- LIST OF WORKS -
Matthew Lomax
COMPOSER // GUITARIST // ARTIST
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- LIST OF WORKS -
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
(2019)
Spoken-word Poet and Chamber Ensemble
(2019)
Guitar and Viola
(2019)
ELECTROACOUSTIC
(2019)
Cello and Electronics
(2018)
Bass Clarinet, Bass Guitar and Electronics
(2018)
Non-Place - Royal College of Music
LARGE ENSEMBLE
VOCAL
Clarinet, Piano, Violin and Cello
Was Received
(2018)
String Quartet and Harp
(2018)
Voice and Live Electronics
Slipline Perspective
(2018)
Alto Saxophone and Electronics
(2017)
(2019)
Chamber Orchestra
(2019)
Large Ensemble and Electronics
(2020)
Mixed Vocal Ensemble
(2019)
Four Voices
Mixed Chamber Ensemble
(2018)
Bass Clarinet, Bass Guitar and Electronics
(2017)
Two Classical Guitars and Electronics
(2016)
Tape Track for Typewriter and Glass Bottles
SOLO
(2019)
Cello and Electronics
(2019)
Spoken-word Poet and Chamber Ensemble
(2017)
(2018)
Soprano, Harp and Percussion
For Five Cellos
Voice and Live Electronics
MULTIMEDIA
(2016)
Mixed Chamber Ensemble
(2020)
Audiovisual Installation
Large Ensemble and Electronics
(2019)
LARGE ENSEMBLE
Insectivorous
(2019)
Chamber Orchestra
Insectivorous grew from a fascination with the movement of carnivorous plants and the mechanisms that they have developed to capture and break down prey.
With each section of the piece following different stages of the plants' feeding processes, the ensemble itself becomes an organism that treats musical material like prey - dissolving, tearing and transferring it across different instrumental groups.
i. Acid Snap (0'00'')
ii. Tissue Cage (4'59'')
iii. Wilt (7'25'')
Premiere Conductors Podium Concert - Royal College of Music
Conducted by Vicente Chavarría
2.2.2.2 - 2.2.0.0 - Str. 4.2.2.1
Passer--By
(2019)
Large Ensemble and Electronics
'Passer-by' was originally conceived as part of 'non-place', a four movement electroacoustic ballet by Matthew Lomax and Connor D'Netto, inspired by the writings of anthropologist Marc Auge. Non-place explores and examines experiences of familiar spaces, identity, disconnection and anonymity in modern society. Rich, intense, familiar yet surreal, non-place holds an otherworldly looking glass to the commonplace spaces of everyday life.
The final movement, Passer-by, is a work for chamber orchestra and tape delving into our varying interactions with urban spaces and strangers. It addresses our relationships with the everyday spaces of life, how they can adapt, tracing over the same ground and yet influenced by new experiences that pass in between.
Co-composed with Connor D'Netto
Premiere
Performance
Great Exhibitionist Concert Series - Royal College of Music
Cats Cradle Collective
1.1.1(bcl).1 - 1.1.1.0 - perc. - piano - 2 vln. 1 vla. 1 vlc. 1 cb.
Choreography
Leanne King and Bim Malcomson
Dance
Central School of Ballet
CHAMBER ENSEMBLE
Anthony's Keys
(2019)
Spoken-word Poet and Chamber Ensemble
Words by spoken-word artist George Thomas Miaris.
A musical response to the archive collection of Anthony Burgess - a collection of keys that were left behind... each key has bundled up in it memories of a time, place and relationships.
The sound-world of the piece merges ragged breathing, brittle metallic textures and fragile compacted melodies that compliment and fight against Miaris' poetry; exploring the hazy recollections of an ex-lover.
Commissioned by the No Dice Collective.
Performance
No Dice Collective
Premiere 'The Things He Left Behind' - International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester
Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, String Quartet
Ecdysis
(2019)
Prepared Guitar and Viola
- Ecdysis - 'The process of shedding or casting off'
Inspired by this process, Ecdysis is a dialogue between two characters that are slowly distancing and separating themselves from each other over the course of the piece.
