Array – Nigel Morgan

For solo violin.

Please note: some links on this page are in maintenance.

The Performer

Array for solo violin was commissioned by Professor Paul Robertson (former leader of the Medici Quartet) for Channel 4 TV’s Music and the Mind series. The rationale of the composition was to create a suite of pieces that demonstrated how mathematical and symbolic representations of natural and acoustical phenomena could be used as the basis for musical composition. .

New Music for Solo Performer

This is the first of a series of works for solo instrument under the title Array. These compositions seek a contemporary view of the great solo suites of the baroque era. A collection of new movement titles and types have been created for the Array series that reflect contemporary preoccupations rather than archaic dance forms found in the suites of Bach, Froberger and Couperin.

Algorithmic Composition

The music was created using the Symbolic Composer software for Macintosh designed in the late 80s by Peter Stone. Now a well established application used by composers world-wide Symbolic Composer offers the composer access to a radical collection of generators, processors and transformers able to investigate new areas within music composition. Often known as algorithmic composition, this approach to composing calls on over fifty years of experiment and investigation in harnessing the computer to the process of musical composition. Nigel Morgan’s Array was one of the first substantial concert works to be written in tandem with the Symbolic Composer software.

Paul Robertson

The Movements of Array

Array seeks to reinvent something of the baroque instrumental suite for today. Its seven movements provide a sequence of structural archetypes that reflect some of the musical preoccupations of our time as well as celebrating more traditional and perennial forms. Click on the links below to explore the different movements of

Array: