William Howard Pianist © 2016
Trailer video for Sixteen Love Songs
WILLIAM HOWARD LOVE SONGS PROJECT
Sixteen Love Songs for solo piano
New Album released on 2 June 2016
Orchid Classics (ORC100056)
The pieces in this collection are all songs, some originally written for piano and others arranged. They are all expressions of love of some kind and thus share common ground with a huge body of folk and popular music. The sixteen love songs in this collection are all beautifully constructed examples of ‘art’ music, written throughout the nineteenth century or at the beginning of the twentieth by composers who had a great understanding of the expressive possibilities of the piano and the power to seduce the listener. Some of them have become massively well known through film scores or TV ads, or even become popular songs in an adapted form. The repertoire includes four Liszt song arrangements and original piano works by Dvořák, Suk, Fauré, Granados and others.
Love Song Composing Competition
Patron: Judith Weir CBE, Master of the Queen’s Music
The pieces on William Howard’s Album Sixteen Love Songs were all written between a hundred and two hundred years ago. What would their 21st century equivalents sound like? This competition aims to encourage contemporary responses to the timeless and universal genre of the love song in the form of short piano pieces.
Competition launched 1 June 2016. Closing date for applications 31 October 2016
In two categories: over 25 and under 25
Brief: To write a love song for solo piano of maximum four minutes' duration
Entries will be judged according to composers’ ability to take on the challenge of writing a memorable, individual and truly contemporary piece of music in a genre that crosses so many boundaries in music, with account also taken of skill in writing for the piano.
Prizes:
A cash prize of £750 for the winning piece (over 25s)
A cash prize of £500 for the winning piece (under 25s)
A performance by pianist William Howard of the two winning pieces will be professionally recorded, videoed and posted on YouTube.
Three shortlisted pieces in each category will be performed by William Howard in a public concert in Spring 2017
How to apply: Download Terms and Conditions
Commission Project: Sixteen Contemporary Love Songs
William Howard is commissioning a further sixteen Love Songs for performance in 2016 and 2017. Composers include David Matthews (for May 2016), Cheryl Frances-Hoad (for June 2016), Piers Hellawell, David Knotts, Pavel Zemek Novák, Howard Skempton and Judith Weir. (Full list to be confirmed). The brief to composers is to write a piece for solo piano of 3-5 minutes’ duration that can be described as a love song.
The new commissions are intended to form a companion collection to William Howard’s album of Sixteen Love Songs from the romantic era (Orchid Classics). Their emotional subject matter, strophic form and/or memorable melodies give them a very particular kind of appeal and accessibility. The new commissions do not have to be modelled on these romantic pieces; the interest of the new collection will lie in composers’ individual responses to the genre of piano love song. Through the timeless genre of the love song – one commonly associated with pop, folk and music from other cultures – it is hoped these new works will create a repertoire that draws in a wide audience for contemporary music and stimulates both awareness of the varied musical languages of living composers and discussion about their approaches to composition.
Press articles
Forthcoming events
Wednesday 1 June 2016 Hawkwood College, Near Stroud, Glos Recital of pieces from the album Sixteen Love Songs with spoken introductions Further details
Monday 6 June The Forge, Camden Town, London (7pm start) Recital of pieces from the album Sixteen Love Songs, performance of newly commissioned love songs by Cheryl Frances-Hoad (world premiere) and David Matthews