Joe Stollery

This concerto was commissioned by Richard Paton for the Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra, who gave its world premiere (20 June 2015) in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, conducted by Chris Gray and with Mark Boyd as soloist.

The aforementioned commission was given with a recommendation that I incorporate Scottish musical tropes into the piece. The three movements that make up the concerto are rhythmically correspondent to various Scottish dances, but the whole work is also thematically developed from an original ‘pibroch’, which is introduced at the start of the first movement, and fragments of it crop up later in different variations. The whole work begins with a Bb drone, again similar to bagpipe music, and the main melody is limited to a diatonic 9-note range. There are also quotations of Scottish melodies at several points, including ‘The Braes of Bushby’ in the second movement, and ‘The White Cockade’ in the third movement.

PERFORMANCES:

Première: 20 June 2015 - Bad Kreuznach, Germany - Mark Boyd (trombone), Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra (dir. Chris Gray)

22 June 2015 - The Marble Hall, Bad Ems, Germany - Mark Boyd (trombone), Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra (dir. Chris Gray)

24 June 2015 - Mackie Academy, Stonehaven, Scotland - Mark Boyd (trombone), Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra (dir. Chris Gray)