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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 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

‘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.

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.

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.

Him upon the cross I love

From Thy Heavenly Throne, a new recording of one that first appeared here, words again by Winkworth.

From thy heavenly throne

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 😄

God of mercy, God of grace

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 ^_^

Easter Week