【ご紹介】「雪女」の作曲者たち

特別企画：英国モーリー・カレッジとのコラボのご紹介

今回の樂♪together2019では、関治子が教鞭をとるモーリー・カレッジ・ロンドンとのコラボ企画として、作曲科の学生達が作品化した小泉八雲の「雪女」をピアノと朗読で上演します。

モーリー・カレッジは英国で最も古い生涯教育の大学の１つです。1889年に創立し、「木星」などで知られる組曲『惑星』の作曲者ホルストもかつて音楽部長をつとめました。英国では、年齢や人種、音楽経験などのバックグラウンドが多様な人々が共に集まって学ぶ生涯教育が充実しています。このたび作曲して下さった二人の学生も、それぞれユニークな経歴をお持ちです。よかったらご覧ください。（日本語は抜粋して訳しています）

フィリップ・ル・バ（雪女②を作曲）

ケンブリッジ大学で自然科学を学び、オックスフォード大学で核物理学の博士号を取得後、グレゴリアン大学で神学と哲学を学び、ローマカトリック教会の司祭として奉仕した。

のちに物理学と電子工学の中学校教育を25年間つとめ、現在はメードストンとロイヤルタンブリッジウェルズ交響楽団で主席バスーン奏者や、ケント州の教会の聖歌隊長として活躍している。

Philip Le Bas’ Biography:

While at school in the 1970s I learnt to play the piano, the flute and the bassoon up to grade 8, and I sang in church and school choirs, memorably in a barbershop group which made its own LP record. I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, followed by a doctorate in Nuclear Physics from Oxford University. Throughout this time I played extensively in orchestras and chamber groups, as well as directing church choirs. In Rome I subsequently studied Theology and Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University for six years and I served as a Roman Catholic priest in the Birmingham area for a further five years, first in parish ministry and then lecturing in Theology in a seminary for training priests. During this time I directed several choirs and began to compose short items for church services.

After leaving the priesthood I turned to secondary school teaching of Physics and Electronics, and I have recently retired after 25 years teaching first in Guildford and then in Sevenoaks, a period which allowed me time to perform extensively in local and London-based orchestras. Currently I am principal bassoonist in the Maidstone and Royal Tunbridge Wells Symphony Orchestras. In the last five years I have become choir director of St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Seal, where my wife is the Anglican vicar. This has been the stimulus for developing new choral compositions, as well as arranging music for a variety of choral and instrumental groups. Retirement has enabled me start composition workshops at Morley College, where I am enjoying the opportunity to experiment with a range of compositional styles.

キース・ウィルソン（雪女③を作曲）

もと臨床科学者。モーリー・カレッジにて、とくにピアノや聖歌隊のための作曲を学ぶ。現在、アマチュアの合唱団に所属。またフォークグループでギター、ブルースバンドとジャズトリオでピアノ、ビッグバンドジャズでベースを演奏。

今回の「雪女」は、物語のキャラクターをイメージしながら、様々な音楽のモチーフを考案することを楽しみながら作曲しました。

Keith Willson’s Biography:

Keith Willson Is a lifelong amateur musician who recently retired from a career as a clinical scientist. He joined the Composition Workshop at Morley in September last year with the aim of writing particularly for piano and choir.  He has sung bass in several amateur choirs and is currently the Mayfield Festival Choir. He also writes and performs songs at folk clubs and open microphone nights. Over the years he has played guitar in folk groups, piano in blues bands and jazz trios, and bass in big band jazz. He was attracted to writing the O Yuki piano piece because the genre was a new challenge to him and he particularly enjoyed devising different musical motifs for the story’s characters.