Orlando Gough (1953- )
Orlando Gough has
been writing music ever since he gave up being a math teacher. Starting
with the bands The Lost
Jockey and Man
Jumping, he moved on to compose operas for TV (including The Empress,
1992) and music for theatre and dance productions (Rambert, Royal
Ballet, Siobhan Davies Dance Company, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company,
Dutch National Ballet, Second Stride), and more recently to choral
music. Unusually, he also writes music with other composers; in fact
all of his work is collaborative in nature. The Shout
– the vocal ‘big band’ that he and Richard Chew founded in 1999 – is
unique, consisting of singers from a very wide spectrum of musical
styles. Each singer explores his or her own individual timbre, which
leaps out from the ‘band’ in featured solo moments. The usual forms of
choral homogeneity are not for them, though their ensemble is
perfection. Orlando is a paid-up patron of the un-bland: constantly
delighting his listeners with angular tunes, unexpected harmonies and
funky rhythms. It was after the Artangel-commissioned Because I Sing,
which took place in the Roundhouse in 2001, using large numbers of
non-professional singers – that Gough became interested in the
participatory crowd in his pieces. When ENO Baylis (English National
Opera’s education and outreach team) commissioned a piece – For the Public Good
– for the reopening of the London Coliseum in 2004, Orlando and his
librettist Tamsin Collison unearthed wonderful tales from the theatre’s
glittering past. A choir of 500, sitting in the stalls, sang (a
cappella and from memory!) about the Coliseum’s former glories: about
the vaudeville shows which ranged from recreating Derby Day, (complete
with horses!), the first demonstration of television and Winston
Churchill’s speeches, right up to ENO’s occupation of the building in
1968.- Mary King/BBC
COMPOSITIONS Gough Links ~ ~ ~ Works by Genre
[under construction]
WORKS BY GENRE Gough Links ~ top of page ~
[under construction]
Dramatic/Theater
The Empress, TV opera (1992)
A Ring a Lamp a Thing, opera, soprano and live electronics (2009-10) [libretto: Caryl Churchill]
Hey! Come on Out!, film opera (2010) [libretto: Shinishi Hoshi]
Dance
Savage Water, dance piece (1989)
Saeta, dance piece, chamber ensemble [fl, tpt, hn, trom, pf, voices] (1992) [text: Lorca]
Earth Bound, dance piece (1994)
Currulao, dance piece (1995)
Late, dance piece, chamber ensemble (1995)
Touch Your Coolness To My Fevered Brow, ballet (1995)
Escape at Sea, dance piece (1996)
Sleeping With Audrey, ballet, string ensemble and sampler (1996)
Badenheim, dance piece (1997) ["Badenheim 1939"]
Room of Cooks, ballet (1997)
Goes Without Saying, dance piece (1998)
When We Stop Talking, dance piece (1998)
This House Will Burn, ballet (2000) [for Ashley Page]
Orchestra
The Air Shouts, [violin, bass guitar, harp, percusion and string orchestra?] (1991)
Mungo Dances, string orchestra (1998)
Fortune Cookies, string septet (or string orchestra) (1999; arr. for str orch 2010)
Chorus w/Orchestra
We Turned on the Light, chorus and orchestra (2006) [text: Caryl Churchill] [arr. 2008 for chorus and brass band]
Blackbird, chorus and chamber orchestra (fp. 2007)
On The Rim Of The World, children's voices, chorus and chamber orchestra (2008-09) [text: Jehane Markham]
Choral
Silence, chorus (????)
Towers of Silence, chorus (????)
Ariel Songs, chorus (1997?) [text: Shakespeare] [originally for RSO production of "The Tempest"]
Axaxaxas Mlo, 5 solo voices (1997)
Pierrot: A Biography, 13 solo voices (1997)
The Shouting Fence (1998) [written with Richard Chew]
And The Days Are Not Full Enough, chorus (1999) [text: Ezra Pound]
Taking Leave of a Friend, chorus (1999)
Tall Stories, chorus (1999)
Why Do You Sing?, chorus (1999)
Because I Sing, 16 amateur choirs and chorus (2001)
High Hopes, chorus (2002?)
