Philip Venables

Tag: My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations

  • Profile by Tayyab Amin for hcmf//

    Profile by Tayyab Amin for hcmf//

    I was very fortunate to be featured this year at hcmf// across three concerts of my most recent works: Answer Machine Tape, 1987, performed and commissioned by Zubin Kanga; Numbers 81–100, performed and commissioned by Lovemusic; and My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, performed and commissioned by Andreas Borregaard. As part of that focus, writer Tayyab Amin wrote a lovely profile for the programme book, which is copied below. Please contact Tayyab here if you would like to license this profile for other uses. The article on the hcmf// website can be seen here.


    Philip Venables’ personal, political storytelling

    Among the most fascinating of contemporary British composers is Philip Venables, whose flair for the theatrical is matched by a subversive sleight of hand that comes inherent to all natural storytellers. Recurrent themes across their works include politics, sexuality, gender and violence – motifs that do of course intertwine, though more broadly share the quality of relating to whether one lives alongside or against the grain of our society. There are all sorts of tales Venables opts to tell, from maternal memoirs and posthumously performed plays to true-story accounts of runaway teens and the vengeful reflections of world-class boxing athletes. They come in all manner of guises too: operas for adults or for children, site-specific soundworks, concertos and pieces of spoken word. Even shouted word, in some cases.

    Based between Berlin and London, Venables nurtured their career as a composer and collaborative artist for several years before their breakthrough operatic adaptation of late playwright Sarah Kane’s final work, 4.48 Psychosis. Since then, Venables has established a trend of preferred elements to focus on in their compositions: working from texts as source material, immersing audiences in a multi-dimensional experiences, and inflicting or at least channelling a certain sense of violence, for example through how abrupt a work’s components are cut together, interrupting or compounding each other. There’s an intent behind such rhythmic intensity, one that Venables admits to calculating formulae for, transposing compositions from numerical spreadsheets onto musical scores.

    One text Venables is compelled to return to is Simon Howard’s Numbers, first in 2011 and as recent as 2021. These poems traverse seemingly vivid memories that devolve into onomatopoeic fervour, streams that wander to the brink and back again. Venables has described them as ‘unfussy, evocative, violent and visceral’ – attributes they look for in music too. These qualities are evident in the setting of these poems of course. Take Numbers 91-95, where the speaker’s account is interrupted by their own sudden outburst as harp, woodblock and flute resist interjecting and lucidity slips from view. The text and music aren’t driven by narrative, but their colour and imagery, the political brutality and fractured hardness of them speaks volumes. We’ll see a comprehensive demonstration of the dynamism of verbal expression as Strasbourg-based new music collective lovemusic perform a selection of works from the Numbers series as part of their programme at hcmf// 2022.

    Venables’ compositions aren’t always written for typical chamber instrumentation – there’s often a multimedia element to their works. Also appearing at this year’s festival is the recent solo piece Answer Machine Tape, 1987. Teaming up with frequent collaborator, dramatist Ted Huffman, as well as software programmer Simon Hendry and innovative pianist Zubin Kanga, Venables devised a work for piano where keystrokes are detected and input to software through MIDI detection and MaxMSP. This transforms pianist into transcriber and annotator, developing an archival, perhaps parasocial storytelling relationship with recorded and projected source material: the answer machine tapes of New York visual artist and activist David Wojnarowicz. These recordings capture the last days of Wojnarowicz’s former lover and close friend, photographer Peter Hujar, where the banal snippets of everyday life in a setting of artistic vibrancy and gay expression are loomed over by the onset AIDS crisis. Contrast to the technologically mediated interfacing at the crux of this work, Venables presents unflinching intimacy as both invitation and challenge.

    Much like Answer Machine Tape, 1987, the accordion piece Andreas Borregaard is due to perform at hcmf// takes verbatim audio material and negotiates the levels of their directness with their conversational quality. Yet in this composition, titled My favourite piece is the Goldberg Variations, interviews come from the personal life of Borregaard’s mother Susanne to more actively explore the accordionist as storyteller.

    As long as there are stories to be told, Venables will discern new ways to share them in whoever’s voice they can – even if it takes a full reset on creating abstract music following a stint composing for opera. Their role is to challenge both the politic of the status quo and our intrusive storytelling intuit in one fell swoop.

  • Small portrait at Time of Music Festival

    Small portrait at Time of Music Festival

    Answer Machine Tape, 1987 — a new work for piano and multimedia — has its first performance on 8th July 2022 at Time of Music Festival (Musiikin Aika) in Viitasaari, Finland, given by Zubin Kanga. The festival is programming a small feature on my work, including performances of Illusions and My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations.

