James Dillon (composer)
James Dillon is a Scottish composer who is often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. Dillon studied art and design, linguistics, piano, acoustics, Indian rhythm, mathematics and computer music, but is self-taught in composition.
Dillon was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Honours include first prize in the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 1978, the Kranichsteiner music prize at Darmstadt in 1982, and an unprecedented five Royal Philharmonic Society composition awards, most recently for his chamber piece Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017. The recording of his chamber opera, Philomela, won the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque Lyrique 2010. Dillon taught at Darmstadt from 1982 to 1992, and has been a guest lecturer and composer at various institutions around the world. He taught at the University of Minnesota School of Music in Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 2007 to 2014.
Selected works
His major works include choral and vocal music, including the cycle L'évolution du vol and the opera Philomela, the orchestral works helle Nacht, ignis noster, Via Sacra, and La navette, as well as a violin concerto for Thomas Zehetmair and the piano concerto Andromeda for his partner, Noriko Kawai, all showing an ease of writing for large forces. From 1982–2000, Dillon worked on the Nine Rivers cycle, a 3-hour work for voices, strings, percussion, live electronics and computer-generated tape. The epic work was first performed in full in Glasgow, November 2010. Andrew Clements of The Guardian awarded it a full five stars, describing the last movement as having a "Wagnerian grandeur" and stating, "The cumulative power of is massive, the range of musical experience vast."His considerable body of chamber music, often written expressly for a performer's individual abilities, includes solos for clarinet, drumkit, cello, flute, piccolo, guitar, violin, viola, and accordion, alongside nine string quartets, the five-part Book of Elements for piano and the soadie waste for piano and string quartet. In 2013, Tom Service referred to the Book of Elements as "the most significant contribution to the pianist's repertoire since György Ligeti's Études". His fourth string quartet received the 2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for Chamber-Scale Composition. He won the same award in 1997, 2002, and 2017.
His music has been published by Edition Peters since 1982.
List of compositions
Source:Orchestral
Windows and Canopies, small orchestra, 1985Überschreiten, small orchestra, 1986Helle Nacht, large orchestra, 1986–87Introitus – Nine Rivers 8, 11/12 strings, fixed media, live electronics, 1989–90ignis noster, large orchestra, 1991–92Blitzschlag, flute, large orchestra, 1988–96Via Sacra, large orchestra, 1999Concerto, violin, large orchestra, 2000La Navette, large orchestra, 2000–01Physis I & II, large orchestra, 2004–05Andromeda, piano, large orchestra, 2005–06torii, small orchestra, 2009–10White Numbers, large orchestra, 2011The Gates, string quartet, large orchestra, 2016Circe , small orchestra, 2017Pharmakeia, small orchestra, 2020Polyptych: Mnemosyne... Acts of Memory and Mourning, large ensemble, 2022-23Chamber music
Crossing Over, clarinet, 1978Ti.re-Ti.ke-Dha, drum kit, 1979...Once upon a Time, alto flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, double bass, 1980Parjanya-Vata, cello, 1981East 11th St. NY 10003 – Nine Rivers 1, 6 percussion, 1982- String Quartet No. 1, 1983Zone , clarinet, French horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano, 1983Le Rivage, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1984Sgothan, flute, 1984Diffraction, piccolo, 1984Shrouded Mirrors, guitar, 1988Del Cuarto Elemento, violin, 1988L'Écran parfum – Nine Rivers 2, 6 violins, 3 percussion, 1988La Femme invisible – Nine Rivers 4, flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet, 2 soprano saxophones, piano, 3 percussion, 1989L'Œuvre au noir – Nine Rivers 6, bass flute, bassoon, tenor-bass trombone, bass trombone, harp, 2 cellos, double bass, 2 percussion, live electronics, 1990éileadh sguaibe – Nine Rivers 7, 2 French horns, 2 trumpets, tenor-bass trombone, bass trombone, tuba, 2 percussion, live electronics, 1990
- String Trio, violin, viola, cello, 1990–91nuée, bass clarinet, 2 percussion ad libitum, 1991
- String Quartet No. 2, 1991Siorram, viola, 1992Lumen naturæ, violin, viola, cello, 1992Vernal Showers, violin, ensemble, 1992L'Ascension, 2 percussion, 1993 Le Vent, l'arbre et le temps, double bass, 1993 Redemption, clarinet, violin, piano, 1995Traumwerk, Book 1, 2 violins, 1995–96Todesengel, clarinet, vibraphone, 1996
- String Quartet No. 3, 1998Eos, cello, 1999La Coupure – Nine Rivers 5, percussion, live electronics, film, 1989–2000Two Studies, accordion, 2001Traumwerk, Book 2, violin, harpsichord, 2001Traumwerk, Book 3, violin, piano, 2001–02The Soadie Waste, piano, string quartet, 2002–03The Magic Stick, piano, percussion, 2005Diogenes, bass clarinet, 2005
- String Quartet No. 4, 2005The Hesperides, cello, piano, 2007Theatrum: figuræ, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, 2 percussion, 2007
- String Quartet No. 5, 2003–08The Leuven Triptych, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, harp, guitar, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, live electronics, 2008–09
- String Quartet No. 6, 2010Oslo/Triptych, flute, clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, piano, percussion, 2011New York Triptych, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion, shortwave radio, fixed media, 2011–12
- String Quartet No. 7, 2013Darkroom, piccolo, bass clarinet, bassoon and alto saxophone, 2015 Tanz/Haus: triptych 2017, flute, clarinet, electric guitar, violin, cello, double bass, piano, accordion, percussion, 2017
- String Quartet No. 8, 2017
- String Quartet No. 9, 2018The Freiburg Diptych, solo violin, tape and live electronics, 2019Prospettiva de’ perdimenti trombone and piano, 2020Masque, 8 players, 2021EMBLEMATA: Carnival, flute, clarinet, percussion, keyboard, violin and cello, 2021The Acrobat, accordion, keyboard and percussion, 2022