One Minute Wonders
began as a project at the University
of Surrey, where pianist Clive Williamson
teaches. His composition students were
challenged to write pieces for solo
piano, lasting only a minute but displaying
some complexity of thought or structure
and some individuality of personal style.
The only other stipulation was that
no Cage-like preparation of the piano
was allowed. An initial concert of the
resulting pieces was given in January
2004. Later, a number of professional
composers were asked to offer pieces
produced on the same terms. A second
recital of ‘one minute wonders’ was
given at the Guildford International
Music Festival in 2005. The project
continues, involving other established
composers and composition students at
other universities.
The music on this entertaining
CD mixes work by household names (at
any rate names well known in households
with an interest in contemporary British
music) with work by some less familiar
names.
The approaches adopted
are intriguingly various. Michael Finnissy’s
‘One Minute Wonder’ plays amusing –
if slightly disconcerting – games with
an obvious original in Chopin – an original
not entirely irrelevant to Colin Matthews’s
‘60 Second Waltz’; musical intertextuality
of an even more dazzling order defines
Mathew King’s ‘Sonatas’ which (in seventy
six seconds!) quotes from every Beethoven
sonata (in chronological order!). Julian
Anderson’s ‘Old Bells’ is a simple,
but radiant piece, adjectives one might
also apply to ‘Chime’ by Philip Neil
Martin; Sadie Harrison’s ‘Sleeping with
the Fishes’ is a charming and evocative
miniature, a distant relation of such
‘underwater’ music as Debussy’s ‘La
cathédrale engloutie’, while
Philip Grange’s ‘Prelude: In Memoriam
Karlin Field’ packs a lot of controlled
emotion into its 85 seconds. Other pleasures
include Kenneth Hesketh’s robust yet
pointed ‘Epigram’ and Rhian Samuel’s
alert and suggestive ‘Gaslight Square
I’.
In truth there aren’t
many duds here – and if there is something
to which the individual takes an instant
dislike – well, at least it doesn’t
go on for very long!
Perhaps ‘wonders’ is
putting it a bit strong, but more than
a few of these pieces do satisfy and
tantalise in almost equal proportions
– and you can’t expect much more than
that from such ‘miniatures’. The one
minute challenge, I’m sure, is one that
more composers will want to take up.
A booklet note by Stephen Goss explains
that "future plans include projects
that involve other solo instruments".
I look forward to hearing the results.
Glyn Pursglove
for details
Clive Williamson (piano) 
