STEWART COPELAND

Stewart Copeland joins the Pittsburgh Symphony to perform as percussionist for the world premiere of his Trapset and Percussion Concerto No. 1 (“The Tyrant’s Crush”) on February 19 and 21, 2016. This is part of the Pittsburgh Symphony's showcasing composers as performers.

Info on the performances at:
http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/produ ... and-debuts

A different page has this description:

"Three decades as a rock star, film composer and filmmaker, and composer for opera, ballet, world music and chamber, prodigious musician Copeland, drummer for The Police, turns his attention to the world of orchestral music. He joins the Pittsburgh Symphony in February 2016 to perform the world premiere of Trapset & Percussion Concerto No. 1, “The Tyrant’s Crush,” a Pittsburgh Symphony commission for percussion and orchestra. In this piece, Copeland has created a work that features his own brilliant drumming as well as a gorgeous array of exotic percussion with complimentary parts for members of the orchestral percussion section. Join us for this demonstration that the distance between rock drummer and timpani virtuoso is not as far as one may think!"

http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/pso_h ... r-composer

Tickets for this event are scheduled to go on sale August 24, 2015.

Found out more info on the piece from www.opus3artists.com, Stewart's management company.

Here is the link:
http://www.opus3artists.com/utils/Downl ... 16orch.pdf

Stewart's piece is 30 minutes long and includes Poltroons in Paradise which premeired Liverpool in 2014 as the first movement, Monster Just Needed Love (but ate the children anyway) as the second and Over the Wall as the third. The Monster needed love has been listed by his music publisher for a while, but I have been unable to find any past performances of it.

Here is the description by Stewart on Opus3 download :
1st Movement—POLTROONS IN PARADISE 16:00
The emphasis is on orchestral interaction with the percussion. The textures introduced by the bells, drums and mallets are colorized by soloists within the orchestral choirs, adding clear pitch to the implied tunes of the percussion figures. The atmosphere is agile and whimsical.

2nd Movement—MONSTER JUST NEEDED LOVE (But Ate the Children Anyway) 8:00
This movement is more about timbre than tune. Using compound meters rhythmic complexity can be achieved while keeping the pulse simple. The opening theme is a passagaglia by my old friend and mentor Eberhard Scheoner.

3rd Movement—Over the Wall 6:00
A rising dirge that builds in power and passion with tutti orchestra and hammering percussion. The harmony grows in density so that by the end the brass is stabbing with fat chords while the strings swirl and the woodwinds wind. I would hope to have the percussionists sweating by the end.

Woohoo! (had been feeling a bit left out here in the Burg...)

Stewart, please do record this concert and release it on CD!

The last CD from The Man was in 2009, and even that was promo-only.

Orchestral recordings are tricky to sell because of things like the royalties for the orchestra. I don't know if they'd be able to sell enough copies to break even. I think the best we can hope for is that Stewart gets a cough and it shows up on the youtubes.

MONSTER JUST NEEDED LOVE (But Ate the Children Anyway)

Perfect title for a new Young Adult Dystopian novel series, y/y?

conroy wrote:Orchestral recordings are tricky to sell because of things like the royalties for the orchestra. I don't know if they'd be able to sell enough copies to break even. I think the best we can hope for is that Stewart gets a cough and it shows up on the youtubes.

Why do those words hurt so much? Why am I so sad all of a sudden? WHY CANNOT I GET MORE ORCHESTRAL COPELAND MUSIC??

This world is a cruel place.


EDIT:

WAIT... but what about Leopard's Son, Rapa Nui, Orchestralli, and Ben Hur Live? All released on CD, and all were performed by major big shots orchestras.

And don't forget Silent Fall had some strings and Highlander II was performed by the Seattle Symphony. Speaking of the Seattle Symphony, I've been waiting over twenty years for recordings of the show he did with them back in 1993 that included Noah's Ark, Solcheeka, The Stars that Played with Lucky Joe's Cards, Ride of the Valkyries and Tancred O since that was before the Internet took off. Or have an orchestra hire Stewart to play them for those who missed out back in the day. I would really love to hear Noah's Ark most of all since I loved that score he did for the Stories to Remember video.

conroy wrote:And don't forget Silent Fall had some strings and Highlander II was performed by the Seattle Symphony. Speaking of the Seattle Symphony, I've been waiting over twenty years for recordings of the show he did with them back in 1993 that included Noah's Ark, Solcheeka, The Stars that Played with Lucky Joe's Cards, Ride of the Valkyries and Tancred O since that was before the Internet took off. Or have an orchestra hire Stewart to play them for those who missed out back in the day. I would really love to hear Noah's Ark most of all since I loved that score he did for the Stories to Remember video.

Silent Fall is one of my personal favorites, since it is the perfect music to listen to when reading what I call "atmospheric fiction" (books and comics with great sense of atmosphere).

I wonder what is the better strategy, begging Stewart to release more stuff, or asking orchestral labels to release more Stewart stuff?

ManWithGoodTaste wrote:I wonder what is the better strategy, begging Stewart to release more stuff, or asking orchestral labels to release more Stewart stuff?

Somebody asked a question regarding the audio release of the "Gamelan D'Drum" premiere at the Dare to Drum Q&A on Saturday night . The answer was to make that request directly to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

It will also be performed three times with the New West Symphony on May 13, 2016 in Oxnard, California, May 14 in Thousand Oaks, California, and May 15 in Santa Monica, California.

https://www.newwestsymphony.org/subscri ... p#marker24

Yes, I would love for there to some day be a compilation released of these orchestral recordings, multidisc set, and even some w/ DVR of performances on reverse. I haven't been able to make it to the more recent premiere's just Ben Hur, and might only be able to hear thru set of recordings. Could encourage a sort of "Grateful Copelands" bootlegging culture to spring up possibly, but doubtful.

Update - tickets for the Pittsburgh performances go on sale Aug 17 (not Aug 24):

http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/produ ... ts_on-sale