Joshua Brown

Hardened by Sun and Air was composed 2022 for Glasgow Orchestral Society, commissioned via Sound and Music and Making Music, and funded by the PRS.

 

The composition was inspired by a Christina Rossetti poem. The musical structure is an unfolding landscape that presents the melody in a number of contrasting ways. This was coupled with a desire to dismantle, conceal, and obscure the nature of the original melody from the beginning, and to reveal parts of it bit by bit, section by section, until the seemingly simpler textures of its evolving revelation became a cacophony.

​

The premiere was recorded by BBC Radio 3, and broadcast May 2023.

​

Premiere - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, New Auditorium, conducted by Chris Swaffer, October 2022

Further performances:

• Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, New Auditorium, conducted by Robert Baxter, May 2023

​​​​​​​​​​​​

​

​Duration: 12 minutes

​​​

Large Orchestra: 3333 4231 Timp Strings

​​

​

​

*There is also a Brass Band arrangement of this work, duration 5 minutes, arranged by the composer in 2023.​​​​​

​