Matthew Rowan - Composer

2006 --
for mezzo-soprano,
cor anglais, bass clarinet,
piano, viola

Photo copyright © 2006 Helen Rowan.

The title of this composition represents not only the person who the piece was written in memory of, but also the passion for motorsports this person had; the title is the personalised number plate of the last car my father owned before his death in September 2006. A7 WJR has three main elements: a structure suggested by the sounds of a racing car; a harmonic progression from a rhythm and blues song; and a cryptic text derived from car makes and models. The structure of A7 WJR was conceived by listening to the engine sounds of a 1950’s Formula One racing car travelling at high speeds and then sketching these sounds as if depicted on a line graph. This exercise produced sets of shorts gestures that were then interpreted in the composition, with each set of gestures being allocated one chord. The harmony for A7 WJR was adapted from Carl Verheyen’s Dusk (Two Views of the Canyon): Part 2, and instead of following the same harmonic pattern as Verheyen’s song, the chords were used in order of appearance with different inversions used for each set of gestures. The text of A7 WJR is fundamentally a list of my favourite car makes and models; for instance, a Ferrari 308 GT4. This list of names was then rearranged so that other words were formed, turning the list into short cryptic phrases that could only be reconstructed by motorsports enthusiasts. However, in A7 WJR there is an added mystery in that these cryptic phrases are not immediately recognisable due to how the mezzo-soprano part was written to sound more like an instrumental part rather than to assume a narrative role

G. T. Four. T.

Quattro.

For. D. B. Five.

Hund – red. Five. Six.

Shhh! Ark knows

Vans, vans pass at El Camino.