John Blackwood McEwen

Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868–1948) was a Scottish classical composer. He is best known for orcherstral works on his native Galloway, such as ‘’A Solway Symphony’’ (1909), ‘’Hills o'Heather’’ and ‘’Where the Wild Thyme Blows’’ (1918). His ‘’Three Border Ballads’’ include Grey Galloway (1908), The Demon Lover (1906/7) and Coronach (1906). Other works include "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity", a setting of The Hymn from Milton's Ode of the same title.

Biography

His main influences appear to be Scottish folk music, Jean Sibelius and Richard Wagner, for example, in the third movement of ‘’A Solway Symphony’’ which shows a very strong influence from ‘’Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt’’. Most of his music is not so derivative. He seems to have been a sort of predecessor of the Scottish Renaissance in trying to use Scottish folk culture, but in a non-sentimental manner.

Thanks to a couple of successful recordings of his works in the early 1990s, often performed by Moray Welsh, he has become known to a new generation of listeners. More recently, the Chilingirian Quartet has recorded ten of Blackwood's seventeen string quartets, written over a fifty-year period. Several late string trios remain unrecorded.

String Quartet/Symphony in A minor

Sir John Blackwood McEwen wrote many pieces of music which were left unplayed and neglected and to this day lie in archives untouched for years. His symphony in A minor, when taken to publishers was rejected in its original arrangement with him being told it may receive better press as a string quartet. He obliged to this suggestion and revised it for a string quartet as suggested and it became somewhat well known and successful. Since its composition it was never played as a symphony.

However, Dr Alasdair Mitchell, conductor and cellist recently revived the piece in its symphonic form. Over a residential course he prepared it with the Edinburgh Secondary Schools' Orchestra and it premiered on Saturday the 16th of August 2008 at the Edinburgh Central Halls.

External links

* Digitised scores of his musical works can be viewed through the [http://ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/collections/five-centuries.htm Five Centuries of Scottish Music] collection hosted by [http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/index.htm AHDS Performing Arts]

References