The Calligrapher's Manuscript

The Calligrapher's Manuscript takes its inspiration from the seventeenth-century calligrapher Johann Hering's private codex, in which various calligraphic techniques appear to be experimented with. Certain pages of the manuscript include texts from the bible and other sources, intensely adorned with elaborate ornaments. On other pages, the alphabet is written out in different fonts: first these are plain and predominantly Roman in style, but in later pages the script is increasingly decorated. Towards the very end, the letters themselves seem to have been forgotten altogether (or are perhaps completely engulfed by the ornamental figures) giving way to remarkably abstract designs, such as those on the cover of this score.
The work was commissioned for the London Symphony Orchestra through the LSO Discovery Panufnik Young Composers Scheme, supported by the Helen Hamyln Trust. It was premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robin Ticciati, in the Barbican Hall on 19 September 2013.
A recording of the work will appear on the LSO Live Label in 2016 on a disc entitled The Panufnik Legacies 2.