Category Archives: composition

Superbos!

Posted on 6 December 2011 by

Last night was the performance of Bach’s Magnificat and it was such fun. We met at the concert hall at 4.15 and went through the programme with the organist and the orchestra. We stood on the stage (five rows, I … Continue reading →

Posted in composers, composition, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, reviews and reports, what I'm up to | Leave a comment

Notes tremendous thundered out

Posted on 22 November 2011 by

Today is St Cecilia’s Day, the patron saint of music. It’s also the day Benjamin Britten was born. One of his compositions, the ‘Ode To Saint Cecilia’ (from whence comes the title of this blog post), is a setting for … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, composition, forthcoming events, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, Technical, what I'm up to | 1 Comment

Come to His presence

Posted on 18 August 2011 by

I wrote the first verse of this gospel song about five years ago and added the other two verses just a few months ago. Jen and I played at my friend Peter’s wedding in All Souls, Langham Place, London a … Continue reading →

Posted in composition, songs | 1 Comment

Scorn Not His Simplicity

Posted on 13 July 2011 by

My Dad was a big fan of Phil Coulter. He was at Queen’s at the same time as Phil and liked to tell us about the time Phil locked him and a bunch of other students in a room on … Continue reading →

Posted in composers, lovely performances, lyrics and lines I especially admire, togetherness | Leave a comment

Toast

Posted on 15 June 2011 by

Here’s another poem done as an exercise from Stephen Fry’s ‘The Ode Less Travelled’. It’s from the chapter on Anglo-Saxon Attitudes and the apprentice poet is tasked with writing some lines on food using the alliterative principle. Each line of … Continue reading →

Posted in composition, The Ode Less Travelled | Leave a comment

Ecstasy

Posted on 24 May 2011 by

John Adams gave the commencement speech at Juilliard this week, where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate (along with the amazing Herbie Hancock—if you love music, get his album ‘The Imagine Project’). It’s a great speech about being … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, Intellectual | Leave a comment

Cuban Landscape with Rain

Posted on 16 May 2011 by

A beautiful performance of Leo Brouwer’s ‘Cuban Landscape with Rain’ by Dublin Guitar Quartet. I came across Leo Brouwer’s work while helping catalogue guitar music at The Victorian Music Library in Melbourne in November. One afternoon I popped out for … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, lovely performances, Technical | Leave a comment

I *Was* Glad…

Posted on 10 March 2011 by

Today I sang Hubert Parry’s anthem, ‘I Was Glad’, with St Ann’s choir for a service to mark the commencement of the newly-elected Irish parliament (Dáil Éireann). Parry was born in 1848, an explosive year in Europe, not least in … Continue reading →

Posted in composers, lovely performances, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, reviews and reports, what I'm up to | 2 Comments

Extraordinary table drumming

Posted on 21 February 2011 by

Freya Schreurs, a friend of mine who used to sing with New Dublin Voices, posted this video on Facebook. I love it! Beautifully executed and it sounds great. The piece is by Belgian composer Thierry de Mey and is called … Continue reading →

Posted in beautiful minds, composers, lovely performances | Leave a comment

Steve Reich talks about composition

Posted on 21 January 2011 by

This lovely little video appeared on Twitter today. It’s by the London Sinfonietta, who are soon performing Steve Reich’s ‘Music For 18 Musicians’ with the composer. It’s really a video programme note – Reich explains the genesis and history of … Continue reading →

Posted in composers, forthcoming events | Leave a comment