'News' Category
Wessex Tubas
This week I went to visit Jonathan Hodgetts of Wessex Tubas. I had heard some good things about his instruments, which are imported from China, and was keen to try them for myself. The horn that interested me most of all, was the so-called “Bubbie” tuba, a travel tuba in F (or Eb with the [...]
BOLUS – debut release
What happens when Penny Goring and I collaborate on a words and music project? BOLUS, that’s what. Penny is, as any of you who know her work from her blog and the Year Zero Writers website, a pretty extraordinary writer – and her spoken word delivery marvellously detached and deadpan. I’ve wanted to do more [...]
New work for tuba
I’ve written a new piece for solo tuba in memory of Trish Keenan, the singer from Birmingham group Broadcast, who died of pneumonia this month. I didn’t know Trish personally at all, but still vividly remember her amazing ice-cold stage presence during the only time I saw Broadcast perform live at the Irish Centre in [...]
Performance news
After much faffing around, in which I abandoned the Liszt Sonata again (no surprises there), managed to learn some of the Godowsky left-hand only transcriptions of Chopin Études, but not the Ravel left-hand concerto (preparation for which was the whole point of learning them in the first place…) I have decided that I’m going to [...]
Getting to grips with Carter, part 2
Retrouvailles turned out to be a good starting point for addressing Carter’s piano music. Rhythmically, there’s nothing in it to defeat mere mortals, just sextuplet semiquavers, and triplet quavers divided into semis for different emphasis. Granted, some of these have rests in the middle, but its eminently possible to understand and hear these on sight. [...]
Reformation!
“Will Beckett’s March (Reprise)” from the album Mother’s Thinking Bath is receiving an airing on the very marvellous Bob Osborne’s Salford City Radio programme “Reformation” tomorrow night, between 9pm and 10pm. This week’s playlist, apparently, is comprised mostly of artists associated with Invisible Girl Records – which is where the Mother’s Thinking Bath track comes [...]
Twitter
I’ve been using Twitter as a means of communicating with other musical folks – very handy. My username on there is @5357311.
Presto Classical
A quick word of appreciation for the marvellous Presto Classical in Leamington Spa: granted, it may sometimes be a bit more expensive to go to a specialist shop than to obtain your CDs from Amazon and the like, but my experience of Presto Classical is that they’re the kind of independent record shop that we [...]
Silence
Apologies for the recent silence; I am still recovering from an operation on my right hand which, as you can probably imagine, put a bit of a spanner in the works with regard to playing the piano. Everything still works, though, apart from some nerve damage here and there, and I hope to start posting [...]
A Place In Space – compilation
A Place in Space, featuring the track Will Beckett’s March (reprise) from Mother’s Thinking Bath is now available on InvisibleGirl records. The album’s press release reads: A compilation of original artists from around the planet. This global release has been made available on the winter solstice (21 December 2008) Music, culture, sounds and experiences express [...]