Renowned composer, teacher and Glasgow graduate Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868-1948) bequeathed the residue of his estate to the University to help promote the performance of chamber music by composers of Scottish birth and descent. Other composers resident in Scotland for a substantial period have also benefited from the fund. In fulfilment of the terms of the bequest the University Court commissions annually a piece of chamber music for not more than five players and every three years a work for larger forces.
Read about John Blackwood McEwen's life and work @ The University Story
Explore McEwen's own body of composed work @ UofG Special Collections
List of commissions to date
| 2024 | To the vanished Molendinar | Aileen Sweeney |
| 2023 | The Big Freeze | Colin Broom |
| 2022 | Three Love Poems by Marion Angus | Ailie Robertson |
| 2020 | Reflecting Instruments | David Horne |
| 2019 | String Trio II | Edward McGuire |
| 2018 | Night Dances | Sally Beamish |
| 2016 | Ricercari | Lyell Cresswell |
| 2015 | String Quartet No. 3 (Slanting Rain) | Alasdair Nicolson |
| 2014 | Ixion | Stuart MacRae |
| 2013 | Tristia II | Hafliði Hallgrímsson |
| 2012 | Tenebrae | Martin Suckling |
| 2011 | Luna | Helen Grime |
| 2010 | Piano Trio (Music for the pauses in a conversation between John Cage and Morton Feldman) | David Fennessy |
| 2009 | Intimacy for string quartet | John De Simone |
| 1990 | Dead Roses | Gordon McPherson |
| 1989 | El Pueblo | William Sweeney |
| 1988 | Visions of a November Spring | James MacMillan |
| 1987 | Ricercare | Robert Crawford |
| 1986 | String Quartet | John McLeod |
| 1985 | Strange Fruit | John Lunn |
| 1984 | Sonata for cello and piano | Peter Nelson |
| 1983 | Diversions | John Maxwell Geddes |
| 1982 | Scotch Minstrelsy | Judith Weir |
| 1981 | String Quartet | William Sweeney |
| 1980 | Wind Octet | Edward McGuire |
| 1979 | Channel Firing | John Hearne |
| 1978 | The Ancient Pattern | Morris Pert |
| 1977 | Almost a Madrigal | Martin Dalby |
| 1976 | Three Poems of Li Ch’ing-Chao | Wilma Paterson |
| 1975 | Liberation | Edward McGuire |
| 1974 | Histoire | David Dorward |
| 1973 | Clarinet Quintet | John McLeod |
| 1972 | Fantasy String Quartet | Isobel Dunlop |
| 1971 | Piano Quintet | Frank Spedding |
| 1971 | Journeys and Places | Robin Orr |
| 1970 | Quaderno a Quattro | John Maxwell Geddes |
| 1969 | String Quartet | Rita McAllister |
| 1968 | Sinfonia for seven instruments | Thomas Wilson |
| 1968 | *String Trio | David Gow |
| 1968 | String Trio op 21 | John Purser |
| 1967 | Piano Trio | Martin Dalby |
| 1966 | String Quartet No 3 | David Dorward |
| 1964 | Piano Trio | Sebastian Forbes |
| 1963 | Canzona for tenor, clarinet and string trio | Buxton Orr |
| 1962 | *Theme and Variations for clarinet quintet | Sebastian Forbes |
| 1962 | Chamber Concerto No 1 | Thea Musgrave |
| 1961 | Sonata for violin and piano | Thomas Wilson |
| 1960 | String Quartet | David Gwilt |
| 1959 | *String Quartet No 3 | Thomas Wilson |
| 1959 | Sonata for cello and piano | Iain Hamilton |
| 1958 | String Quartet No 1 | Thea Musgrave |
| 1957 | String Quartet No 2 | Robert Crawford |
| 1956 | Octet for Strings | Iain Hamilton |
| 1956 | *Sonata No 2 for viola and piano | Ronald G Duncan |
| 1956 | Directions for a Map | Cedric Thorpe Davie |
| 1955 | String Quartet No 3 | Ian Whyte |
The McEwen Bequest has provided for the commission of over 50 new pieces by around 40 composers since 1955 - constituting a substantial contribution to the contemporary Scottish chamber music canon.
Further details of many of the pre-1990 pieces can be found at the Scottish Music Centre.
