Deri's work ranges from small-scale ensemble, acousmatic, electroacoustic, and sample based studio work produced in his home studio facilities. His music is currently being heard around the world on numerous stations and being performed by ensembles/soloists including the CNMC (Cardiff New Music Collective), a dynamic group of composers and performers who work together to produce ground-breaking contemporary music, and world-renowned euphoniumist David Childs.
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Piano, Guitar and Tape.
The Idea for this composition came about while planning a trip to New York City, I wanted to reflect the sonic landscape heard everyday on the trip by combining electronic sounds and recordings with an acoustic ensemble. A constant street noise is heard in the background taking away any, rarely heard, silence. The tape combines location recordings with electronic sounds generated within the studio using a combination of manipulative and sound generating software.
Pure Data Patches were used both in the creation of the live video and the main body of harmonic material.
The accompanying Video was shot on location in New Nork and is generated within Pd using GEM editing and synthesis patches triggered live by the soundtrack.
To view the score for Efrog Newydd please click the following link to download as a pdf. (acoustic instruments only)
Plese click on the following link to download the video Pd patch used in Efrog Newydd. Open then save page as, then delete the extension .txt to use .pd.
Hellview is written for solo double bass, and was commissioned by Ashley - John Long in 2006. The harmonic foundation is based on a sonogram taken from the narration by Charles Mingus on his track “It Was A Lonely Day In Selma Alabama” and reflects upon Mingus’ ever changing personality.
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Guitar, Piano.
Four Points is a composition that incorporates lots of different improvisational ideas and techniques. Despite this emphasis on improvisation, Four Points does include many composed sections. It was my intention to place the improvisations within a partly controlled structure, and so by providing pitches in the form of tone rows and text outlining the concept of each section, I was able to retain a certain amount of control without restricting, allowing the music to change and grow from one performance to another. As with all improvised music it is vital that the performers bring their own ideas and musicianship to the composition, and hopefully the composed and improvised sections will combine as one.
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Guitar, Piano.
Mazar is a composition based on a sonogram taken from the opening bansuri, (wooden flute), solo on the Persian folk song entitled “Ecoute le nai” - “Listen to the nai. * Nai; meaning both reed and flute.
Mazar has four sections: Fajr (dawn), Raqs (dance), Harb (war) and Layla (night). The opening “Fajr” is a flute like cadenza that requires the player to sing through the instrument while playing. The text used is taken from a well known Afghan song “Mola Mamad Djan”, that describes the period of the New Year, which is celebrated on the 21st of March. It is the opportunity to travel to Mazar-e Charif, to pray in front of the supposed grave of Ali. (Mazar: a town in the north of Afghanistan). The intensity mounts and falls to leave a droning tanpura like piano phrase, as we move into the second movement. The intensity mounts once again and we end with the sound of dying muted strings, and the clarinet producing the sound of a distant war siren. After the guitar solo we once again hear the siren but this time much closer, this leads us to the third movement. A bass clarinet signifies the start of the final movement and as it builds, falls and fragments, we are left with high cello harmonics mirroring the opening flute.
Spectral composition started in France in the 1970s and was a reaction against serial dominated techniques. Spectral composers use acoustic properties of sound itself (or sound spectra), and with the use of the computer can analyse a sound to find the individual pitches of the overtones (partials). This analysis is then used as the starting point of the compositional process.
By using the software package Audiosculpt I was able to produce a sonogram of the Bansuri solo, and use the information gathered as the basis of my harmonic material. Using Audiosculpt is similar to looking at a sound through a huge magnifying glass, so a very small complex sound can generate a huge amount of harmonic material.
Kuklos was commissioned by David Childs to provide euphoniumists with a contemporary work that incorporates 20th century techniques. Kuklos portrays a performer practicing alone in an empty hall. The piece has three sections; the first section incorporates the performer walking into the hall and taking the instrument from its case, this continues with a normal off-stage warm-up, with the emptying of valves, blowing air through the instrument, and the initial long notes. This is all intertwined with pre-recorded tape. The second section is more virtuosic and incorporates many extended techniques. The final section is the warm-down and this incorporates a Choral-like section before packing away his/her instrument, and leaving the hall. It was my intention to bring to the stage what is normally practiced off. The harmonic material of the solo euphonium is based on two harmonic series, the first being Concert Bb at 58.27 Hz, the second introduced later in the piece being Concert C at 65.4 Hz. We first hear the introduction of the harmonic series in a tape part as a distant descending scale, and as this moves to the foreground it slowly starts affecting the soloist’s harmonic material. The tape part was constructed entirely from pre-recorded euphonium that I then treated in the studio using a wide variety of manipulative software.
Rhewlifiant is a spectral composition based on the movement of ice.
Rhewlifiant starts with very small delicate passages, but as the ice begins to break the music becomes more violent, the ice finally breaks and we move inside the glacier itself with very low sounds mirrored by the percussion. The oboe then removes us from inside the glacier and the music moves towards its climax, the music then falls away and a reprise of the opening is mirrored by a bowed vibraphone, then by high strings. The piece ends with the glacier fading into the distance.
Tair Can o Gymru translates as Three Songs of Wales, the reasoning behind the title is that the harmonic material used is taken from three welsh hymns, sometimes transposed to more than one key to create more interesting tone rows. The tone rows are then used as the basis of the harmonic material. The three welsh tunes used are: Ar Hyd y Nos, Dafydd y Gareg Wen, and Syo Gan.