Come forth to play (2013)
(for two antiphonal brass choirs, organ and percussion)

Come forth to play (2013)
for two antiphonal brass choirs, organ and percussion

1.     Catch
2.     Cadenza
3.     Chords and a Carillon

Written to mark the opening of the Guildhall School’s new Milton Court building, Come forth to play is scored for two antiphonal brass choirs, organ and percussion.

The work celebrates the acoustic properties of the new Milton Court concert hall by layering five different natural harmonic series: on F, Bb, Eb, Ab and D. In the opening Catch, these are investigated in a polymetric canon, which builds to a climax rich in overtones. Out of this climax, stable tones are filtered to create a more reflective central Cadenza for the organ. In the final Chords and a Carillon the work’s more complex harmony reasserts itself eventually ringing between the two brass choirs like a great bell.

Come forth to play lasts approximately 5.5 minutes; its title is drawn from John Milton’s pastoral poem L’Allegro:

                        And young and old come forth to play
                        On a sunshine holiday,
                        Till the live-long daylight fail;

Julian Philips, 2023