Programme Note
This collage work is a mix of choral and orchestral music, found sounds and electronically sourced material. It is currently available for study only on request.
PTOC – Children’s Opera
1972 • 60' • orchestra/chorus/soloists and pre-recorded sounds
An early work written as part of a year-long education project in the county of Gwent
Reviews
Excerpt from M. Boyd (1981) ‘Metcalf and’The Journey”, The Musical Times, 122.1660: 369-371.
The most ambitious and perhaps the most successful of these early works came in 1972 with PTOC (standing for ‘Past three o’clock), a multi-media work for children on the subject of time and its measurement; it brings together, among other things, singing, dancing, narration, various clock sounds, the Westminster chimes, prepared tapes, and a parody of the slow movement of Haydn’s ‘Clock’ Symphony.
The notes of the Westminster chimes are repeated at a different intervals to create a twelve-note series.