Welcome to the blog. This is more of a fun relaxed place where I can post music as we go along, including sketches, doodles and works in progress. Updated regularly. Feel free to leave me a comment, or visit me on youtube.
Time and Season (2HAC “Life” song)
This year, some of the things I want to be working on are:
- singing
- songwriting (including lyrics, oof)
- chin-ups (I’m up to 5-6 in a row now, from 0 last summer)
As for the other two, earlier this month I took part in another 2-hour album challenge, on the theme of “LIFE” ….
I very often use and collage old poems and texts for my songs — this one (and I did work on the words outside of the 2 hours) ended up getting a bit more original work and not entirely quotation, which is nice, maybe. LIFE was a broad theme, obviously, but a couple of poems I had sitting around for years immediately sprung to mind, so you’ll hear a bit of Ada Cambridge and RL Stevenson in there, though not the whole of either of their theses, especially Cambridge’s. Plus something from the Psalms and — here are the final lyrics:
the moon marks the seasons
the sun knows when to set
the foxes roam the quiet streets from dusk
(and so and so and so)
get up, get dressed for work
observe the wonder of the bones of the human hand
we are mortal, infinitesimal, divine
a little lower than the angelsour island is alive with marvels
the birds sing in the branches
grown about with fragrant bushes
a winding valley where a clear stream flows
and green grass grows
and the sheep bells and the linnets chime and singhow calm the starry city but beneath
the million-fibred heart of humanity
is twisted with every grief
our comrades homeless, beaten, maimed
how can I sleep in peace
and this is life – pointless to ask
and these things happenthe moon marks the seasons…
at the best of times, in the midst of life
slips between us like a shadow
between your lips and my kiss, the motion and the act
between the past and the future
those two black infinities
where our brief life flashes a moment and goes outthe moon marks the seasons…
and wasn’t this after all the meaning of incarnation
a full life, thirty-three
work and laughter, family
headaches and haircuts, itches, homesickness
drinking with friends, meetings and partings and prayers
when I think –
walking to the site of execution
when I consider
the bones of your hands irretrievably smashed
I cannot fathom:
these things happenedsunrise on the shore
tend the fire, warm your hands
the one who lived and died and lives again
cooking breakfast for his friends
Tell O Shepherds at the Sing Clifton Christmas Concert
Concert day yesterday! I wrote the music for Tell O Shepherds a few years back, inspired by carol singing basically. I wanted something that just felt like one of the traditional carols, four-part, with a nice sop descant in the last verse. There’s a little bit of a nod to ‘Infant Holy Infant Lowly’ with the rising sequence, and think the words might even be related/from the same source originally.
You can get the sheet music for Tell O Shepherds here.
PIANOWRIMO 2023: Day 8 already
Unbelievably, already a week in ….
You can follow along the whole playlist for this year here.
And here’s today’s, which is, well, Nyman/Einaudi-adjacent (that’s all I’ll claim, since it was composed nice and speedily!) I’m surprised I haven’t used ‘Restless’ as a title for a piece before; I guess I’ve used it now.
PIANOWRIMO 2023
Day 1:
A cute one, like for those dog videos with cute piano music:)
Follow along on youtube, bandcamp and sheet music will follow after the end of the month.
Getting ready for Pianowrimo 2023
November is nearly upon us which means it’s time for PIANOWRIMO, for, incredibly, the seventh year.
Check out the project page for links to all the previous years, and here’s a video I made showing the development of one of last year’s piano pieces into a track from the FORTUNATA album:
2HAC: Thirteen
A piano and viola piece I wrote for the 2 Hour Album Challenge. The theme was “Thirteen”, which I took very unoriginally as 13/8, and ended up approaching it quite like a pianowrimo piece, and then (after the 2 hours!) wrote it up.
Whole album: here.
FORTUNATA Release
aka project “top secret RPG with rhythm game elements”
This was the “quick” “little” fun project I started working on in February … well, did a bunch in February/March, then moved house and got very busy and picked up again at the end of May. An imaginary game soundtrack using mostly Virtuoso and Proteus 2000 (virtual) instruments. I like old 1990s sounds, as may have been mentioned; and I think they lend themselves to writing tune-y thematic game music, and the non-realism goes well with simpler graphic styles, not to mention retro itself is a thing. This is also available as an asset pack on itch.
36 tracks! phew! Happy late birthday to me again, this is somewhat the successor to last year’s Let’s Adventure.
Protected: top secret new rpg-with-rhythm-game-elements in progress
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Easter Hymns etc
catching up with arrears here; recorded these for Easter!
Him upon the cross I love – A year some back, I think, I returned to the Catherine Winkworth oeuvre … and had a go setting this one in a kind of, um, musical theatre style? I find it rather challenging to sing, but here’s a kind of demo anyway.
From Thy Heavenly Throne, a new recording of one that first appeared here, words again by Winkworth.
God of mercy, God of grace – I recorded this before too, but maybe never shared it. Words by Henry Francis Lyte. unlike the previous two, this is less soloistic, could be definitely sung by a group, more of a … I was going to say “modern” and “hymn”, but what I think I mean is 80s-90s chorus 😄
Wesley: Easter Hymn. I kind of didn’t realise these lyrics were THIS song, without the Allelulias I associate it with. So, here’s another different tune! This one is also envisaged more as a singable group song – one of those joyful marching songs for Easter.
Easter Week by Charles Kingsley. I am enjoying the jubilant melismas and big alto notes here ^_^