Chamber Music
| Sept miniatures pour trio avec piano | 2007-08 | 17' |
| Editions BIM, Switzerland | ||
Recorded by the Trio Magellan, Paris, Explora Concept EC005. Listen (extracts): |
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| De l'angélus du matin à l'angélus du soir 2004 | 2004 | 7' |
| Manuscript with composer | ||
1st perf: Ensemble Hope, 15 January 2004, Théâtre Municipal, "Les spectateurs, 'en lévitation', ont notamment eu le privilège d'assister à la création mondiale de Roger Steptoe. Ce professeur de l'ENMDAD de Brive, pourtant habitué à voir ses oeuvres jouées par des ensembles prestigieux, n'a pu cacher son émotion lorsqu'il est monté sur scène pour féliciter le quatuor de Cristals. Les notes pures de ces instruments possèdent visiblement la vertu rare d'entrer en chacun par le conduit auditif pour aller droit vers le coeur et les tripes." |
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| String Quartet No. 4 | 2003 | 25' |
| Editions BIM, Switzerland | ||
| Commissioned by the Festival International de Quatuors à Cordes du Luberon for the Quatuor Elysée. 1st perfs: Quatuor Elysée, 23 July, Eglise de Goult, 25 July, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, 27 July, Abbaye de Silvacane followed by the Grand Theatre, Limoges, 9 March 2004. |
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| String Quartet No. 3 | 2002 | 23' |
| Editions BIM, Switzerland | ||
(d'après William Turner) Listen (extracts): ''The new quartet's enthusiastic reception underscored its blend of originality and accessibility. There is an originality of design, evolving out of content, the five movements thematically integrated and cyclically linked through a palindromic structure at various levels. Steptoe's idiom is distinctive, creating its own spaciousness through artful counterpoint influenced by his mentor Alan Bush, subtly-nuanced harmony and evocative lyricism (a quality of many of his works of the 1980s). Individually pungent and arresting, the five movements add up to an engaging, cyclic work that not only represents a valuable contribution to the quartet repertoire, but also affirms the significance of Steptoe's aesthetic individuality.'' ''Leurs riches couleurs dans les mouvements lents et surprenantes harmonies du second ont généré un émotion palpable.'' |
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| Quatre romances sans paroles for piano quartet | 2001 | 20' |
| Editions BIM, Switzerland | ||
(d'après Paul Verlaine) ''Steptoe entre classique et contemporain..... des deux dernières romances, magnifiques dans leur conception.'' |
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| Oboe Quartet | 1988-89 | 20' |
| Stainer & Bell Ltd. London | ||
Commissioned by the Berlin Oboe Quartet. ''It is music that calls for imagination as well as expertise. Steptoe's two-movement work makes much of individual contrasts of character and timbre among the players.'' ''Steptoe's works are well crafted, structurally tight, and well written for the instruments.'' |
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| String Quartet No. 2 | 1985 | 17' |
| Stainer & Bell Ltd. London | ||
| Commissioned by the BBC for the Allegri Quartet 1st perf: Allegri Quartet, Aberystwyth University, 5 May 1986 in a concert promoted by the BBC as part of the University of Wales Recital Series. Followed by the Universities of Cardiff, Oxford, Southampton, York and Nottingham. 1st broadcast perf: BBC Radio 3, Allegri Quartet, 18 September, 1987. |
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| Dance Suite for oboe, clarinet and string quartet | 1984 | 20' |
| Stainer & Bell Ltd. London | ||
Commissioned by the 1984 Harrogate International Festival 1st perf: Robin Canter (ob), David Campbell (cl), Bochmann Quartet, 9 August 1984, Christ Church, Harrogate. |
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| Clarinet Quintet | 1980 | 26' |
| Stainer & Bell Ltd. London | ||
Commissioned by David Campbell with funds made available by the West Midlands Arts Association. ''I think this a splendid work; perhaps the best for the medium since the Bliss Quintet.'' ''But it was the Clarinet Quintet by Roger Steptoe which provided the central highlights. This new work came as a refreshing surprise. This young composer is able to present strong thematic material in a cogently attractive way and subject it to fascinating processes of logical development. The performance gave new hope for the main stream of modern music. While admiring Steptoe's structural facility and superb handling of his forces, one could not help being intrigued by his sense of drama in the complex Scherzo, and an ear for instrumental timbre in the hushed, extremely beautiful slow movement.' ''Mr Steptoe, in an illustrated talk, gave an analysis and a description of his work and to his credit the verbal explanation of his music only clarified details of a piece whose expression and purpose was immediately attractive in performance. Steptoe's Quintet is very 'English' in style with absorbed influences of Britten and Tippett in particular, governing a very personal and directly attractive style. The Quintet, composed within a classical framework, is a real one, with the clarinet completely integrated into the shaping and texture of the music. There are three noticeably prominent elements within it: lyrical, grammatic and theatrical, and these emotional features are developed with a near visual sensitivity and intense subjectivity. The impact of the third, a lush 'lento' inspired by Rupert Brooke's 'Waikiki' provided the spiritual core and the emotional plateau of the piece as a whole.'' ''It proved a finely-wrought four-movement piece, with lyrical feeling informing a generally taut construction.'' ''Its first impression on me was that of a clear sense of musical direction in its generally mainstream character, allied to resourceful writing in the instrumental writing.'' |
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| String Quartet No. 1 | 1976 | 16' |
| Stainer & Bell Ltd. London | ||
Commissioned by the Coull String Quartet. ''...... proved to be a well-worked piece in one movement, around 16 minutes long, a shade single-mindedly serious, single-mannered, but worthy all the same in its Hindemithian convolvement.'' ''Roger Steptoe's new quartet finds novel expression in comparatively orthodox means. Precisely conceived in one long, well-varied movement, its slower sections are at once strong in texture yet never opaque, the phrases always moulded with intelligence and purpose, and earnestly integrated with the faster, more abrupt ones.'' ''Steptoe's String Quartet No. 1 was an impressive piece of craftsmanship. A single-movement work but divided into four sections following the classical scheme with a brief reprise of the scherzo material for finale it exhibits great confidence in its handling of a basically tonal language and a structure unified by recurring intervalic motifs.'' ''The (Coull) Quartet introduced with obviously committed zeal, an extremely well written first String Quartet by Roger Steptoe, in which extended cello and viola solos showed Charterhouse's first Composer-in-Residence to be more than just a skillful craftsman.'' |
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I Overture