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Monthly Archives: February 2009

This is London…

February 28, 2009
Olympics, Soundtracks, Sport, TV
4 Comments

Olympic Documentary London Calling – screens this week

Jimmy and Leona on the bus

I’ve just heard that this Wednesday (4th March 2009) sees the broadcast of the BBC Documentary ‘London Calling’, which, according to the BBC website;

…follows the exploits of the Ceremonies Team as they prepare to mount the eight-minute show to mark the official handover of responsibility for the Olympic Games from Beijing to London…

Sneak Peak here

I was the music director for the handover, which involved writing a score for the London Symphony Orchestra (based on several well-known traditional British songs as well as The Shipping Forecast and the Greenwich Time Signal) as well as re-arranging the UK National Anthem (in order to make it a bit more lyrical).

The show had to culminate in a well-known song, so, together with co-producer Steve Robson, I recorded Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis performing Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin together with (the brilliant bass player) Guy Pratt and Geoff Dugmore (the most civilised, yet powerful drummer you’ll ever find). We laid down the backing at Olympic Studios with as near to an authentic setup as possible – even down to the risers for the drums and correct amps.

Hearing that riff played by that man in that room.

I Love My Job.

Guy Pratt, Jimmy Page and Geoff Dugmore at Olympic Studios

Guy Pratt, Jimmy Page and Geoff Dugmore at Olympic Studios http://radiomovies.wordpress.com

I suspect that the programme will make fairly nailbiting viewing as there were major highs and lows throughout the long development process for everyone, culminating in the adrenalin rush of the show at the Bird’s Nest Stadium – but followed by the revelation that the direct feed of music and sound (which we’d spent months preparing) didn’t appear to find its way from the stadium to TV sets.

For me there were several moments that still seem a little unreal -

leona-2

At the Bird's Nest Stadium before the show

Firstly, being in Air studios conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, who were blissfully unaware throughout the recording session that the ‘James‘ I was on intercom with in the control room was a certain guitar player…
Secondly, realising just how technically and musically accomplished Leona Lewis is as an artist. I’ve not worked with many singers in the pop world who can discuss coloratura technique, and operas by Purcell and Bellini. Actually, there was one… Jeff Buckley ! (Check this out…) But Leona can really sing with heart and soul, balanced with quite astounding technique.

But also… Chris Hoy, Jamie Staff and Victoria Pendleton (plus medals) coming to my place for a drink before the cast party. I think I’ll tell my grandchildren about that…

Here’s my version of the National Anthem performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the singers from The National Youth Theatre.[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/anthem-july-20th-1.mp3]

Flag Rehearsal

Flag Rehearsal

Tracks and albums go online

February 24, 2009
cellist, cello, Dance, David Starkey, Entertainment, In-I, Juliette Binoche, movies, music, recording, Soundtracks, Theatre, Tudors, TV
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112I like sites with long streamed mp3s where I can listen to music while I work – kind of webpage radio stations for each album, show or film project (where I own the tracks or have permission from the publishers). I’ve had lots of nice requests for the scores to recent stage shows, and I don’t want to charge people for the music – especially if they’ve already paid for a ticket!

I’ve had a really encouraging response from posts such as this.

So..  I’ll post tracks along with all their associated images and artwork.

So far, lead tracks from The Glass Cathedral and Diver in the Crypt are up. Their B sides, and other album tracks will get posted soon, but I’ll also be adding the full sets of Jane Austen piano pieces, more electric cello works,  string pieces and recent stage shows.

Sacred Monsters which starred Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan will be put here soon, as a partner to In-I which is getting nice reviews for the score – it’s playing this week at the Sydney Opera House.

Transmission dates for the new David Starkey series on Channel 4 are to be announced soon, as well as news about Moon Machines, Shadow of the Moon and a recent project, Dream with Korean Director Kim Ki-Duk.

In the meantime here’s a string orchestra piece (written in Suffolk..!) called Primary Colours:[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/01-primary-colours.mp3]

radiomovies latest round-up

February 19, 2009
cellist, cello, Dance, David Starkey, Entertainment, film, In-I, Jeff Buckley, Juliette Binoche, movies, music, News, recording, Soundtracks, Theatre, Tudors, TV
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Carceri III The round tower - Piranesi

Carceri III The round tower - Piranesi

radiomovies latest round-up

So… The Jane Austen lovers have come out in force behind a certain piece of piano music, In-I has opened at the Sydney Opera House – and the score / soundtrack is now online here and Channel 4 are to shortly announce the transmission dates of David Starkey’s new series on Henry VIII -  the Mind of a Tyrant.

