The Music of James Wishart

24th July 1956 – 19th March 2018

From 1980 to 2013, James Wishart was a Lecturer in Composition at the University of Liverpool. As well as his work for the University, James made a substantial contribution to the musical life of the city: as a composer, a performer and as a concert organiser. James often organised different series of eclectic music, ranging through jazz and folk styles to recitals of classical and contemporary music. An early concert series: Upbeat to the Tate, presented new work as part of the celebrations for the opening of the new Tate Gallery in the Albert Dock. Another: The Electric Concerts, brought together live music and electronics in arts centres across the region.

James was a formidable pianist and gave many concerts over the years, often of challenging and virtuosic pieces. He also conducted, organised and ran the University new music ensemble Opus. He received many commissions for his compositions, and had pieces played by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and broadcast on Radio Three.

His compositions explore many different facets of music. There are settings of pre-existing texts (The Colours are Screaming sets texts by Edvard Munch and The Punishment of Lust includes texts by Samuel Beckett, Luigi Illica and Pierre Jean Jouve); there are many chamber pieces, some including electronics (two string quartets: Siva Dances, The Leaving of Liverpool); and works for solo piano (King Arthur: his funeral march, The knowledge and the dream are one…). His last work was for five players and a soprano to his own texts, the extraordinary 23 Songs for a Madwoman.

His boundless energy and enthusiasm will be sorely missed . . .

Papers of James Wishart

Orpheus had lost Euridice on the way back from the underworld through impatience and distrust. Turning around, he just catches sight of Euridice as she is pulled back to Pluto’s realm. He is desolate, a broken man. Alone on the plains of Thrace, he cannot contain his sorrow and pours it out in a mixture of lamentation and anger.

Some versions of the myth characterise Orpheus as being so hysterical and beyond redemption that he curses womankind. Whatever the provocation, the Furies (wild women with their own destructive avenging agenda) cluster around Orpheus and attack him, literally pulling him apart. Their destructive powers sated, they leave Orpheus’ body in many pieces – but his head floats down the river, and starts to sing its own renewed melancholy song – of despair, of regret, of love.

This dark ending to the Orpheus myth provides the context of this new piece – divided into three panels: Threnos – the lament, with the Furies gradually advancing upon Orpheus: Zerrissen – the dramatic and ritual dismembering of Orpheus: and finally Headsong – the slow passage to the sea with the song miraculously intact!

This is the second Orphic piece in a projected long-term cycle of (mostly?) instrumental works – the first – Orpheus with his lyre (for clarinet and banjo), was performed in Germany and Austria during the summer of 2002 by members of Ensemble Modern. It seems already clear that the character of Orpheus is connected to the sonority of the clarinet, as his lyre is assigned to a variety of plucked sounds (here electronically produced).

Orpheus is ‘represented’ by two solo wind instruments: oboe (later changing to cor anglais) and bass clarinet. This sound is ‘channelled through’ a further wind grouping: Four further clarinets (three clarinets in B^b and one further bass clarinet), and various interjections (used as cues) are allocated to percussion, electronics and lighting changes. The strings (five violins, two violas, two cellos and one double-bass) are the personifications of The Furies in movements 1 and 2, where a series of patterns (played from memory) are overlaid on the top of the main score. The violins and violas portray the Furies presence and action ritually, through moving ‘offstage’ to join the ensemble for the final movement.

For a piece written to celebrate the new studio block, you might expect a dominant electroacoustic component – for reasons of access and time this was not possible and the electronic elements are comments and interjections, which widen the range of the total sonorities available.