Blog

  • 14 May 2019, News
  • Some items of interest
  • The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music has included my flute piece   Harmattan   [from   Desert Winds   for flute & piano] in their new woodwind syllabus [grade 4] Some performances this year: June 12th  7.30 pm   Pieces from In the Shadows performed by the Marsyas Trio at 1901 Arts Club 7 Exton St London SE1 8UK 2018 March 24th 1.30 pm. A rehearsal of my  Toccata Sinfonica   #1 given by the London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra at ...
  • 08 Mar 2018, Article
  • Taboos
  • Taboos As a composer I have throughout my working life been aware of “taboos” [ A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice…OED ] relating to what composers must not do if they are going to be taken seriously.   This is by no means a new situation: every age in music history has had its own “rules” concerning what is acceptable, i.e. would be deemed “good craftsmanship” and what is not.   When I taught 16 th century counterpoint on a B.Mus. course I ...
  • 08 Mar 2018, Article
  • Some notes on my work
  • NOTES ON MY WORK [2012]   “When you begin to work with musical systems that have come about through various means, then, depending on who you are, you may become more and more loyal to that system, as it becomes more refined and articulated. And so then it becomes less and less true to nature, a bit more against nature.”   This quotation by Pauline Oliveros sums up my own experience as a composer working mainly within the Western classical tradition, but at times trying to escape ...