Kenneth Hesketh

Die hängende Figur ist Judas' (The hanging figure is Judas) was commissioned by Dr. Margitta Giera as a gift for the German sculptor Michael Langer. Hesketh's first ideas for the work came from a phot...

'Point forms' was suggested by a group of five diagrams found in Wassily Kandinsky's book Point and Line and Plane. Many explanations of the geometric shapes, including Kandinsky's use of the words 's...

Aphorisms, a short nine-minute work that is a very useful addition to the repertoire for solo clarinet.

Chorpartitur

Hesketh's work for 3-part children's choir and piano sets two texts about the start of spring by William Blake and an anonymous source. Written for conductor Simon Emery and the Liverpool Philharmonic...

The term 'Danceries' can be found in a copy of Playford's Dancing Master, an extensive collection of folk and popular tunes of the seventeenth century (and no doubt earlier). This publication was used...

Each of the 'Three Japanese Miniatures' is a new challenge to the pianist: In each piece, a different playing technique is developed in a subtle and concentrated way.

This short piano work is one of Hesketh's most successful, taken from his opera The Overcoat - it would be an ideal opener to any recital programme.

In his programme note, Hesketh describes a conceit as an extended metaphor which can govern part of or an entire poem thereby leading to a more sophisticated understanding of the subject. Within the 2...

The title of this work is a reference to the poem Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats. Important images from the poem are freely connected to suggest musical gestures and contours. Such phrases as peri...

A concert suite of three pieces for piano, clarinet and violin. The composer has created concise aural pictures: whimsical, witty and pointed, they make an appealing addition to the contemporary chamb...

Instrumentation: 1(=picc+bfl).1(=sop.rec+ca).2(I=Ebl.II=bcl).ssax - hn - perc(3): vib/2 susp.cym/2 conga/bongo+djembe/BD/2 wdbl/2 tgl/tam-t/mar/cyms/mcas/tam-t/2 timp/glsp/crot/t.bells harp - pno - ce...

In 'Danceries', by Kenneth Hesketh, the melodies themselves are a mixture of old and new. Where the old occurs it has been adapted in mood and composition and is often interspersed with completely new...

In 'Danceries', by Kenneth Hesketh, the melodies themselves are a mixture of old and new. Where the old occurs it has been adapted in mood and composition and is often interspersed with completely new...

'The Alchymist's Journal' gets its title from the book of the same name by American author Evan S. Connell. The book fictionalises a number of famous Alchemist's writings, each one developing another'...

'The Alchymist's Journal' gets its title from the book of the same name by American author Evan S. Connell. The book fictionalises a number of famous Alchemist's writings, each one developing another'...

Whirlegigg is the middle English word for a contraption that continuously spins. A great fascination with many inventors of the medieval period was to develop a perpetual motion machine constantly tur...

Whirlegigg is the middle English word for a contraption that continuously spins. A great fascination with many inventors of the medieval period was to develop a perpetual motion machine constantly tur...

A Festive Overture is bravura in nature. The outer sections are busy and colourful and frame a more expansive, but no less urgent, middle section which develops a large arching theme. The work ends as...

The formal shape of Hesketh's Elegy for brass band and percussion is built on mounting intensification of melodic lines as each section follows from another, with varying colours and intensity. It was...