Stephen Goss

Tango

for Clarinet, Marimba, Vibraphone with Suspended Cymbal, Accordion, and Double Bass

duration: 5 minutes

Tango is a short, sleazy, dirty little piece for an ensemble that approximates to a Tango band. After a slow and sultry introduction, the music explodes into life. The fast section alternates between material built from fragments of Astor Piazzolla's St. Louis en L'ile and music based on a number of David Byrne grooves. As the piece progresses so these two contrasting ideas intermingle, eventually becoming inseparable as the piece drives towards its inevitable climax. It lasts a little under five minutes.


Stephen Goss was born in Camarthenshire in 1964. He studied with Robert Saxton, Peter Dickinson and Anthony Payne at The Royal Academy of Music and at Bristol and London Universities. His music has been performed in Europe, America, the Middle East, South East Asia and Australia and is published in Germany, the USA, and in the UK. Cadenza Music is currently in the process of publishing a complete collection of his chamber music. He is lecturer in composition at the University of Surrey.

Steve has recently written an orchestral song cycle for Jane Manning, Dreamchild, and Alte Klang for pianist Graham Caskie. His music is recorded by Decca, Conifer Classics, Carlton Classics and his Carmen Fantasy was released to great critical acclaim by Hallmark Records in 1999, "This party-piece disc of the year achieves the impossible" - BBC Music Magazine.

First performances in 2002 have included: Gnossienne, Purcell Room, London; Trumpets and Clocks, Guildford Cathedral; Threepenny Music, Bath International Guitar Festival; Cottleston Pie, John Armitage Memorial Concerts in London and Cambridge; Lachrymae, Colorado International Guitar Festival; and First Milonga, Last Tango, Dundee International Festival.

Steve’s current projects include a new CD of his chamber music and In Parenthesis, a multi-media collaboration with artist Brian Dunce based on the work of Welsh poet David Jones. He has had four works shortlisted by the spnm; Dreamchild and Arcadia in 1998 and Looking Glass Ties and Tango in 2002.

As a guitarist, Steve has won the Julian Bream Prize, made a number of recordings and toured world-wide with the TETRA guitar quartet, "Players of first rate technical control and sensitive musicianship. TETRA ranks amongst the very best in the world" - Gramophone. He has broadcast on BBC2, GMTV, BBC Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 2 and Classic FM.

Steve joined the music department at Surrey in September 1999 after six years teaching at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he also coached football. He has always been a passionate Arsenal fan.

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