my day of carnage by Oliver Searle

A short orchestral piece from 2004, first performed in the Berlin Konzerthaus, by the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

A hommage to one of those days where you can't quite get out of a bad mood?

I used to regularly get migraine headaches when I was younger, mainly caused by low blood-sugar levels (which I thankfully identified and learned to control a little, as the years have passed). This short piece is built around short, pulsating fragments that overlap and confuse each other, purposefully distracting from the occasional sonorous harmonies that attempt to struggle through to the end. The title comes from a phrase spoken to me by a fellow sufferer, towards the end of a long shift, whilst we were both working in a bar in Aberdeen during my student days, and seemed to perfectly encapsulate how physically drained I often felt, after spending hours at work with a headache.