James Dillon (composer)

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James Dillon (born 29 October 1950) is a Scottish composer who is often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. Dillon studied art and design, linguistics, piano, acoustics, Indian rhythm, mathematics and computer music, but is self-taught in composition.

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Dillon was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Honours include first prize in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1978, the Kranichsteiner music prize at Darmstadt in 1982, [1] and an unprecedented five Royal Philharmonic Society composition awards, most recently for his chamber piece Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017. The recording of his chamber opera, Philomela, won the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque Lyrique 2010. [2] Dillon taught at Darmstadt from 1982 to 1992, and has been a guest lecturer and composer at various institutions around the world. He taught at the University of Minnesota School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 2007 to 2014.

Selected works

His major works include choral and vocal music, including the cycle L'évolution du vol (1993) and the opera Philomela (2004), the orchestral works helle Nacht (1987), ignis noster (1992), Via Sacra (2000), and La navette (2001), as well as a violin concerto for Thomas Zehetmair (2000) and the piano concerto Andromeda (2006) for his partner, Noriko Kawai, all showing an ease of writing for large forces. From 1982–2000, Dillon worked on the Nine Rivers cycle, a 3-hour work for voices, strings, percussion, live electronics and computer-generated tape. The epic work was first performed in full in Glasgow, November 2010. [3] Andrew Clements of The Guardian awarded it a full five stars, describing the last movement ("Oceanos") as having a "Wagnerian grandeur" and stating, "The cumulative power of [Nine Rivers] is massive, the range of musical experience vast." [4]

His considerable body of chamber music, often written expressly for a performer's individual abilities, includes solos for clarinet, drumkit, cello, flute, piccolo, guitar, violin, viola, and accordion, alongside nine string quartets (1983, 1991, 1998, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2018), the five-part Book of Elements for piano (1997–2002) and the soadie waste for piano and string quartet (2002/3). In 2013, Tom Service referred to the Book of Elements as "the most significant contribution to the pianist's repertoire since György Ligeti's Études". [5] His fourth string quartet received the 2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Chamber-Scale Composition. [6] He won the same award in 1997 (for Traumwerk, Book 1), 2002 (for The Book of Elements 5), and 2017 (for Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017). [7]

His music has been published by Edition Peters since 1982. [8]

List of compositions

Source: [8]

Orchestral

Chamber music

Choral

Vocal

Piano


Harpsichord

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References

  1. ↑ Kennedy, Michael; Rutherford-Johnson, Tim; Kennedy, Joyce (2013). The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Oxford: Oxford university Press. p. 231. ISBN   978-0-19-957854-2.
  2. ↑ "James Dillon". brahms.ircam.fr. Retrieved 14 October 2024.
  3. ↑ Jamie Munn (15 November 2010). "James Dillon – Nine Rivers". glasgowcityofmusic.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
  4. ↑ Clements, Andrew (16 November 2010). "Nine Rivers – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  5. ↑ Service, Tom (4 February 2013). "A Guide to James Dillon's music". The Guardian . Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  6. ↑ "Chamber-Scale Composition: Past Winners". Royal Philharmonic Society. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  7. ↑ "James Dillon". British Music Collection. 4 April 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  8. 1 2 "James Dillon: New Music" (PDF). Edition Peters. Retrieved 9 November 2022.

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