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Gabriel Jackson : Antiphonal Fragments
"Antiphonal Fragment alternates florid, soloistic material over a drone with a chorale in a different key; these antiphonal exchanges in turn frame a more animated section about three-quarters of the way through, with wisps of melody supported by a rapid ostinato. I felt it was important that all four players have moments in the spotlight - in the chorales the viola is on top, which changes the colour of the chords considerably - to offset the fact that there are plenty of sustained open fifths, which might be a bit boring to play...."

Biography

Gabriel Jackson was born in Bermuda in 1962. After three years as a chorister at Canterbury Cathedral he studied composition at the Royal College of Music with John Lambert, gaining his B.Mus in 1983. While at the College he was awarded the R.O.Morris Prize for Composition in 1981 and 1983 and in 1981 he also won the Theodore Holland Award. His music has been performed and broadcast throughout Europe and the USA and as far afield as Kuwait and Ho Chi Minh City. His works have been presented at many festivals including Brighton, Cheltenham, Copenhagen, Glasgow Mayfest, Huddersfield, Oxford Festival of Contemporary Music, Northern Lights (in Inverness), St. Magnus (in Orkney), ThreeTwo (in New York), Regensburg Tage Alter und Neuer Musik, the Gegenwelten Festival in Heidelberg, as well as Spitalfields and Meltdown in London. He has been commissioned and performed by, among others, New Macnaghten Concerts, the Tate Gallery, the National Centre for Early Music and ensembles Tapestry, I Fagiolini, the Brindisi String Quartet, the Delta Saxophone Quartet, the Orlando Consort, the BBC Singers, Lontano, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the New Danish Saxophone Quartet, Cappella Nova, Chameleon, The Clerks Group and the Chamber Group of Scotland.

Other works of limited technical difficulty by Gabriel Jackson

* Published by ABRSM