SYMPHONIC SUITES 1 & 2

A MEDIEVAL SAGA

 

MARK JOHN MCENCROE

 

 

 

OVERVIEW

 

Australian composer Mark John McEncroe’s SYMPHONIC SUITES NUMBER 1 & 2 – A MEDIEVAL SAGA is a classic adventure in orchestral music. Powered by McEncroe’s thematic style, these two symphonic suites lead the listener through a harrowing and dramatic story of ancient conflict and grandeur. Like a film score from the Golden Age Of Hollywood, McEncroe’s musical ‘storytelling’ is made clear by his powerful melodic material, which conjures the sweeping shots of a classic epic film in the listener’s imagination.

 

The premise of McEncroe’s suites also recalls classic techniques, though, in this case, McEncroe picks up the centuries-old tradition of programmatic composition. Dating to the third decade of the nineteenth century, ‘program music’ is a genre in which wordless musical works are written to tell stories. Sometimes, these narratives are simple, but many nineteenth and twentieth century programmatic compositions have multiple scenes and characters. McEncroe’s suites fall into this more specific type of piece, and both succeed in conveying this intense detail of the composer’s thirteen-part story.

 

Like the great programmatic works of the Romantic era, McEncroe’s Symphonic Suites are driven by strong melodic ideas that represent the primary characters and events that populate the musical story. These themes are memorable, clear, and, most impressively, thread the needle of being distinct enough so the listener can mark the difference between different characters or scenes, but not so inconsistent in their character that the momentum of the narrative is disrupted or lost. McEncroe is gifted at using melody to convey the mood and stakes of every point in his story, even in scenes that are relatively chaotic, complex, and nuanced. To this end, the sequence of the “Rising Discontent” and “Peasants Uprising” movements from Symphonic Suite No. 1 epitomizes McEncroe’s ability to clearly communicate abstract concepts (i.e. economic anxiety boiling over into populist revolt) with wordless musical storytelling.

 

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HIGHLIGHTS

 

The two works on the album tell closely related stories, and both use a similar style of programmatic composition, which provides and opportunity to closely compare the manner and detail of McEncroe’s musical storytelling

 

McEncroe’s heavily thematic style is reminiscent of other nineteenth century narrative works (i.e. Richard Wagner’s operas) and film scores from the Golden Age Of Hollywood to the present

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CREDITS

 

Symphonic Suite No. 1 recorded June 2015

Symphonic Suite No. 2 recorded January 2016

 

All tracks recorded at The Hall of Culture in Ostrava, Czech Republic

Recording Engineer & Producer Jaroslav Zouhar

Remixed at Trackdown Digital Sydney by Evan McHugh

Mastering Don Bartley at Benchmark Mastering in Sydney, Australia

 

Artist management Anthony Armore at Blue Danube Musikimpresario

in Vienna, Austria

 

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw

A&R Chris Robinson

Audio Director Jeff LeRoy

Mastering Lucas Paquette

Design & Marketing Director Brett Picknell

Design Ryan Harrison

 

 

 

 

 

Release Date: August 11, 2017

Catalog #: NV6116

 

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TRACK INFO

 

Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra   |   Anthony Armoré  conductor

Mark J Saliba  orchestration

 

 

DISC 1

 

Symphonic Suite No. 1

Just Another Medieval Tale

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1.  I.  Entrance Of The King

2.  II.  Strutting Peacocks – ­Hangers on at Court

3.   III.  Rising Discontent

4.   IV.  Peasant’s Uprising

5.  V.  An Uneasy Truce

6.   VI.  A New Way Forward

7.   VII.  The Quest – A Search For Truth

 

 

DISC 2

 

Symphonic Suite No. 2

And The Medieval Tale Continues

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1.  I.  The Gathering of Forces – A Call To Arms

2.   II.  The Night Before The Battle

3.  III.  The Seige

4.  IV.  A Call For Peace

5.  V.  Hail To The New King

6.  VI.  A Brave New World

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ALSO ON NAVONA RECORDS

 

DARK CLOUDS

IN LIFE (NV6082)

 

MARK JOHN MCENCROE