William Sweeney (composer)

William John Sweeney (born 5 January 1950) is a Scottish composer.

Biography

Born in Glasgow, he attended Knightswood Secondary School. He studied the clarinet and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1967 to 1970, and at the Royal Academy of Music from 1970 to 1973, where his teachers included Alan Hacker and Harrison Birtwistle. He went on to teach woodwind instruments, and then composition at the University of Glasgow. An early influence was the European avant-garde, particularly Karlheinz Stockhausen, though he returned to tonal composition in the mid-1970s.

His work is strongly influenced by traditional Scottish folk music; in particular, he has utilised the heterophonic style of Gaelic psalm-singing, and the piobaireachd form; he varies melodies through ornamentation, as in traditional pibroch, and in their contour; he modifies instruments' tone-colours through alternative fingerings. He has a strong regard for the music of Leos Janacek. He has also addressed the reconciliation of classical and traditional music with jazz, using improvisational techniques and sometimes combining the two idioms. He has been influenced by ancient Greek poetry, and Indian and Arab traditions in his use of ostinato and other techniques of varied repetition.

elected works

Opera

*"An Turus" (A. MacNeacail), 1997

Orchestral

*"Maqam", 1984
*"Glasgow", 1985
*"Sunset Song", 1986
*"Cumha", 1987
*"An rathad ùr": saxophone and orchestra, 1989
*"Seann Orain", 1989
*"Air, Strathspey and Reel", 1990
*"Concerto grosso": 9 clarinets, strings and timpani 1990
*"St. Blane's Hill", 1991
*"A Set for the Kingdom": string orchestra, 1991
*"October Landscapes", 1993
*"Birth/Procession", 1993
*"The Lost Mountain (A-bheinn Air Chall)": wind band, 1996
*"Sweeney Astray", 1996

Choral

*"Salm an Fhearainn', 1987
*"An Seachnadh", 1988
*"I Will Wait", 1990
*"Two Lyrics", 1992
*"Airc an dualchais", 1998

ongs

*"3 Poems from Sangschaw", 1977
*"The Heights of Macchu Picchu", 1988
*"El Pueblo", 1989
*"A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle", 1992
*"An Coilltean Ratharsair" (The Woods of Raasay), 1993
*"Seeking Wise Salmon", 1994
*"All that came in that one coracle", 1999

ources

*Francis J. Morris: 'Sweeney, William (John)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 2007-06-07), http://www.grovemusic.com/
*J. Reid-Baxter: "William Sweeney and the Voice of the People", in "Tempo", no. 188 (1994)

External links

* [http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/members/william_sweeney/ Scottish music centre: William Sweeney]