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PIANOWRIMO 2026 Week 1 roundup

Posted by sara-garrard

It’s November! You know what that means (or if not, the title of the post should help.)

SOMEWHAT INCREDIBLY, this is the 10th year since I started doing Pianowrimos back in 2017…

Day 1: girl dancing with the moon

written after I went to a birthday party dressed as a sky full of hot air balloons, which reminded me of this bit from one of my old favourite books, The Man Who Was Thursday:

“They were led out of another broad and low gateway into a very large old English garden, full of torches and bonfires, by the broken light of which a vast carnival of people were dancing in motley dress. There was a man dressed as a windmill with enormous sails, a man dressed as an elephant, a man dressed as a balloon … One dancer dressed like an enormous hornbill, with a beak twice as big as himself. There was a dancing lamp‑post, a dancing apple tree, a dancing ship. One would have thought that the untamable tune of some mad musician had set all the common objects of field and street dancing an eternal jig. … Every couple dancing seemed a separate romance; it might be a fairy dancing with a pillar‑box, or a peasant girl dancing with the moon; but in each case it was, somehow, as absurd as Alice in Wonderland, yet as grave and kind as a love story.”

1-girl_dancing_with_the_moon1

click through for days 2-7….

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Brave Fantasia Resonance OST

Posted by sara-garrard

The title is a bit of a joke – selecting all the words to do with fantasy rpg, possibly not originally English language… Including a word that had something to do with music felt like it would be good… Honestly I only remembered afterwards that Dissidia mobile game is being redone as “Final Fantasy Resonance”, but I’m happy with that reference.

Basically it’s yet Another “imaginary game soundtrack” because, look, that’s just a really nice format I enjoy for writing a set of pieces! BUT, features this time chiefly include finally getting some of the “realistic” rather than “retro” sounds out, going for expressive small ensembles up to full orchestra.

10 tracks in a variety of styles, with some recurring themes etc etc.

This is is available as an asset pack on itch, or you can just listen/watch on youtube.

..Yes I’m aware it’s been a while — I wasn’t aware quite how long — since I posted here, oops.

Time and Season (2HAC “Life” song)

Posted by sara-garrard

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 angels

our 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 sing

how 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 happen

the 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 out

the 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 happened

sunrise 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

Posted by sara-garrard
‘Tell O Shepherds’, Sing Clifton Christmas Concert 2023

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.

Sing Clifton.