The Path of Miracles - Joby Talbot

Tenebrae
directed Nigel Short

Path of Miracles was premiered at the City of London Festival in July 2005, performed by Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short and directed by Ceri Sherlock.

Cover Image - Mark Taylor, Warren Photographic - a ‘field of stars’ photographed using a long exposure showing apparent movement as the earth rotates

Joby Talbot is published by Chester Novello (Music Sales)

Joby Talbot

Born in London in 1971, Joby Talbot studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Simon Bainbridge, and privately with Brian Elias. His Luminescence for string orchestra was premiered in 1997 by the BBC Philharmonic under Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies and, since then, his music has been performed by, amongst others, the London Sinfonietta, The BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Brunel Ensemble, Crouch End Festival Chorus, Evelyn Glennie, The Apollo Saxophone Quartet, and The Duke Quartet. A CD of chamber works, The Dying Swan, was voted No.2 album of 1993 by John Schaefer of New York’s radio WNYC; the title refers to Evgenii Bauer’s 1917 silent film of the same name for which Talbot had composed a new soundtrack. This was his second commission from the British Film Institute - Talbot’s score to Hitchcock’s 1926 classic, The Lodger, was released on video in 1999 and has subsequently been performed live throughout Europe and America.

In 1993 Talbot began writing and performing alongside Neil Hannon in the UK pop phenomenon, The Divine Comedy. The successful partnership produced seven albums for The Divine Comedy, Ute Lemper’s critical masterpiece, Punishing Kiss, and a live collaboration with Michael Nyman which was awarded the Edinburgh Festival’s Critics’ Choice in 1997. He had also begun writing music for television including the music for the cult BBC comedy series, The League of Gentlemen, which won the Royal Television Society Award for best title music in 2000.

In 2002 Talbot wrote The Wishing Tree, a short madrigal for the King’s Singers Oriana project at the Royal Albert Hall. It was the success of this work which led directly to the writing of Path of Miracles for Tenebrae and to the premiere of his Sneaker Wave by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the 2004 BBC Proms. 2004 also saw Talbot appointed Classic FM’s first ever composer in residence, writing and recording one piece a month for rolling broadcast on the station. The resulting CD, Once Around the Sun, was released in 2005, the year he made the jump from small to big screen with two critically acclaimed movie soundtracks, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse.

Robert Dickinson

Robert Dickinson was born in London in 1962. A collection of poetry, Syzgy (with Andrew Dilger) was published in 2001. He collaborated with Brighton's Extra Theatre Company productions of Dolly Goes to Dijon (2002), Bombed (2003) and Murder's Last Case (2004). Robert Dickinson is currently working on fiction, lyrics, and a play based on the life of Pelagius.

Signum Records and Tenebrae would very much like to thank Barbara Pollock for her tireless support and for the commission of Path of Miracles, and also Leroy and Fran Harvey for all their assistance.