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James Harrsion : Stillicide
"The piano trio Stillicide is in two short movements, one slow, one moderately fast, lasting three minutes in total. It grew from my speculation as to the possible definition of the word "stillicide", which I first came across in December 1999, as well as my fascination with its actual definition. The word itself seemed to me gloriously peculiar;could it refer to 'death by non-motion', 'the motion of a drop of water', or something else entirely? The modest technical demands include limited shifting for the string players and the maintaining of a constant tempo though various changes of metre. A flute may be substituted for the violin."

Biography

Jim Harrison (b. 1967) gained BMus and MMus degrees from the University of Birmingham and recently submitted for PhD in Compositions at the University of London. He studied with Vic Hoyland, John Woolrich, Jonathan Harvey and Simon Holt and his works have been performed in London, Birmingham, Bath, Dartington, Cardiff, Sheffield, Nottingham, Newark and Vilnius. He has also written music for the theatre, film and television. His "Loch Ness Monster's Song" won the 199 Songs from the Underground competition and was performed at the Wigmore Hall. Chaconne? was short-listed by spnm for the 1999-2000 season as was Dark Time the following year. Jim was a lecturer at the Welsh College of Music and Drama from 1991-1997 and also taught at the University of Birmingham and Royal Holloway College. He has been a tutor for East London Late Starters Orchestra (ELLSO) and for Contemporary Music Making for Amateurs (COMA), with three works commissioned from him to date. The most recent of these, Six Preludes, was premiered in Newark last October by COMA's East Midlands ensemble with Orchestra of St John's players, conducted by John Lubbock, and has received three subsequent performances.

Other works of limited technical difficulty by James Harrison

More information about James Harrison is available from Bmic