Giles Swayne

Although Giles Swayne was born in the UK (in 1946), the family soon moved to Singapore, then Australia, before returning to England. The experience of different cultures, with very different histories, clearly left a deep impression. Swayne began his studies in music along familiar academic lines—at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music—but he soon found the contemporary classical music scene narrow and self-regarding. His breakthrough work, Cry, for 28 solo voices and electronics, shows Swayne’s deepening interest in music beyond Europe, and especially Africa. This wildly imaginative fusion of creation myths was a huge success at its premiere at the BBC Proms in 1980. The following year, Swayne set off for Africa, making field trips in Senegal and Ghana, eventually settling there for six years in 1990. It was during this period that Swayne wrote his Magnificat, which fuses Senegalese folksong with complex rhythmic textures echoing the choral styles Swayne encountered in the Congo region. Subsequent successes include Havoc for choir (1999)—a sequel to Cry—and Dolorosa for chorus and solo cello, a reworking of the earlier Stabat Mater (2004), premiered in Leipzig in 2011 to great acclaim.