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AGP91 is the last of four featuring works by the British composer Harrison Birtwistle. Born in 1934, he came of age with Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr, and like them studied in Manchester. Birtwistle's music belongs to no clearly identifiable school. It is characterized by a fine ear for both harmony and orchestration, and some rather unusual approaches to musical structure.

AGP88-90 were transcribed from a number of CDs, and are provided through the generosity of the same AGP partisan that programmed AGP87. AGP91 comprises all of the out-of-print works by Birtwistle that I could find in my stacks. They all come from British LP pressings that are in pretty good condition, but that have more pressing noise than I would like. Normally it wouldn't be noticeable, but there are lengthy quiet passages in these works, so the sound-quality is a bit of a step down from the brilliant CD transcriptions in the previous three installments. Chronometer is a tape composition by Birtwistle. I used mild declicking to clean up the transcription, but there is some pressing noise in the right channel that nothing but radical noise reduction would eliminate. 

To download AGP91 files, right-click on each of the following links and select SAVE LINK AS.

Note: Chronometer (track 12) is now available on CD in remastered stereo and surround-sound versions. Click on the track 12 link to get to the webpage where that CD can be purchased.

11 - Nenia, 1970 [18:00]

12 - Chronometer, 1971 [24:17]

13 - Fields of Sorrow, 1971 [9:49]

14 - Grimethorpe Aria, 1973 [13:38]

AGP91 description

FLAC fingerprints