Category Archives: cello

The joy of making it up

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improp

Impropera – photo by Julian Macedo

There’s nothing like walking out on stage not knowing what you’re going to play. For many of us classically trained musos this a nightmare we’ve all had in troubled nights’ sleeps… and yet, when you get used to doing it, it’s the greatest drug in the world.

I’m lucky to work with the best improvisers I know, whether in Not So Silent Movies… or the extraordinary Impropera.

Impropera improvise operas on suggestions from the audience. It’s surreal and hilarious. We just had a performance last week which I wanted to share with you here. The pianist Anthony Ingle is a genius. I use the word literally & with no hyperbole. He is a genius. I’ve said it again.

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Anthony Ingle – photo by Julian Macedo

On the night, we were asked to make a set of variations on a theme from the audience – La Vie en Rose, in the style of three different composers, Dufay, Mozart and Gershwin. Anthony is able to pull melody, harmony, phrasing and structure from thin air – I get to noodle around on top (that’s the easy bit!). The rush of goosebumps when it clicks is crazy. When it goes wrong, it goes properly wrong.

Being strong & wrong and being quite happy about it is (I’m convinced) the key to being totally comfortable on stage.

Well, here’s the improv. This is all on the fly with no preparation… so be kind! This is recorded from the end of the Dufay bit on an iPhone in the audience, so it’s not great quality, but you’ll get the idea..!

radiomovies roundup

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Moon Machines is on the Science Channel this week – the companion series to In the Shadow of the Moon. I wrote the music for the series last year which aired on the Discovery Channel.

Henry Mind of a Tyrant continues its run on Channel 4 this evening at 9pm with the second episode – Warrior. Channel 4 have put a series of short films, images and even (oh no…) an interview with yours truly at this site. Don’t forget the soundtrack is a free listen on this site.

Sergio is going to be shown at HotDocs in Ontario – click here for more details.

Lots of people (hundreds in fact!) have downloaded the sheet music for Crystallised Beauty this week, and I’m asking for suggestions for the next piece to be made available. Let me know at this page!

On this site, I’ve put up a couple more archive album tracks; Aqua Voce now online, together with Penitential Psalm.

Thanks for all the messages and comments – it’s great to hear from you…

fiddlewiddle.com

Another unlikely foray into fashion

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Lily Donaldson video by Nick Knight & Ruth Hogben for ShowStudio using Mechanical Waltz by Philip Sheppard

I’ve been involved with a few projects with Nick Knight and his team at ShowStudio – despite my being to the fashion world what Boris Johnson is to speed skating…

The most insanely enjoyable of these was a project where we made 24 films in 24 hours – where the great John Gosling (Mekon) and I  provided the live music. I ended up being styled by the head of YSL – Stefano Pilati (I was probably the chubbiest person he’s ever dealt with) and the whole photoshoot & film shoot was turned into a catalogue for Yves Saint Laurent.

He’s a real gent.

Just found a scene from that session… Jessica Miller looks at me as if she’s used to being written on while a random cellist plays at her…ysl2

Harrison’s Chronometer online

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New tracks added!chron1

There are some new tracks added this week from past albums including Harrison’s Chronometer which I released as the other track on the EP length Glass Cathedral album, way back in 1999.

You’ll find them all in the sidebar to the right under Pages, including The Diver in the Crypt and In-I stage show.

Soon to come… the score of Sacred Monsters, (the Sylvie Guillem Akram Khan dance piece) and a very weird piece I wrote about the Venetian Underground System…

Tracks and albums go online

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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%5D

radiomovies latest round-up

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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

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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%5D

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

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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

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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

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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