Sorry for the recent radio silence! I’ve been very busy with a film and a stage show… plus there’s a really big film project in the pipeline that I wish I could tell you more about…
To all who’ve asked for Crystallised Beauty… it’s just been sent – and I’ve had a brainwave about how to release tracks more easily. Watch this space!
Also coming soon – a schedule of all forthcoming performances and film broadcasts/premieres plus dance shows too.
Here’s a new piano track that goes with the above image – a memory for water
The Houston Symphony announces Carnegie Hall as the second stop for the world-premiere event, The Planets—An HD Odyssey, a newly commissioned project of the Symphony. On January 28, 2010, Carnegie Hall will present the Symphony under the baton of Music Director Hans Graf in a program that culminates with Gustav Holst’s beloved The Planets and a high-definition, state-of-the-art film by celebrated producer/director Duncan Copp.
I’ve written a Prelude – The Launch of Cassini which opens the film.
I’m very excited about this. I’ve played in Carnegie Hall, but have never had anything presented there before. The Holst is such an incredible piece that I’m steering clear of its orchestration and soundworld and going heavily into harmonics and string overtones.
I may put a sneak peek here soon. Needless to say, it’s going to have a lot of cellos in it…
Breaking news… New piano page with tracks here
Funnily enough, I can’t play the piano as I’m a cellist by trade, so one hand carrying a melody is more than enough for me. In fact my piano reports from junior school were so bad that I still have them.
They are paper reports as, back then, the only computer in school ran floppy disks the size of a pancake (same consistency too) and could achieve the incredible task of generating a row of ten prime numbers whilst making a noise like your granny clearing her throat.
Sorry, not your granny, one’s own granny.
So they were lovingly crafted from postcard sized sheets of paper stapled together with a whole page per subject, including instrumental lessons. Most of the sheets were marked with crabbed, bitter scratchings of frustrated first world war veterans sent to the darkest parts of Essex to teach us, which goes some way to explaining why they were illustrated with fag ash burns and beer stains.
Not so my piano report pages .. oh no. Elegant beautiful writing like (the then) to be Lady Di’s.
They read:
Year one: Trying
Year two: Still trying
Year three: Very trying
Obviously a treasured possession now…
Anyway – A little while back I wrote a piece for solo piano called Crystallised Beauty (Crystallized if you’re American) which was recorded on an album for Chappell. For some reason, some people like it – for which I’m very grateful, as I’m an imposter in the world of the keyboard…
Here’s the not often heard full-length version of the track:
Here’s a Jane Austen trailer using it. The sheet music is finally coming soon and will be a free download from this page…
Other Keyboard pieces
The are a number of other keyboard pieces in this set.
Here’s one of them, which was recorded in Finchcocks, a stately home and piano museum. The instrument used is a Viennese double strung piano – very rare and extremely fragile instrument. The piece is (as yet) unnamed, but is based on the idea of an empty drawing room at night – except, that is, for the piano. It holds within its wood and strings snatches of music, harmonics and melodies that others have played on it… Any ideas for names gratefully accepted – the more literary the better!
Here’s a second piece recorded on a Steinway – a slow ballade waltz
Philip Sheppard is a composer specializing in film and television soundtracks.
He is also a solo cellist and professor at the Royal Academy of Music.
This is his blog.
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