The amazing life of Joseph Boulogne was recently turned into a film, and for good reasons. Born in the island of Guadeloupe, son of a plantation owner and a slave, Boulogne was taken by his father to Paris in his youth, and there he excelled not only as a composer but also as a fencer, eventually becoming a knight (“chevalier”). As a military man, his symphony No. 1 demonstrates discipline in its construction and development, following strict compositional rules. With only three movements, this symphony is considered old fashioned for the time when it was written, but none the less, it is a testament of the work of one of France’s most successful musician, the first composer of African ancestry who achieved great fame and success in classical music.

Haigh - Grin
Winner of the 2024 LCO Call-for-Scores

Irish/British composer Robin Haigh works internationally with leading orchestras, ensembles, and soloists. Described as possessing an “idiomatic and unique compositional approach, blending together styles [...] in a way that feels genuine, honest, real” (What is Metamodern? Journal), Haigh’s output includes the orchestral works SLEEPTALKER (Ivor Novello Award Nominee) and Grin (Ivor Novello Award Winner 2020) written for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Britten Sinfonia respectively, ensemble works AESOP 2 (Ivor Novello Nominee) and FILTH for Orchester im Treppenhaus, quadruple trombone concerto THE DREAMERS for Aldeburgh Festival, and the British Composer Award-winning recorder quintet In Feyre Foreste. (Learn more)

To Grin is to smile with exposed teeth. When we grin, we expose perhaps the most destructive part of the human anatomy as a signal of joy or amusement, the part of us which only really exists to grind down organic matter into tiny pieces. While writing this piece, I was reminded of videos in which demonstrations of extremely destructive machines are paired with cheerful, peppy music to entice potential corporate customers, producing something absurd, comical, and somewhat disturbing. The brutality of the imagery in these videos is somehow matched by accompanying music which is in its own way brutal; brutally repetitive, and brutally cheerful, like a forced grin.

Haydn - Symphony No. 83 in G major “The Hen,” Hob. I:83

It was 1784 when the Concert de la Loge Olympique, a Parisian musical society, commissioned Franz Joseph Haydn to write six symphonies for performance in their concert series. Today, those are known as the Paris Symphonies (No. 82 to 87). The timing for the commission could not have been better - a mere five years earlier, Haydn’s contract had been renewed with a clause that allowed him to take outside commissions. The moniker of the symphony, “The Hen,” comes from someone who associated the curious sound of the second theme in the first movement with the head movements of a hen. The commission of this symphony - and the other five - gave Haydn the chance to write for an ensemble much larger than he had as Esterháza, and allowed him to experiment further with orchestration. The symphonies were first conducted by Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.