The muted scraping, tapping and buzzing timbres of the guitar and viola dramatically shift between rapid movement and moments of stasis, mirroring the animals that undergo the process of ecdysis.
Performance
Guitar
Viola
Eirian Lewis
Nathanael Gubler
Premiere 'Contemporary Music in Action'
Royal College of Music, London
Ephemera
(2019)
Bb Clarinet, Piano, Violin Cello
Performance
Clarinet
Piano
Violin
Cello
Robbie Marrs
Joe Howson
Carolina Blaskovich
Jaclyn Rosenfeld
Premiere 'Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the end of time' concert
Royal College of Music, London
The work Ephemera is a single moment in time, all of the depth and shadow found in a glimpse. The work engages with the concepts of eternity and the dissolution of time found in Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps by breaking down the final moment of the piece and reimagining all the movement and detail held within it.
Mesospherics
(2018)
Chamber Ensemble
Tracing the movement of volcanic ash from inside the Earth to the outer edges of the atmosphere, specifically on the constant fluctuation of density and form, Mesospherics interweaves and merges musical material to create a mass of sound similar to a rising plume of smoke.
Performance
Pasha Mansurov
Alex Roberts
Juan Antonio Garcia Illana
Petur Jonasson
Jenny Alexander
Colin Alexander
Premiere 'Composer's Studio Concert' - Royal College of Music
Flute
Bass Clarinet
Tenor Saxophone
Guitar
Viola
Cello
How The Great News Was Received
(2018)
String Quartet and Harp
In 2018, the Royal College of Music marked two important centenaries: 100 years since the end of the First World War and 100 years since the death of Sir Hubert Parry. A composer, teacher and historian, Parry was Director of the Royal College of Music from 1895 until his death in October 1918, one month before the WW1 armistice.
Inspired by the sounds of radio static and a newspaper clipping from 11 November 1918, this piece is a personal exploration of how we comprehend past events of such global impact, and how we can only gleam fragments through newspapers, photos and archive audio from that time.
Premiere
Performance
Passing Youth Concert - Royal College of Music
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Violoncello
Harp
Christopher Cohen
Maren Bosma
Morven Lapthorn-Graham
Erlend Vetsby
Henriette Poos
Conducted by
Christopher McMullen-Laird
Drowning in the Din...
(2018)
Bass Clarinet, Electric Bass Guitar and Electronics
Written in response to John Constable's Seascape Study: Boat and Storm Sky, 20 July 1828; as part of the Royal Academy of Arts' 'In Tune with the RA Collection'.
'Drowning In The Din...' responds to how Constable's coastal scene balances areas of the naked canvas with raw, animated brushstrokes.
The exposed framework of the painting is reflected in the subtle clicks, breathes, shakes and buzzes that reverberate from the frameworks of the bass clarinet and bass guitar; and the vibrant gesture of the brushstrokes influenced the live electronics which consist of brushstroke recordings, triggered and manipulated in response to how the two instruments move and interact.
Performance
Jonathan Leeds
Matthew Lomax
Premiere 'In Tune with the RA Collection' - Royal Academy of Arts
Bass Clarinet
Bass Guitar
Five Cellos
Lotus Wire is inspired by the details of a lotus flower petal, tracing its contours through the movement in the cellos' material and reflecting changing perspectives of the flower through the contrasting timbres that structure the piece.
Lotus Wire
(2017)
Performance
Cameron Smith
Elīze Šēra
Erlend Vestby
Nicola Siagri
Javier Gonzalez Navarro
Premiere 'Cross Conservatoire Composers Concert'
Schott Music London
Cello
Cello
Cello
Cello
Cello
Chamber Ensemble
Sturnidae is a piece inspired by the starling, exploring the bird’s habits of mimicry and murmuration through colour and motion.
