A London Symphony (2026)

A London Symphony is a never-so-small portrait of myself in London as a student at the Royal College of Music in the years 1984–85, where both the ardent interest in what I was doing, all the emotional and cultural impressions, and the personal experiences the city became a setting for, changed me forever.

This is illustrated in the piece through different types of sections. Sometimes there are complex overlays of events (as in a city), while other sections are characterised by more monolithic music or rhythmic unisons to try to illustrate emotional states.

The work is actually built up over a four-movement structure, with a traditional division of movements in itself, but this is not so easy to hear, as the movements are played as one, not unlike life, which flows past us at great speed, and where we constantly try to turn around and systematise it afterwards, with well-practised hindsight.

Finally, Vaughan Williams and his 2nd symphony, A London Symphony, must also be mentioned in connection with my own with the same title – a composer who, in his strange way, creates simple tonal images that are at the same time emotionally complex. I barely touch on him and his music until the end in the piece with the bells of Big Ben. (I am more than sure that he will forgive me for this gesture.)

But most of all, and until the end, this is my tribute to the city of London – gigantic, mysterious and historical – and in my memory still unapproachable.

Asbjørn Schaathun, 2026