Frederick Frahm
read his biography

Tse Bi dahi (Shiprock) (2006)

The name ‘Tse Bi dahi’ (the Rock with Wings) comes from an ancient Navajo folk myth that tells how the rock was once a great bird that transported the ancestral people to their lands in what is now north-western New Mexico. As the Navajo ancestors were fleeing from a warlike tribe, tribal shamans prayed to the Great Spirit for help. Suddenly the ground rose from beneath their feet to become an enormous bird. For an entire day and night the bird flew south, finally settling at sundown where Tse Bi dahi now stands. Frederick Frahm’s score of the same name is inspired by this holy site. The work follows an ABCBDBA formal architecture. One might envision a walk around the circumference of the geological monolith, which begins and ends in the same place and takes note of distinctive architectural features along the way.

Listen to Robin Walker performing Tse Bi dahi (Shiprock) on 6th October 2007 at St Dominic's Priory

Duration: 6mins
Available from: Musik Fabrik
Price: £6.50

Fantasy for organ (2004)

The musical architecture of the Fantasy for Organ is bound together by blocks of contrast or contradiction. There are moments of indignant rage followed by serene melancholy, or moments of sweet chorale singing followed by ecstatic gesture, or strident dissonance answered by brittle open consonance. As with the bulk of my compositions, whether choral or instrumental, poetry is an abiding source of inspiration. The line quoted at the top of the score,’ appropinquante termino mundi’ (at the boundary of the universe) comes from the first canto of Ian Davie’s poem entitled ‘the Apocalypse of Pope John’. This poem is published in a book entitled Roman Pentecost, ©1970 by Hamish Hamilton:

“Appropinquante termino mundi~
Flesh incinerable and soul immortal
In fearful concremation”.

Listen to Eleni Keventsidou performing Fantasy for organ on 20th October 2007 at St John the Evangelist Islington

Duration: 7mins
Available from: Musik Fabrik
Price: £6.50