• Home
  • About
  • WORKS
  • Journal
  • TO PURCHASE
  • Get in Touch
  ABW Composer

CUrRent projects and thOughts

Gertrude Stein

2/3/2021

0 Comments

 
Writing the second 'Fashion Song', a setting of Stein's 'A Long Dress', I spent weeks listening to  as many of the poet's own recordings as I could. Trying to capture her elusive rhythmic delivery and the typical pitch-patterns, I used a frequency analyser at one point to help pin it all down. And then it seemed quite natural to listen to rap, because there's just so much of that in her delivery. So it was song after song. particularly by Drake. And then I had to let it all  ferment and try to forget about it. The result - fifteen bars of mayhem written in two days, no alterations to the line structure, no repeated phrases, just the words as they are on the page.  I am, every time, perplexed by how these things arrive on the page, good, bad or indifferent. It's a complete mystery. 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Isolation Songbook


    ​Lockdown reignited creativity for many. Sourdough, woodwork, you name it, there was a lot going on. Our friends, Helen Charlston & Michael Craddock were due to marry in April 2020; plans were stymied. Helen wrote Michael a poem to mark the would’ve-been day, then Owain Park set it to music. Together with pianist Alexander Soares, the Isolation Songbook was born. Fifteen new commissions, music and words, a live-streamed premiere on July 29th in association with City Music Foundation from St Pancras Clock Tower, and then a recording by award-winning label, Delphian Records in September. The CD/download is to be released on March 26th, a year after the beginning of the first lockdown. I’m delighted to be one of those involved in this amazing project, a series of personal responses to the pandemic, from melancholy to laugh-a-minute, from stillness to silliness. You can find out more and order your CD at https://www.delphianrecords.com/products/isolation-songbook

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • WORKS
  • Journal
  • TO PURCHASE
  • Get in Touch