Gordon Crosse: Towards a Style

Quoted in Christopher Ford's profile of the composer, Crosse was referring—with characteristic wit—to the need to find his own personal style in order to escape classification as merely a disciple of a ‘Maxwell Davies School’. Crosse's Renaissance techniques and motivic delineation had always differed significantly from Davies's and in the 12 years since that article appeared, as if to prove this point, Crosse has pursued a different direction, centred on the drama and contrasts possible in the concerto or ‘concertante’. The development of his now highly personal style can be recognized as a synthesis of his earlier experiments in serial procedures. Between 1972 and 1977 Crosse wrote three concertantes: Ariadne, for oboe and 12 players (1971–2), Thel, for flute, two horns, and double string septet (1974–6), and Wildboy, for clarinet, cimbalom, and seven players (1977); pieces which share similar origins and musical processes, and provide explicit examples of his compositional methods. To illustrate this personal style, I will compare the origins and musical materials of the first two concertantes and fit them into the context of his output in the period from 1972–7.