Peter McAleer Streaming for orchestra duration: 15 minutes Streaming is a dense mass of teeming rhythms and motifs. A dynamic, exuberant work bringing together many, sometimes disparate, compositional devices including texture blocks & layering, and elements of repetitive & process music. Conversely, I have also combined these with more traditional techniques like thematic reminiscence & variation, thematic transformation and, believe it or not, good old sonata form. The language is tonal, but often dissonant, and all these elements have been blended to create what I believe is an electrifying scherzo for full orchestra. Peter McAleer was born in Bedfordshire in 1952. He studied piano, violin, viola and, briefly, horn at school. There he rapidly developed an interest in composition, writing and performing many instrumental pieces, and, urged on by his teachers and the early success of these youthful concerts, went on to study composition with Bernard Stevens and piano with John Russell at the Royal College of Music, 1970-1973. Peter did not pursue immediately what promised to be a highly successful musical career- instead in 1985 he returned to study at Goldsmiths’ College, where he was encouraged to return to composition by Tim Ewers, Peter Dickinson and Edward Gregson, finally being awarded a Master of Music degree in Composition in 1994. At Goldsmiths’ Peter had several pieces performed, including: A Journey Inwards for 8 instruments, and Counterchanges for 2 trumpets. Pattern Sonata for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano was performed in 1994 by the ensemble Double Image, and received much praise. It was Nicholas Sackman at Nottingham University who first inspired Peter to realise his ambition to write orchestral music. So, since finishing his studies, Peter’s greatest passion has been the completion of his first major orchestral piece, Streaming, in August 2000. He has continued to write and arrange pieces for a variety of other forces also, including anthems which have been sung by the church choir of which he is choirmaster. http://business.virgin.net/peter.mcaleer Back to shortlist.