COMPOSITIONS
This is my most recent project I have composed this as part of a current experiment for writing music to accompany photographs. This has been an exercise I've been trying to keep up with to give me something to do throughout the pandemic as many of my other plans have had to be cancelled due to restrictions.
This is a shorter piece designed for a mood music playlist, to give the photograph more depth, emotion and atmosphere.
I composed this piece in response to a brief I found online calling for scores written for a select group of instruments. The process behind this particular piece was to experiment further with my film and video game composing by writing a theme for a particular character. Castiel from the American TV show Supernatural was the inspiration behind this piece,
I do not own any rights to the show or the character I just wanted to experiment with composing for a certain character that I was familiar with and decided that the complexity of Castiel's character and the stages of his development through out the show provided and interesting challenge.
Preview of my latest project. The inspiration for Storm in Treslothan came from my drives around Cornwall and the dark and stormy weather we have been experiencing this winter. At the moment there are no lyrics on the recording as I have recorded directly from Sibelius but I am hoping to have a proper recording of the finished product in the near future.
Storm in Treslothan is written for an a capella choir comprised of a Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass/Baritone groups. It is one of my first vocal projects and my first that I have composed entirely myself, I have worked on arrangements in the past.
When I started this piece I decided that I wanted to compose something to portray what I knew about the life of my old horse Bluebell. I focused on the emotions she must have felt over the years and chose to begin with her polo career. The amount of scars she had and the fear she had of anyone going near face and head suggested she had great trauma and fear at some points in her life and so I decided to reflect this through the use of the Bb minor key.
Canon is a contrapuntal compositional technique, it is made up of a melody line that has one or more imitations that are played after a certain duration. One of the most recognisable pieces that uses canon is Pachelbel's Canon in D. I chose to use variations of this device to increase tension and represent the chaos on a polo field alongside the cluster of emotions Bluebell must have felt.
Rhythmically I wanted the equine element to come through and so I based the main motif rhythm on a three beat canter, I chose the canter pace as it's a more distinct rhythm than the other gaits and it also is reflective of what most of her career in polo would have been like.
Renn stood in the centre of the clearing, angry faces surrounded her. How am I supposed to lead these people? They're right I know nothing about this world or their suffering. No wonder they don't trust me. She was expected to lead them into a war that could either see them liberated or kill them all and she had only been there a few weeks. It all felt too much, she felt trapped, like she was going to suffocate from the pressure of all their expectant gazes. She then noticed some of the group where turning to look distractedly into trees behind her, turning she saw light flickering between the trunks. It seemed to be moving closer, at first she thought it was the beginning of a forest fire and the anxiety she had been feeling moments before vanished and was replaced by entirely new set of concerns. now the whole crowd were staring into the forest it felt as they were all holding their breath waiting to see what would appear. As it drew closer and the amber light grew brighter Renn became aware that there was the sound of soft footfalls picking their way delicately across the forest floor. Finally an animal stepped into clearing, it looked like a large stag except its antlers were wreathed in flame and it coat glowed light starlight. It paused and the crowd drew back awe etched on every face. Renn was frozen to the spot as the creature began to slowly walk towards her. It walked right up to her and seemed to examine her thoughtfully for a moment before letting out a large breath that enveloped her in a blueish mist. It hung shimmering in the air around her for a few moments before it vanished and the stag turned and walked carefully back into the cover of the trees and disappeared. Silence followed. Finally Renn turned to look at the people behind her and saw that they had all sunk into a bow. They were ready to follow her.