McCabe-Canzona(P)

This work was commissioned for the 1971 Farnham Festival, for performance by the orchestra of Frensham Heights School conducted by Bryan Northcott. It is a large work that uses orchestration as the main intellectual driving force. (Parts only)

Number of Players: 12
Difficulty: Grade 5
Instrumentation:
Player I: Flute
Player II: Oboe
Player II: Bb Clarinet
Player VI: Bb Clarinet
Player V: Bassoon
Player VI: Horn F
Player VII: Bb Trumpet
Player VIII: Bb Trumpet
Player IX: Trombone
Player X: Timpani
Player XI: Percussion
Player XII: Percussion

If one wished to cite what one meant by an all-round musician, the name of John McCabe would be the first of contemporary examples to present itself. Composer of works in many forms (except the large-scale opera), virtuoso pianist, writer, administrator (seven years as director of the London College of Music), organiser of fellow-composers, these add up to McCabe, born in Huyton, Liverpool, in 1939 and trained as a musician at Manchester University and the "old" Royal Manchester College of Music which he entered in 1960 as a piano pupil of the late and great Gordon Green and a composition student with Thomas B. Pitfield.