As artists, we’re always seeking and collecting ideas. Images, sounds, pieces, moments – you’ll often find us snapping pictures of obscure things, noting down melodies or recording sounds. For my commission for the Palace Band, I wanted to write something that was directly relevant to them and the area they rehearse in – a community…
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Thanks to the Old Riverport St Ives for hosting my Reflections on Nature evening last Friday as part of the Chapel Arts Season 2018. Thanks to everyone who came along – faces old and new – for listening to me talk and play. Thanks for being so supportive of my first ever solo concert! The…
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Do writers write from beginning to end, or do they create their work in bits here and there before stringing it all together? Composing wise, I definitely tend to be the latter. You have to go where the inspiration takes you. Sometimes that can be the climatic point of the piece, sometimes a snippet of…
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The text is written. The dots are on the page. The rehearsals all completed, the performers walk on stage.. As Cracked Voices has progressed, Graham and I have shared snippets of our processes with you. From the beginnings of Graham’s research into a piece from me musing on inspiration and scales, we’ve given you an…
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“A conversation between two people who aren’t really listening to each other” To find out the background to this piece, read Graham’s post about writing this poem – Not knowing… (part 2). I pick up straight up where Graham stops – with the finished poem winging its way over to me. When Graham sent me…
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Scales are a staple of musical life. If you learn a musical instrument, you end up playing them (sometimes seemingly endlessly!) and learning how they work is an important chunk of musical theory. Not all scales are created equal. Western music relies on equal temperament, where the octave is divided into 12 equal parts, or…
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Computer programmes and video games often include Easter eggs – little intentional secrets, inside messages or secrets to be found by the users and players. I’ve always thought of word painting (in the musical sense!) somewhat in the same way. When related to text, word painting is all about the use of highly descriptive…
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A very simple instruction that has been issued to many a composition student over the years. I remember this being said, and the mixed response from my peers. Some had a song writing background and instinctively leapt in that direction, others took a more analytical approach and began looking at strong and weak beats, stresses…
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As part of Cracked Voices, I’ll be uploading regular blog posts. Click here to read my post on the art of the art song – a brief introduction into this fantastic form of composition.
Happy new year! In the madness of Christmas I forgot to post about a piece of mine now available on Payhip. Celestial Utterances is a suite of six short pieces for solo upper woodwind instruments (though I suppose it could be solo high anything you fancy playing it on!). Below are a few excerpts I…
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