Project Details:

Whilst studying for his GCSEs Ross was asked, along with two other young composers, to become involved in a local schools composition project based on the Mabinogion, a series of tales based in Welsh myth & memory, written down in the fourteenth century.

Ross composed three pieces based on the second branch of the Mabinogi - the story of Branwen, daughter of the King of Britain:

• Branwen journeys to Ireland to marry Matholwch King of Ireland
• Branwen sends a starling back over the sea to tell her father the King of Britain that her husband is mistreating her
• After a failed peace settlement, a huge battle ensues where almost everyone is killed

Music:

Writing music for this Mabinogion project was the first time, outside of composing for his GCSEs, that Ross was asked to write music and specifically the first time he wrote pieces to a set story. The pieces were performed, along with others, by the Lewis School Pengam orchestra in Blackwood Miners' Institute in the spring of 1998.

Featuring a solo clarinet with flowing piano accompaniment and written in an unusual 7/8 time, "Branwen Travels Across the Sea" tells of the lonely journey of Branwen as she leaves her home for her new life in Ireland.

"The Flight of the Bird" is a piece for the unorthodox pairing of oboe and electric guitar and is the part of the Branwen story where the starling goes to tell the King of Branwen's troubles. The music for this is currently unavailable.

"The Battle" was a partly improvised piece, with each member of the orchestra representing a different participant & receiving one or two main themes which they were free to play at any point throughout the (approximately three minute) length of the work. The players were also asked to embellish upon their themes if they wished. The piece was held together by the percussion section and the conductor. Two drummers, each representing one of the armies, played a set rhythm in a question and answer scenario with the conductor controlling the length of the piece (as this was not fixed). Due to the improvised nature of various elements of the work, no two performances were the same, although as the winners of the battle were pre-determined the entire orchestra combine in the final section to play the theme of the winning side. Only one recording has been made of this, and Ross is currently trying to locate it!