High Aldons

Duration: 6 mins

High Aldons was originally written for a competition organised by the Alwinton Summer Music Festival 2016.

The piece was one of three finalists and was first performed by Kathryn Tickell and The Side on May 7th 2016.

The original scoring was: Northumbrian Bagpipes, Accordion, Celtic Harp, and Cello.

I have since made two subsequent versions:

• For large orchestra - first performed by the BBC NOW and broadcast on Radio 3
• For small classical chamber group: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. (not yet performed)

Demo of original version:

Excerpt of orchestral version:

Programme note for orchestral version

High Aldons, a house owned by my wife's cousin, stands in splendid isolation on the top of a hill in Ayrshire. Music is always a big part of our visits - I remember pumping the old harmonium - before the mice finally got the upper hand. More recently, various musical instruments (which are to be found lying in wait in every corner) are rediscovered to add to the general mayhem - aka the sing-song.

High Aldons was originally composed for Katheryn Tickell and her band The Side - Northumbrian Pipes, Celtic Harp, Accordion, and Cello. It was first performed at the Alwinton Music Festival, 2016.

The characteristics of this orchestral version derive from the original instrumentation: a drone (G-D-G) drones on throughout, the chord buttons of the accordion are faithfully reproduced, and the music is consistently melodic and diatonic/modal. 

Unfortunately however, according to someone, all you can do with a folk tune is play it louder. Thankfully Schoenberg came to the rescue (or was it Bach?) and before I knew it, inversions, retrogrades, augmentations, and other exciting stuff was spilling out on to the page. So essentially, we have a sort of classical/folk crossover piece.