Centenary Overture

About

Scottish elements have been purposefully incorporated into this work and are a feature. These include aural references to bagpipes – the opening linking into the sound of the drones and a number of the melodies feature grace notes which are common in bagpipe music (for both practical and stylistic reasons). The percussion parts use drums associated with Scottish Pipe Bands; Snare, Tenor and Bass.

The College Song has been similarly integrated: some aspects are less obvious, the opening dark melody uses an interval from the College Song to build a foreboding and stark beginning evoking a sense of the grey North Sea and storm that brought Regulus to St Andrew’s in Scotland; the fugato section juxtaposes material from the verse and the chorus against each other and the Overture concludes with an orchestrated version of the song. I was conscious of the words of the College Song and also wanted to include my own emotional response to the College’s values; Truth, Excellence, and Faith.

I was keen that the work also acknowledges the College’s past, present and future, and so the piece includes a substantial amount of new music combined with the traditional as it is from the foundations of the past that we are able to grow, develop and achieve success and excellence now and in the future.

-CA