SKYWALK – An astronaut looks back on the beauty of Earth from space in Steve Martland’s dreamy work

Described as an ” “iconoclastic composer who crossed musical boundaries to create a distinctive, edgy sound” Martland curated the infamous Factory Classical label of Factory Records. This is the first concert in a two-part retrospective on the works of the late Steve Martland, juxtaposed with those of Renaissance composer Clément Janequin.

Centuries apart, Renaissance composer Clément Janequin and 20th-century composer Steve Martland both sought to reflect the sounds of daily life that surrounded them. For Janequin, this meant bird calls, street noises or, in the final work of this concert, La bataille, a vivid depiction of the sounds of battle, complete with trumpet calls, cannon fire, and the cries of the wounded. Martland evokes a different kind of battleground in Street Songs—with something of a medley of songs from children’s games, often heard in the streets and on the playground.

While we briefly depart from earthly life in Martland’s Skywalk, imagining an astronaut walking in space and looking back on the planet in all its beauty, we are grounded throughout by Janequin’s mass based on La bataille which weaves throughout the concert, introducing us to some new borrowed element of the work with each movement, before we finally arrive back at the chanson in its original form.

Programme
Missa La Bataille (Kyrie, Gloria) – Clément Janequin (France, c. 1485-1558)
Skywalk – Steve Martland (UK, 1954-2013)
Missa La Bataille (Credo) – Clément Janequin
Street Songs – Steve Martland
Missa La Bataille (Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus) – Clément Janequin
The Shepherd’s Song – Steve Martland
La Bataille – Clément Janequin