Alec Roth

{{Short description|English composer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

Alec Roth (1948) is an English composer. He is best known for his collaboration with Vikram Seth to produce the opera Arion and the Dolphin in 1994 based on the myth of Arion.Jack Richard Literature 2005 p181 "The libretto was published to coincide with the first performance of an opera of the same name, with music by English composer Alec Roth, at the English National Opera in London, in 1 994. Seth returned to the novel form with An Equal Music .."

Roth studied music from 1976 as a mature student at Durham University, having previously completed a science degree at the University of Nottingham.{{cite web|last1=Whetstone|first1=David|title=Alec Roth returns to Brinkburn Music Festival|url=http://www.thejournal.co.uk/culture/music/alec-roth-returns-brinkburn-music-4457311|website=The Journal|accessdate=1 May 2018|language=en|date=29 June 2010|archive-date=26 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180626111452/http://www.thejournal.co.uk/culture/music/alec-roth-returns-brinkburn-music-4457311|url-status=dead}} He earned a doctorate from Durham in 1986.{{cite book|last1=Moyes|first1=Arthur|title=Hatfield 1846-1996|publisher=Hatfield Trust|page=316}} His thesis was entitled New composition for Javanese gamelan.{{cite thesis|last1=Alec|first1=Roth|title=New composition for Javanese gamelan.|url=http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/917/|website=etheses.dur.ac.uk|accessdate=1 May 2018|date=1986|type=Doctoral }}

Works, editions and recordings

  • California Songbook - settings of poems written by Vikram Seth when he was living on the West Coast of the US
  • Sometime I Sing - settings for solo voice and guitar, including: My Lute and I; Dark Night; 3 Night Songs; Autumnal; English Folk Songs; Lights Out. Mark Padmore, Morgan Szymanski piano. Signum Records, 2013
  • Earth and Sky (2000) - A choral work for children’s choir, percussion, and piano on an entirely monosyllabic text by Vikram Seth. A BBC Proms commission, it was first performed by the Finchley Children's Music Group, Joanna MacGregor (piano), and Ensemble Bash, conducted by Nicholas Wilks at Royal Albert Hall in London on July 18, 2000. According to Roth, “In keeping with the millennial theme, a piece presenting a vision of the future was requested.”Alec Roth: [https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_SIGCD753 Notes to CD "The Traveller & Earth and Sky"], p. 6, Hyperion Records SIGCD753. Hyperion, 2023
  • The Traveller (2008) – A piece for narrator, violin, and tenor soloists, choir, and orchestra on texts by Vikram Seth. It was the third in a series of four pieces by Roth and Seth that was jointly commissioned by the Salisbury, Chelsea, and Lichfield Festivals between 2006 and 2009.[https://signumrecords.com/product/the-traveller-earth-sky/SIGCD753 Notes to CD "The Traveller & Earth and Sky"] 2008 was the 750th anniversary year of the consecration of Salisbury Cathedral and The Traveller had its first performance there.Vikram Seth: [https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_SIGCD753 Notes to CD "The Traveller & Earth and Sky"], p. 4, Hyperion Records SIGCD753. The Traveller explores the six “Ages of Man”: unborn, child, youth, adult, old, and dead. The narrator introduces each of these six sections and an epilogue by reciting one of the seven verses of the great "Hymn to Creation" from the Rigveda. Of the music, Vikram Seth wrote, “My main reward for writing these libretti has always been the music. From the moment in the darkened cathedral that a small bell led into the first verse of the hymn to creation, I was held by the power of it.”Vikram Seth: [https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_SIGCD753 Notes to CD "The Traveller & Earth and Sky"], p. 5, Hyperion Records SIGCD753. Hyperion, 2023
  • Earthrise (2009) - A choral work inspired by the photograph of the same name taken from lunar orbit in 1968, considering the positive and negative sides of the human race's mastery and control of the world. The work was commissioned by the UK choir Ex Cathedra for the 40th anniversary of its founding, which was in the same year (2009) as the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing. It was written for 40-part choir, on the model of Thomas Tallis's famous Spem in alium.Jeffrey Skidmore and Alec Roth: Notes to CD "Shared Ground", Signum Classics SIGCD270, pp. 4-5. Earthrise also includes an example of eye music - in the central two pages of the work, the music's layout spells out the word 'ecce' (the Latin for 'behold') as the choir sings the same word.
  • A Time to Dance (2012) - An oratorio for soloists, choir and orchestra on the theme of the seasons of the year, the times of day and the stages of the human lifespan.Alec Roth: [http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68144 Notes to CD "A Time to Dance"], Hyperion Records CDA68144. Hyperion Records, 2016

References

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