Sturnidae
(2016)
Performance
George Irwin
Rebecca McIlroy
Lizzie BG
Sarah Keirle
Mabon Jones
Dominic Skingle
Malcolm Goodare
Conducted by Tomos Gwyn
Piano
Harp
Percussion
Violin 1
Violin 2
Viola
Cello
Premiere Martin Harris Centre, Manchester
ELECTROACOUSTIC
Antithesis Space
(2019)
Cello and Electronics
Inspired by anthropologist Marc Auge’s idea of ‘Non-Place’ , this piece explores states of disconnection and anonymity in modern, everyday spaces and our relationship with the strangers that traverse it around us.
An introspective reflection on the individual within the crowd, Antithesis Space shifts between hard textural cuts and moments that blur the line between cello and the voices of the electronics, exploring how quickly we can lose our sense of self as we traverse through non-places.
Performance
Cello Lily Hope
Electronics Matthew Lomax
Premiere 'Non-place Ballet' - Great Exhibitionist Series, Royal College of Music
FREE/FALLING
(2018)
Voice and Electronics
FREE/FALLING explores the concept of remembering and mis-remembering, allowing the ordering of the poem to tranform and fragment into isolated thoughts or sounds which propel the piece in multiple directions.
The branching for of FREE/FALLING reflects upon the unpredictable and often fluid nature of memories that remain unclear.
The text is a collected poem from George E Lomax, my grandfather, spurred by the recollection and mis-recollection of a fall.
Performance
Hugo Herman-Wilson (2018)
António Sa Dantas (2018)
Matthew Lomax
Premiere 'Contemporary Music of Action' - Royal College of Music
Voice
Electronics
B|O|R|D|E|R|S
(2017)
Two Classical Guitars and Fixed Electronics
Inspired by Alejandro Cartagena's series '', as part of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2017.
The most striking element of the photographs are the two silhouetted figures pressing their hands against the US/Mexico border fence. The shadows across the mother and daughter mute identifiable characteristics of form and yet draw attention to the light across the hands, stressing the images focus on humanity.
The electronics draw from the texture and colours of the fence's rusted appearance, reflected in the guitars through nails scratching against the strings to blur the distinction between the two sound sources.
Eirian Lewis
Hope Cramsie
Matthew Lomax
Premiere National Portrait Gallery
Guitar
Guitar
Electronics
Performance
Fabrication
(2016)
Tape Piece for Typewriter and Glass Bottles
A short study in capturing and dramatising the movement of everyday actions, focusing in on the resonances of the found objects.
Premiere Martin Harris Centre, Manchester
VOCAL
Shaded Glass
(2019)
Four Singers
shades
frayed
quakes
greyed
parsed
glass
past
backs
stained
stone
fade
rocks
raw
Performance
Nicole Burke
Ffion Edwards
Min Kim
Serapina Park
Soprano
Soprano
Soprano
Soprano
Premiere 'Contemporary Music In Action' - Royal College of Music
Mixed Vocal Ensemble
Inspired by an excerpt of George Miaris' poem Child Daze:
When your father was your hero
When your mother was your queen
When the world was waking wonder
Every careful step a dream
Child Daze
(2020)
Performance
Julia Bokunewicz
Morayo Akande
Jess Huetteman
Chelsea Sardoni
Kristina Boerger
Tabes Bridges
Joseph Sandler
Soprano
Soprano
Soprano
Mezzo
Mezzo Baritone
Baritone
Premiere zFestival 2020 summer festival, Online
Inspired by an excerpt of Mina Loy's poem Lunar Baedeker:
Stellectric signs
“Wing shows on Starway”
“Zodiac carrousel”
Cyclones
of ecstatic dust
and ashes whirl
crusaders
from hallucinatory citadels
of shattered glass
into evacuate craters
A flock of dreams
browse on Necropolis
Premiere Martin Harris Centre, Manchester
Soprano
Harp
Percussion
Sophie Price
Rebecca McIlroy
Lizzie BG
Performance
(2017)
Lunar Baedeker
Soprano, Harp and Percussion