“On Friday I heard some lively new pieces, superbly played. ... Philip Venables’s Fight Music, evoking a community beating up an outsider (the poor whimpering cello) was brutally effective)”
Richard Morrison – The Times
Fight music (2009)
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Duration: c. 5 minutes
8 players: solo cello + fl, cl, tpt, tbn, pf, drum kit, bass
Fight music was commissioned by Endymion for their 30th Birthday Sound Census festival in June 2009. It was premiered by them, conducted by Quentin Poole and with Jane Salmon as the solo cellist, on 5th June 2009 at Kings Place concert hall, London. It was recorded for NMC Recordings and will be released in March 2010.
Listeners’ Note
Fight music is a scene from a chamber opera that I’m working on called Les Bâtisseurs D’Empire (The Empire Builders), adapted from the Boris Vian play of the same name. The opera is a violent, surreal comment on war and colonisation. This music accompanies a fight scene where members of the family and their maid savagely beat a bandaged mysterious figure lurking in the corner while discussing what they’ll eat for dinner. It’s absurdist cartoon horror.