    The piece is made in collaboration with Zubin and programmer Simon Hendry, based on a concept developed in collaboration with Ted Huffman. It focuses on New York visual artist David Wojnarowicz and the turbulent period leading up to the death Peter Hujar, his close friend and fellow artist, from AIDS-related illness in 1987. The focal point of the work is Wojnarowicz’s answering machine tape from the days leading up to Hujar’s death, featuring calls from Hujar, other artists, friends and lovers. Using new sensor technology from the Augmented Instruments Lab, the piano is turned into a huge typewriter to transcribe, comment on and illuminate the messages. The result is, I hope, a poignant and intimate exploration of that period of the New York art scene, queer history and the AIDS crisis.

    Answer Machine Tape, 1987 was commissioned by Zubin Kanga with the support of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship and Royal Holloway, University of London, in conjunction with Time of Music, November Music, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Festival d’Automne à Paris. I also received support for research, workshops and software development from the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media within the framework of Neustart Kultur.

    Further performances of Answer Machine Tape, 1987 will be happening at the co-commissioning festivals later in 2022.

  • ‘My Favourite Piece…’ at Transit Festival, Leuven

    ‘My Favourite Piece…’ at Transit Festival, Leuven

    Andreas Borregaard will perform My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations at the Transit Festival in Leuven. The strapline of the festival is “The Sound of Tomorrow”. Ted Huffman and I made this piece with Andreas during the lockdown, and it has a string of performances this year in Norway, Denmark, France and Belgium. The piece is based on interviews made with Andreas’ mother. Andreas will perform it alongside Asthma by Simon Steen-Andersen.

    The performance will be at 2pm at STUK, Naamsestraat 96, 3000 Leuven. Tickets can be bought here.

  • Portrait concerts at Musica Festival and Festival d’Automne announced

    Portrait concerts at Musica Festival and Festival d’Automne announced

    Musica Festival in Strasbourg has just announced its 2021 programme, and I’m delighted to say there will be a portrait concert of my work in the festival on 1st October. The concert will be performed by Lovemusic, with guest artists Grace Durham (mezzo-soprano), Andreas Borregaard (accordion) and Romain Pageard as the host of the evening. The show is called Talking Music, and will feature Klaviertrio im Geiste, Illusions, My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations and Numbers 91—95 alongside the world premiere of two new settings of Simon Howard’s Numbers: Numbers 81—85 and Numbers 96—100. These new pieces have been commissioned by Musica Festival, Festival d’Automne in Paris, and Lovemusic. Oscar Lozano Pérez will be making video projections and mise-en-espace for the show. Talking Music will be repeated in Paris on 26th October in Theatre de la Ville / Espace Cardin, as part of a larger feature on my work in the Festival d’Automne.

    More information about the concert in Strasbourg is here.

    More information about the concert in Paris is here.

  • My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations

    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations

    Video of the world premiere (live performance), KLANG Festival, Konzertkirken, Copenhagen, 30th May 2021. Video by Klavs Kehlet Hansen, sound by Mikael Tobias.

    Programme Note

    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations is based on interviews with Susanne Borregaard (mother of accordionist Andreas Borregaard) conducted during the summer lockdown of 2020. 

    Andreas approached me about writing a piece involving extended performativity beyond simply playing the accordion. I was drawn to the idea of the accordionist as storyteller, almost in the troubadour sense. We met with writer Ted Huffman in Berlin to speak about Andreas’ own life and work, which in turn led to interviews with his mother over Skype. 

    My work with Ted often uses verbatim text and this piece continues our exploration of queer histories. From this interview material, we formed twelve snapshots of a life over seven decades. 

    The piece is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution. 

    Music Video, released online by Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, on 20th March 2021 (in lieu of the live premiere, due to Covid-19). Video by Pierre Martin, sound by Tommy Vestergaard. (Music Video Supported by Borealis Festival and Augustinus Fonden)

    Details

    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations was commissioned by Andreas Borregaard as part of his research project Just Do It, with funds provided by the Norwegian Academy of Music.

    My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations is dedicated to Susanne Borregaard with great appreciation for her contribution. 

    Published by Ricordi Musikverlag GmbH

    Duration: 23 minutes

    Set-up: Solo accordion who also speaks and sings. Amplification of the accordion and the voice is usually required.

    Text: Ted Huffman, after interviews with Susanne Borregaard.

    Text is in English, with French and German versions also given in the score.

    The first performance of My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations was scheduled to be given at Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway, on 20th March 2021.  However, the live concert was cancelled due to Covid, and instead the piece was recorded (audio) by Andreas Borregaard and Tommy Kamp Vestergaard (sound engineer / producer), set to a film made by Pierre Martin, and released online in lieu of the concert.  

    The first live performance of the piece was at KLANG Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark, on 30th May 2021, given by Andreas Borregaard.  