Excitingly.. for me anyway, I found the one Jeff Buckley bootleg recording I’ve been looking for for years.

Meanwhile I’ve started to put my albums online. I realised that it was ten years since I recorded The Glass Cathedral, and so I’ve decided to release it as a one tune radio station.. okay, so it’s actually a webpage with a Piranesi engraving and a tune… but, as with the dance scores, i like the idea of people being able to dial it up and listen. A lot of people have paid to see concerts, films, shows – for which I’m really grateful… why should I ask people for more money, and anyway, what’s wrong with giving the odd tune away?

Juliette Binoche & Akram Khan In-I Soundtrack now online

February 14, 2009
cello, In-I, Juliette Binoche, music, Soundtracks, Theatre
10 Comments

The dance project In-I starring Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche continues its world tour – taking in venues from Beijing to Sydney. I’ve worked with Akram for a number of years now, as a cellist and writer. Our previous project together was Sacred Monsters in which he partnered Sylvie Guillem.

Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche

My score for In-I uses lots of multitracked cello, prepared piano and electric cello as well as samples of Juliette’s voice which is, to say the least highly lyrical.

I promised I’d put the score online – so here it is!

Casanova to steps to love[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/aj1-casanova-sep-51.mp3]

Skin solo[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/aj8-skin-solo.mp3]

The apotheosis[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/the-apotheosis.mp3]

I may make these files downloadable if possible – let me know if that’s preferred.

The show has a truly exceptional design team in artist Anish Kapoor and lighting designer, Michael Hulls.

Michael has recently been working with the genius Robert LePage and is (to my mind) the Howard Hodgkin of the illumination world.

Other links:

Here are some highlights from the show presently on youtube:

Excerpts from an interview with Juliette here:

http://cinematicpassions.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/juliette-binoche-dances/

Dr David Starkey series on Henry VIII announced with score devised by Philip Sheppard

February 11, 2009
cello, David Starkey, Entertainment, History, music, recording, Soundtracks, Tudors, TV
11 Comments

Dr David Starkey photographed by Phil Coomes

David Starkey is to produce a four-part “psychological profile” of Henry VIII for Channel 4. The as-yet-untitled series will go beyond the facts of Henry’s six wives and his split with the Catholic church to piece together a sense of his character and motivations. Soundtrack available here.

The series will be broadcast in April, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne and a major British Library exhibition on the monarch.

The soundtrack has been composed by Philip Sheppard and is based on music written by Henry himself, as well as themes drawn from Tudor contemporary composers such as Philippe Verdelot and Robert Fayrfax. The score is being performed by Philip Sheppard, together with the superb vocal consort Alamire (directed by Dr David Skinner) and viol consort Fretwork.

Click the play button below to hear a preview of one of the tracks to be featured in the programme - ‘O Dolce Nocte’ by Philip Sheppard after Philippe Verdelot, featuring Alamire:

The first 60-minute episode will show Henry as a highly intelligent child, while subsequent episodes will paint him as a brilliant “A-list celebrity” character with an over-developed ego and “solipsistic sense of self”.Henry

David Sington, who will direct the series for Red House Dox Productions, said:

“[David Starkey] will ask which events changed Henry, and in changing him, changed the British character. He was convinced of his own destiny and shaped us as an island nation, cut off from the continent…. He’s not a Bluebeard character, however. He emerges as a sympathetic character even though he does terrible things.”

Indeed, the Daily Mail has just run a story, resulting from one of Starkey’s more surprising discoveries; Henry’s possible use of a stairlift towards the end of his life.

Playing with Jeff Buckley

February 10, 2009
cellist, cello, Concert, Jeff Buckley, music, YouTube
23 Comments

I’ve just found something on youtube that I’ve been searching for for years – literally…jeff1

I’ve been so lucky to have been able to play the cello with some of the most amazing musicians, but by far the greatest was Jeff Buckley. Of course he’s shot up the charts recently through his beautiful cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah – surely the antithesis of X-Factor..?

