili Boulanger (orch. me) coming out next month, available for sale or hire from Cecilian Music!! These lovely works, both written in 1914 (partly at the Villa Medici in 1914 before she decided to devote herself to the world war 1 war effort) reveal the very different sides to her work.

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, COMPLETE! This really has been one of the most enjoyable orchestrations I've done - merci beaucoup Mlle. Boulanger. Now to tidy it all up!

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, var. 7a begin. Perhaps able to finish completely today?? What fun this has been

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, Var. 6 finished and now var. 7. Getting close to the finish line...

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, keeping up the pace - Var. 6 begun. Very interesting to gently suggest a new pacing and formal structure underneath Mlle. Boulanger's original ('enchainez' being one of a few things open to interpretation...).

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, another instalment - Var. 5 complete. No time to take a break...

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, another instalment - Var. 4 complete. 5 half way.

Lili Boulanger - Theme and Variations, Var. 3 complete. 4 almost completed - really works for orchestra, and I wouldn't be surprised if the piece was a sketch for an orchestral work she never got to write...

Lili Boulanger - Thème et variations, Variation 2. Having a lot of fun!! Already into Var. 3. Will start to get hard soon...

Et voilà!! Completed (proofed) orchestrations of Maurice Ravel's Cinq Mélodies Populaires Grecques (2-4). Such delicate pieces and a joy to work on. Now back to Lili...

Fully annotated (at least what I need to start the first layer) with the intention of creating a slightly larger dramatic surface which will be referenced at other points in the work. Not going as far as Respighi’s Bach and Rachmaninov “orchestral interpretations” but making some additional latent detailing. All purists look away…

And so it begins - after the theme (which I’m still debating on exactly how to colour) first rough input from annotated short score - Thème à la basse

This one might take a while.

The opposite in character to her Trois Morceau...

"The beginning sketches of Morceau pour Piano: Theme and Variations are to be found in Lili Boulanger's first notebook began in 1909 while she was staying at the family house in the town of Gargenville. The sketch is not dated, however, so it is uncertain as to whether Lili actually began this piece during that year. The sketches may have been begun as a study for the Prix de Rome. After Lili actually did win the Prix de Rome and was studying in 1914 at the famed school in Rome, the Villa Medici, she worked on the piece as a compositional exercise. Her notebook at the time reads, in her writing, that the piece was finished in 1914." (Sylvia Typaldos)
#1914

C'est fini! Well, now proofing...
(move over, Manuel!)

#1904

Two down, one to go...

Hmmm....

#1904

😃👏👏👏

Up next: The Detroit Symphony Orchestra world premiere of Kiskadee conducted by Kevin John Edusei. A Toulmin commission with support from League of American Orchestras, the work will be performed by four additional US orchestras over the coming year. Kiskadee is the most recent of Arlene Sierra’s works based on bird song, following directly from Bird Symphony (2021) commissioned by Utah Symphony and Birds and Insects, Book Three (2022-3) commissioned by Barbican Centre for Sarah Cahill, piano. Link in comments for details of performance/broadcast/streaming!

Beginning of the last mvt. of my Poetic Conceits (2006, published Schott Music) for piano. I shudder to think that I originally wanted this to be a LH only study...
To be released on the paladino music label, with the truly formidable Clare Hammond being as incisive and as diamond-brilliant as ever. Northern Audio Productions' Phil Hardman capturing everything to his usual high standards.

Finally proofed and sent! Now, I think I’ll have a look at the Theme and Variations by Boulanger….

Lili and coffee…

Lili Boulanger, Cortege (Trois Morceaux) last page! This has been so much fun to do, and to create an orchestral version of Lili Boulanger's work - an incredibly accomplished orchestral writer without doubt - feels good. Thanks to Caroline Potter for suggesting these pieces to me in the first place!

Page 1 of Cortège, Lili Boulanger - mvt. 3 of Trois Morceaux (1914). Last page and a bit to do, and it’s been fun!
#1914

*D'un Jardin Clair*, Lili Boulanger (Trois morceaux), first page of score (pre-proof). Currently working on the final piece of the set, the Cortege - fun and tricky!
#1914

End of D’un Vieux Jardin (some small but supportive additions)

These Boulanger pieces really are fun (and very attractive) pieces to work on. Trying to get a page a day completed - not particularly fast, but no need to rush!
#1914

One down, two to go... (and yes, it's pre-proof...)
?

Starting a new set…

Mvt. 1 of Sites Auriculaires, Ravel (1895, so indicated to establish primacy over the Debussy composition of 1903 - Soirée dans Gr***de - in his Estampes). Ravel orchestrated the Habanera for inclusion in his Rapsodie espagnole (1908). My orchestration takes into account the original 2 piano version and Ravel’s later orchestration to produce an ‘oppositional ‘ or ‘negative’ scoring, one that seeks to invert the colours of the Ravel orchestration and stay closer to the rhythmic differences in the original. Study of the original orchestration also proved that Ravel’s instrumental choice and logic was usually flawless! Still…