Description
Described as 'boldly imaginative' [the Times], 'a talent to watch' [New York Times] and 'one of the most interesting voices of his generation' [Limelight], Gavin Higgins is one of Britain's most exciting and gifted compositional talents. His work has been commissioned by some of the UK's leading festivals, including four commissions for the BBC Proms. Alarms was written in 2001 for the 2002 Brass Final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. The piece is a response to the Manchester bombing of 1996. I moved to Manchester in 1999 and experience the aftermath of the bomb and witnessed the rebuilding of the city centre. Friends who were in the city when the bomb went off told me that in the days after the explosion all that could be heard across the city was the constant ringing of shop and car alarms. Therefore Alarms is an elegy in three sections -harmon-mute no tube; harmon- mute with tube; flugel horn - that centres around a constant 'ringing' note -F expanding into declamatory fanfares and expressive lines before the player leaves the stage and fades into the distance.