This is Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament from Dido and Æneas. But listen to this – Just. listen. to. it…

I mean, no-one can sing like that. No-one should be physically able to sing like that.

Jeff Buckley singing, withpianist Catherine Edwards, violinist Ian Belton and me on cello, in Elvis Costello’s Meltdown Festival, July 1st 1995.

I remember, this singer arrived really late, just before the show, dishevelled, all cheekbones, cool hair, black jeans and the biggest boots you’ve ever seen supporting a rake thin body.

He apologised – got out his music – a kid’s exercise book with the lyrics of the songs written out in a crazy biro scrawl. – If a word was written high up the page, well then it meant it was a high note.

At one point he asked me what country he was in… he was confused between Germany and the UK that day as I think he’d flown in with little sleep.

And then he sang.

As Elvis Costello remembers;

When he started singing Dido’s Lament at the rehearsal, there were all these classical musicians who could not believe it. Here’s a guy shuffling up on-stage and singing a piece of music normally thought to be the property of certain types of specifically developed voice, and he’s just singing, not doing it like a party piece, but doing something with it.

That’s an understatement… I remember the lights being pretty bright and the silhouette of his frame as he bent almost double to wrench every ounce of meaning from a song written 300 hundred years ago. Better than any classical musician I’ve ever heard.

As he was singing, a photographer shuffled along past the feet of the audience in the front row at the Queen Elizabeth Hall to get a shot, unaware that they were for that second the most hated person in London, and got a good clout round the head for their troubles from someone who should remain nameless.

I can’t remember anything straight after that, but Elvis Costello wrote in Mojo:

My last memory of him was at the little party in the green room afterwards. There were all these people sitting round Jeff who’d never met before – Fretwork, the viol group, a classical pianist and some jazz player – all talking and laughing about music. He’d charmed everybody. I’d much rather remember that than anything.

I just wish i could find a photo…

Here’s an extract from a Radio 4 Documentary when I talked about it:

How to be a composer for new media

February 8, 2009
career, cello, film, movies, music, recording, Soundtracks, TV
2 Comments

Tips for breaking into the covert world of composition for new media, such as film soundtracks, TV, adverts, arranging and games.

How get on the path to becoming a film, television, web or games composer

Music technology tips by Philip Sheppard February 2009cimg05732

(These are key points from lectures I’ve given recently, and a recent article for Classroom Music Magazine)

  1. WORK really hard. Work harder than anyone else you’ve ever met.
  2. If you don’t love working really hard you won’t enjoy being a composer (and believe me, it’s a great job)
  3. Ask people to show you how they do what they do. No composer minds being asked how they put a track together
  4. Learn how sound works – if you study the physics of sound, you’ll be more likely to be able to shape it into agreeable forms
  5. Make a portfolio of what you do. A showreel can be virtual – myspace is a start but can look fairly horrible. WordPress is excellent as a shop window
  6. Specialize in something unique. A small business advisor will call this your USP – Unique Selling Point. (I got into the business by doing leftfield  things with string instruments)
  7. Always work with people who are better than you. I do, and I hope they can’t tell. this keeps me on my toes, and I learn from every job
  8. Network network network… but in a cool way. If a player writes to you asking for work, it’s less appealing than if they write to invite you to a gig isn’t it? A mailing list/website with news and forthcoming events is a surefire way for people to see how busy you are. Once you’re seen to be terribly busy, this will attract more work. this sounds like a catch 22 – but it isn’t. You are likely to be self-employed, so employ yourself now!
  9. Listen emotionally, analytically and critically to everything. If you love a piece you hear, try to work out why you love it. Dissect it into its elements. Equally if music doesn’t move you or grab you, try to work out exactly why.
  10. Always carry a bit of manuscript paper with you (or a dictaphone if you don’t read music). Moleskine do really nice pocket manuscript books. Your best tunes will always hit you when you’re not looking for them
  11. see point number one…
  12. Coffee is your friend and enemy. Keep it close, but use it wisely.

How I got into it all…

I trained as a cellist at the Royal Academy of Music where I have been a cello Professor since about ’94. I had several composition lessons there as a second study, studying with Melanie Daiken, before second studies were abolished! However, by that point I was heavily ensconced in the Contemporary Music scene.

