Erik Chisholm - Works

Works

See also: List of compositions by Erik Chisholm

Erik Chisholm wrote well over 100 works, including 35 orchestral works, 7 concertante works (including a violin concerto and two piano concertos), 7 works for orchestra and voice or chorus, 54 piano works, 3 organ works, 43 songs, 8 choral part-songs, 7 ballets, and 9 operas including one on Robert Burns. He also made several interesting arrangements by composers such as Handel and Mozart. He arranged a string orchestra version of the Symphony for Solo Piano, Op. 39 Nos. 4–7 by Charles-Valentin Alkan, a composer still largely unknown at that time, the original of which has been said to surpass even the Transcendental Études of Franz Liszt in scale and difficulty.

Pianist Murray McLachlan divided Chisholm's works into four periods: the Early Period, the "Scottish" Period, the Neoclassical Period and the "Hindustani" Period. The "Early Period" is extremely large, beginning with teenage efforts including a Sonatina in G minor, written at 18, and clearly showing something of the influence of John Blackwood McEwen.

The "Scottish" Period began in the early 1930s where all his works were tinged with a remarkable Scottish nationalistic colouring, indicating most persuasively the ambitions of the composer like contemporary Béla Bartók, to nourish his style on the music of his ancestors and countrymen. Chisholm's Sonatine Ecossaise, 4 Elegies, Scottish Airs, and Piano Concerto no. 1 "Pibaireachd" display a style of percussive bite and energy which made much use of dissonances, note clusters and pounding rhythms in the "Bartók manner" along with material derived from Scottish Folksong and rhythmic dance figurations. His style is so similar that Chisholm's critics have repeatedly referred to Chisholm as "MacBartók".

Chisholm's Neoclassical Period refers to several of his works which were inspired by ancient and obscure motifs from the pre-Classical era. His Sonatina no. 3, evidently based on several ricercare motifs originally written by Dalza, fuses Brittenesque harmonies and gentle dissonances in quintessentially pianistic textures.

His "Hindustani" Period reflects Chisholm's love of the East, the occult and his friendship with Sorabji. Important examples of this period are his 2nd "Hindustani" Piano Concerto and the Six Nocturnes, Night Song of the Bards. These compositions display luscious textures, transcendental technical demands and intensity that are comparable to other piano works by Busoni, Szymanowski, Medtner, and Sorabji.

Chisholm's two piano concertos have been recorded by Danny Driver.

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