Symphony No. 12

In preparation

When Matthew Taylor played my Fifth Symphony in May 2025 with his superb St James Chamber Orchestra, he said to me immediately afterwards “you must write another symphony.” And so I did, starting almost straightaway and finishing it in October. I initially decided on a similar form to my recent Eighteenth String Quartet: two movements, fast and slow, the first a sonata allegro which half-way through turns into a molto vivace scherzo, which in the symphony also has a slower trio. There is also a slower coda, full of quiet woodwind solos and moving from a pure C major to an equally pure G major.  

     The second movement begins with a reflective Adagio dominated by the strings, but unlike the Quartet it changes half-way into an energetic and often exuberant waltz. I have written several waltzes after reading an observation by my friend the late Bayan Northcott that composers today rarely write in ¾ time. My waltz begins with a false start in D major but its real beginning is in C major, the key in which the symphony is to end, though not before it has explored all the twelve major keys of the chromatic scale. Toward the end the Adagio makes a brief reappearance, and just before the end the strings play the opening motif of the symphony in its initial A major, and the last two chords of the piece are A major and C major.

     My recent works are more grounded in tonality than much of my earlier music, but I don’t feel at all inhibited by this. I think that the use of tonality should not be simplistic, as it has been with some composers, notably the minimalists. I also think that, despite the difficult times we live in, music can still aspire to moments of exuberance and happiness. My Twelfth Symphony is dedicated to Matthew Taylor, a fine symphonist himself, and the St James Chamber Orchestra.

DM