Brian Ferneyhough

about

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (born 16 January 1943 in Coventry) is a British composer. Ferneyhough was awarded the Felix Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1968 and moved to Europe to study with Ton de Leeuw in Amsterdam, and later with Klaus Huber in Basel. As of 1999, he is William H. Bonsall Professor in Music at Stanford University. Ferneyhough became closely associated with the so-called New Complexity school of composition, characterised by its extension of the modernist tendency towards formalisation (particularly as in integral serialism). Ferneyhough's actual compositional approach, however, rejects serialism and other "generative" methods of composing; he prefers instead to use systems only to create material and formal constraints, while their realisation appears to be more spontaneous. Unlike many more formally-inclined composers, Ferneyhough often speaks of his music as being about creating energy and excitement rather than embodying an abstract schema. His scores make huge technical demands on performers -- sometimes, as in the case of Unity Capsule for solo flute, creating parts that are so detailed they are likely impossible to realise completely. Contrary to the widespread belief that Ferneyhough is merely attempting to tie down interpretative possibilities by stipulating everything with such precision, the purpose here is to give the performer creative freedom in deciding which aspects to focus on, which elements may be omitted and so on. As he acknowledges, nume

top songs

albums

Ferneyhough: Complete Works for String Quartet & Trio

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Flutes Without Borders

Ferneyhough: La terre est un homme

Ferneyhough, B.: Chamber Music

Brian Ferneyhough: Chamber Music

Ferneyhough: Shadowtime

Ferneyhough: Complete Piano Works

Ferneyhough: Complete Works for String Quartet & Trios

Brian Ferneyhough: Complete Piano Music 1965-2018

Ferneyhough: Chamber Music

Brian Ferneyhough: Music for Flute and Piano

Brian Ferneyhough, Vol. 2

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