    Buy score

    Press

    In Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, Borregaard tells his mother’s life story, while faded home videos flicker in the background and his dramatic accordion playing at the same time counteracts and supports the narrative. It is the accordion that makes a banality like “I felt better with him around / he was always holding my hand” sound like a hard-earned life experience, and which highlights the crushing melancholy in the children’s song “The mountain in the forest”. With few, well-chosen means, Borregaard conveys in the most beautiful way a tale of love and loss, of duality and loneliness. It is an exquisite sensitization of everyday life.” — Seismograf.org (machine translated from Danish)

    “My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, an intimate and moving work in which accordionist Andreas Borregaard accompanies the story of his mother, which he declaims, full of emotion: in 12 stations that are so many snapshots of existence, he takes us into the life of this woman within a touching, humanist and queer parable, which seems to focus the composer’s intention to explore certain pathologies from which our societies suffer.” — DNA Magazine, France (machine translated from French)

    “Created on a text by Ted Huffman around the story of the accordionist’s parents, told during the twenty minutes he plays the piece, My Favorite Piece is the Goldberg Variations finds in Andreas Borregaard an exceptional artist, capable of drawing tears in a Shostakovich-like lamento, and then at the appearance of the theme of the Bach variations.” — AltaMusica (machine translated from French)


    Performances of My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations

    • Monday, 01 September 2025, 20:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (semi-staged with Kind Of Opera)
      Hotel Cecil Niels Hemmingsens Gade 10 1153 Copenhagen K Denmark

      Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman. Directed by Trine Heide. Tickets: https://www.billetlugen.dk/noapp/event/20187902/?affiliate=HC9

    • Thursday, 30 October 2025, 12:45
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations at Sound Festival
      Cowdray Hall Aberdeen Art Gallery Schoolhill Aberdeen AB10 1FQ Scotland

      Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman. Tickets: https://sound-scotland.co.uk/

    • Saturday, 20 March 2021, 19:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (world premiere, film version)
      Borealis Festival, Bergen, Norway

      performed and commissioned by Andreas Borregaard.
      Film by Pierre Martin
      Text by Ted Huffman

    • Sunday, 30 May 2021, 18:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations (world premiere, live performance)
      Klang Festival, Esromgade 15, 2200 København N Denmark

      Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman

    • Wednesday, 08 September 2021, 18:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations
      SPOR Festival, Aarhus, Denmark

      Performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

    • Friday, 01 October 2021, 18:00
      Talking Music: a portrait of Philip Venables, at Musica Festival
      Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, 1 Place Dauphine, 67000 Strasbourg, France.

      A concert mixed with a talk show, about the music of Philip Venables. Conceived and performed by Collective Lovemusic, featuring guest artists Andreas Borregaard, Grace Durham and Romain Pageard.
      Venables: Klaviertrio im Geiste; My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations; Numbers 81–85, Numbers 91–95, Numbers 96–100; Illusions. Rzewski: Coming Together. A co-production with Festival d’Automne à Paris, Musica Festival and Lovemusic.

    • Tuesday, 26 October 2021, 18:00
      Talking Music: a portrait of Philip Venables in the Festival d'Automne à Paris
      Espace Pierre Cardin 1 Avenue Gabriel, 75008 Paris, France

      A concert mixed with a talk show, about the music of Philip Venables. Conceived and performed by Collective Lovemusic, featuring guest artists Andreas Borregaard, Grace Durham and Romain Pageard.
      Venables: Klaviertrio im Geiste; My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations; Numbers 81–85, Numbers 91–95, Numbers 96–100; Illusions. Rzewski: Coming Together. A co-production with Festival d’Automne à Paris, Musica Festival and Lovemusic.

    • Saturday, 30 April 2022, 18:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, in the Only Connect Festival
      Munch Museum Tøyengata 53 0578 Oslo Norway

      performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman. http://onlyconnect.no/

    • Sunday, 20 November 2022, 22:30
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, at HCMF
      Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

      performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

    • Friday, 02 December 2022, 18:30
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo.
      Norwegian Academy of Music, Slemdalsveien 11, 0369 Oslo, Norway

      performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

    • Tuesday, 02 July 2024, 19:30
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, at Aarhus Academy
      Institut for (X) Skovgaardsgade 5C 8000 Aarhus C Danmark

      performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman.

    • Friday, 04 April 2025, 13:00
      My Favourite Piece is the Goldberg Variations, at New Music Dublin
      National Concert Hall, Earlsfort Terrace, Saint Kevin's, Dublin, D02 N527, Ireland

      performed by Andreas Borregaard. Text by Ted Huffman. Tickets: https://www.newmusicdublin.ie


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