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The works prepared for this folio represent seven years of focussed compositional activity, guided largely by the desire to shrug off the heavy mantle of influences and studied techniques which envelop many young composers, and by the necessity of finding an original voice in a society which so often suggests that there is very little left to say. This search has run parallel with a need to refine (and therefore define) my own compositional technique which has been brought to bear on the increasingly simple musical language to which I am attracted. The eight works (selected from twelve written during this period) utilize a wide variety of resources (both in terms of compositional techniques and in terms of performers and ensembles) and reveal many of the feature~~ which I regard as central to my compositional thinking: energy, movement, dramatic structure and climax. These attributes help create the goal orientated and mosaic-like structures that characterize the works of this period. Other features, of a musical nature, include a preoccupation with resonance and timbre, with lyricism (especially in later pieces) and with complexities arising from simple rhythmic procedures ('aleatoric counterpoint') or from manipulating simple units of duration. As will be seen in the commentaries, the titles of the pieces play a large part in the compositional processes and qualities of each work. In most cases they are descriptive of some musical or gestural process or event which is central to the piece. Three of the (recent) compositions in the portfolio employ electro-acoustic resources and thereby reflect my growing desire to integrate technology into my work. Although I have worked (and taught) in the studio for a number of years it has taken me a while to understand how such resources best suit my compositional needs. The clearest indication of this in the folio is the electroacoustic material devised for A Slow Dance. These (often simple) sounds were created using only one resource (Csound) and borrow many of the stylistic qualities of my instrumental music. This link with the instrumental music is a two- way process. Several of my pieces draw upon proce!;ses or techniques devised in the studio and apply them as structural, timbral or textural processes in the instrumental writing. Large sections of the orchestral piece Incantation borrow technological ideas - for example labyrinth (multiple two-track tape delays), delay line effects, and 'white noise' ('highest note possible' strings imitate this). Other pieces have even attempted to simulate the electrical processes at work in the studio; electrical states in circuits such as resistance, capacitance and the effect of components such as transfc,rmers and diodes finding musical analogies in early pieces (not included here).

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The attached portfolio is a selection of works that I have composed since October 1990. The selection includes most of the concert music written in this period but excludes the incidental music that I wrote for three productions of Astra Theatre (Woyzeck, Macbeth arid Th~e White Scourge), and incidental music to The Beggar's Opera (written for the St Magnus Festival, Orkney). Two chamber works, with which I was never satisfied, are also omitted: Catch for Three for three oboes, composed for a project for children with special needs and Chimaeric Visions for free bass accordion and percussion. The group of works submitted display several common characteristics; a fascination with instrumental colour and the variety of blends and hues available within an ensemble, a concern for shaping gesture at a motivic and a dramatic level, an interest in metaphor and metonymy in language and music and the possibility of drawing a connection between both art forms, the role of composition processes and structures in determining the perception and comprehension of a work and finally the engagement of the performer in the realisation of the-'virtual' music of the score. This commentary is intended to explore these issues in relation to my work but cannot, for reasons of scope and space, be an authoritative dissertation on each subject. I am aware of the dangers of appropriating terms and concepts from disciplines outside music and have attempted to outline the points of contact in my introductory chapter.

The contents of the following portfolio represent the main core of my compositional work during the period of 1992-1998. The presented material can be divided into two halves: Pieces 1-5 were composed whilst I was a part-time student based in Durham (1992-93) and pieces 6-13 have been composed since moving to Poland (October 1993) where I spent three years studying as a post-graduate at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (1993-96). The early pieces (such as Blow-Out, Gaia and Blast!) seek to explore a high degree of musical abrasiveness and attempt to use sound in a raw and sometimes shocking way. They are highly influenced by a very direct approach to the canvas taken by the Abstract Expressionists of visual art, and in particular the work of Willem de Kooning. Blocks of highly contrasting sound materials are juxtaposed in order to intensify the sense of extremity, whilst musical gestures are often jagged, violent and angular.

This portfolio comprises seven compositions in a variety of mediums: 1. In Time Entwined, In Space Enlaced (9 players + 36 audience harmonicas); Noctilucence (mixed ensemble: 8 players); Looking for the Land that is Nowhere (theremin and string octet); On Love and Death - 5 Rossetti Songs (soprano and piano); Incandescence (solo cello); Learning Self-Modulation (violin and piano) Isolarion: Rituals of Resonance (large orchestra). Through each of these works I explore the construction and elaboration of 'structural lines' and how they function in a variety of contexts. Central to my musical thinking, they provide a coherent core around which more complex musical situations are created through layering and textural invention. On a harmonic level these works attempt to integrate the insights of 'spectral', 'serial' and 'modal' thinking into a flexible language which has the capacity for motion between distinct realms while maintaining unity. Various concepts of time are investigated through musical processes which involve different degrees of repetition and predictability, expansion and contraction. Each work is also a point of contact between musical and extra-musical ideas and the relationships between these are elucidated in my commentary. Such conceptual oppositions as motion-stasis, change-continuity, time-eternity, and unity-diversity define my attitude towards musical form and material. In turn, recognition and consideration of the creative tension between 'constructive' and 'intuitive' compositional approaches is highlighted as being fruitful.

This portfolio consists of seven compositions: 1. Antiphonies (5 players) 2. The Forest (chamber orchestra) 3. A Pretence of Wit (soprano and piano) 4. Concerto (solo violin and seven players) 5. Parallels (symphony orchestra) 6. Chants of Night (15 players) 7. Deor (baritone and 10 players). In these pieces I explore a variety of melodic styles. Some of the melodic material is very formal and regular, and involves a high degree of internal repetition, while some is irregular and quasi-improvisatory, involving only a minimal degree of internal repetition. Most of the melodic material, however, exists somewhere between these two poles. I investigate the many different roles which such melodies can play in a musical structure. These pieces espouse a structural thinking encompassing a wide variety of material, but attempt to find unity and coherence even within the most extreme of contrasts. Each of these pieces also constitutes a dialogue, more or less explicit, with other works of art and artistic ideas. This dialogue is sometimes with works of literature, particularly in the works which involve the setting of text, but is more commonly with other composers and pieces of music.

1) ballet suite 2) trombone concerto 3) B.A.C.H. 4) piano quintet 5) Greenman blue 6) mwile 7) Agag’s groove 8) springtime in Somerville 9) complex needs 10) appendix trombone concerto chamber version.

Volume One- 1. Saxophone Quartet 2. Roots II 3. Chaconne 4. Grey Blues. Volume Two- The Untimely Deathof Whatsisname: a one-act chamber opera.