For the Public Good, massed choir (2004)
Shift, chorus and percussion quartet (2004)
Open, 2 solo voices and massed choirs (2006)
city:zen, theatre music for tape (2007) [collaboration w/Shizuka Hariu, lighting]
The Spell, soprano, mezzo, countertenor, tenor, baritone and bass soloists (2010) [text: Timothy Knapman, after Tasso]
Common Wealth, chorus (2012) [text: Carol Ann Duffy]
Chamber
String Quartet No. 1 (1993)
Banya, string quartet and tape (1996)
Birds on Fire, 6 viols (1997)
Malouf, 13 players [bass cl; sopr sax; tpt; trom; str qt; db; 2 perc; pf; hp] (1997)
Dead White European Male, chamber ensemble [alto sax, tenor sax, str qt, db, tpr, trom, trumpet, pf, perc] (1999)
Fortune Cookies, string septet (or string orchestra) (1999; arr. for str orch 2010)
Solo Instrument
In Exile, violin (1997)
Piano
Staring Into The Abyss, piano (1998)
Vocal
Alligator Train, 1 singer, 1 speaker (optional) and ensemble [cl; 2 hn; 2 tpt; 2 trom; tuba; perc] (2008)
Incidental/Film
1993 Duets with Automobiles (TV short)
1995 People's Century: 1900-1999 (TV series documentary)
– Killing Fields
Hotel: Eight Rooms, incidental music (1997)
Hotel: Two Nights, incidental music (1997)
1998 The Wisdom of Crocodiles
1999 Split Second (TV movie)
2001 Tojo's War (TV documentary)
2003 The First World War (TV mini-series documentary)
– Blockade (2003)
– Breaking the Deadlock (2003)
– Germany's Last Gamble (2003)
– Revolution (2003)
– Shackled to a Corpse (2003)
2005 Bombay Jungle (documentary)
2005 Made in China (documentary)
2005 Het nieuwe zilver (documentary)
2005 De prijs van katoen (documentary)
2005 The Tunnel and Other Lies (documentary)
2007 China from the Inside (TV series documentary)
– Power and the People (2007)
– Women of the Country (2007)
Electronic/Electroacoustic
GOUGH LINKS Works by Genre ~ top of page ~
[under construction]
Music for a Virtual Life (Andrew Clark, FT.com)
Composer website (@ Boosey & Hawkes) . . . contact Orlando Gough: here
Gough @ Wikipedia
Gough @ Audiophile Audition (via Google Advanced Search)
Gough @ Boosey & Hawkes
Gough @ ClassicsToday (via Google Advanced Search)
Gough @ composition:today
Gough @ Facebook
Gough @ IMDb (Internet Movie Database)
Gough @ LinkedIn
Gough @ MusicWeb International
Gough @ The New York Times
Gough @ PRS for Music Foundation
Gough @ The Shout
Gough @ Sound and Music/The British Music Collection
Publisher
Gough @ Boosey & Hawkes
Gough @ Sound and Music/The British Music Collection
Streaming Audio
Gough @ last.fm
Recordings
Gough @ Amazon.com
Gough @ ArkivMusic
Gough @ CD Universe
Gough @ Discogs
Gough @ itunes
Video
Gough @ YouTube
Gough @ Google Video
Gough @ Vimeo (via Google Advanced Search)
~ top of page ~
Gough on Gough: A Chat with Orlando Gough/Citizens Theatre (VIDEO)
Gough on Gough: An Interview/Royal Opera House (VIDEO)
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HOME ABOUT RESOURCES COMPOSERS PERFORMANCES 20/21 ENSEMBLE CONTACT US
HOME ABOUT RESOURCES COMPOSERS PERFORMANCES 20/21 ENSEMBLE CONTACT US