Luckily the RAM had a policy of drawing in great living composers, so I was able to play under Berio, Tippett, Messaien and many other truly inspiring musicians. At the same time I felt compelled to start improvising, and joined a quintet with Keith Tippett which specialised in ‘spontaneous composition’. At this point I learnt the value of knowing when not to play…

I’m motivated to write music that I’d like to hear – which sounds obvious and a bit selfish, but, it’s a pretty good filter.

My ‘break’ into composition came when I tried to multitrack some pieces on the cello, was encouraged to put them on a CD, that sold well and found its way onto the desk of an ad agency who threw me in at the deep end to devise the ident music for a major broadcaster… which was a learning curve, and a great break.

Pros and Cons:
Pros – I love my job. Every day is different. I can be based at home and still write and record (very different from my former touring existence). I meet really exciting people – last year it was 5 moonwalkers in one day.
I’m my own boss. I can be creative and still be working.
Cons not many.. Very late nights – but, I love working late. Oh yes – developing a studio tan (that’s very very pale) and having a habit of buying a new Mac every year and convincing myself I really need it.

Good luck…

©Philip Sheppard 2009

Haruki Murakami – lyrical genius

February 7, 2009
literature, music, Soundtracks, Theatre
2 Comments

I reckon Haruki Murakami is a lyrical genius…

I’ve finally started reading Haruki Murakami’s books. I bought Norwegian Wood at a second hand bookshop and steamed through it, becoming increasingly upset that I was nearer to the end than the beginning. It’s an immersive and profoundly lyrical book. I’ve ordered everything else he’s written in a fit of impetuousness. When I was at school I read Yukio Mishima’s book, The Sailor who fell from grace from the sea which had a similar effect on me. Unfortunately Mishima became bizarrely locked into his own fascistic ideas as he got nearer to his self-inflicted end, whereas Murakami appears to shy away from the cult of his own personality.

Complicite at the Barbican 2003

Complicite at the Barbican 2003

I went to see London production of The Elephant Vanishes back in 2003 at the Barbican, when Simon McBurney directed a radical interpretation of three of Murakami’s short stories. The production used  a cello piece I’d written based on a Turner Painting (Rain, Steam and Speed) for the scene when a Tokyo housewife finds escape from her drudgery of routine by forcing herself into a state of insomnia. The character was represented by four different actors moving in a constant short-cycled blur.

I have never seen anything so utterly different onstage (though what was being acted was too good for my music I fear…). The combination of technology, astounding physical theatre and magic realism imprinted images and emotions that only surfaced a few weeks later when I realised I’d seen something exceptional.

I’ve got the same sense from Norwegian Wood – the story is looping in my head like an infinished scrap of music. This man’s a genius. Now let’s leave him alone so he can keep at it…

The author Haruki Murakami

The author Haruki Murakami

UNKLE track on Top Gear

February 6, 2009
advert, music, Soundtracks, TV
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Pathetically excited to hear the track I worked on with UNKLE – James, Aiden Lavelle and Pablo Clements being used in Top Gear for the race across Japan. It originally appeared as an advert for BMW – see below. The brief was to rework elements from Beethoven 9 into something suitable.

The track features on our latest album End Titles Redux on the SurrenderAll label. Having trained as a classical player and composer, it’s incredible to meet musicians with such sonic awareness. ‘Sound design’ is a casually used term, but UNKLE have an ability to cross the threshold between sound and that which is tactile.

I’ve heard people say that architecture is frozen music, I’d argue that music can be melted architecture.

Here’s Bernstein conducting Beethoven 9 in probably the greatest performance of the work at the Freedom Concert in Berlin:

Beijing in Miniature

February 4, 2009
music, Olympics, Soundtracks, Sport
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Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony Rehearsal in Minature

Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony Rehearsal in Miniature © Philip Sheppard 2009

Here’s a photo I took of the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony rehearsal from the sound control desk as the Chinese rehearsed their incredible finale at great speed.

This was after we’d rehearsed our Red London Bus (containing Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis and a certain footballer) getting around the carpeted track.

I used tiltshiftmaker to give it an extra level of unreality – see also picture of very large Taiko Drum from the same rehearsal.

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