Midnight Digital
Here’s a new track called Kinderszenen. Hope you like it.
Scene from Childhood
5
Category Archives: recording
radiomovies roundup
Latest show news. As you can see there’s a beautiful poster for the forthcoming Sergio directed by Greg Barker – due to be shown on HBO in June. This recently won Karen Schmeer the editing award at Sundance.I hope to put a number of the tracks online soon as a free stream.
Looking at the above I realise I’m lucky to work on projects where the PR material seems to be thought through…
In-I, my project with Juliette Binoche, Anish Kapoor and Akram Khan is in Beijing this week, having transferred from Shanghai. You can hear the score here.
It’s going to have a break before opening at BAM (Harvey Theatre), New York, for the latter part of September.
How to be cool
The Jimi Hendrix Experience had a shaky start...
Recent pieces for piano
I can’t play it well, but I love it all the same… Which other pieces would you like free sheet music for? Please let me know!
I’ve written quite a few pieces for piano recently, for various films and as concert works. (NB free download at the end)
Join me on Twitter for mp3 and sheet music updates
Sheet music for Crystallised Beauty
Here’s a track called Watermark for solo piano[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/watermark.mp3%5D
Glenn Gould [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/15-glenn-gould.mp3%5D
After the Moonlight (Piano Trio)[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/13-fast-gathering-tears.mp3%5DAnd… This is new too The Daguerreotype [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/jb2-old-photos.mp3%5DHere’s another recorded in Finchcocks, a stately home and piano museum. The instrument used is a Viennese double strung piano – a very rare and extremely fragile instrument. [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/04-moon-over-meadow.mp3%5D
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 [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/jb3-ballade.mp3%5D
Here’s a third piece called The Long Letter[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/07-10-long-letter.mp3%5D
Here’s the obvious one (of Jane Austen fame)… Crystallised Beauty - the (not often heard) full-length version of the track:[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/01-crystallised-beauty.mp3%5DAdded today – Sheet music for Crystallised Beauty!
And here’s one called for Elena[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/22-9-for-elena.mp3%5D
This is a piece (with strings) called keep walking[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/pssst.mp3%5D
Here’s the mp3 if you’d rather download it and hear it on your personal gramophone (!): keep walking by Philip Sheppard
If you like any of these pieces, check out Aqua Voce too, and remember to Join me on Twitter for mp3 and sheet music updates too!
Tracks and albums go online
I 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
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?
Dr David Starkey series on Henry VIII announced with score devised by Philip Sheppard
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”.
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.
How to be a composer for new media
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 2009
(These are key points from lectures I’ve given recently, and a recent article for Classroom Music Magazine)
- WORK really hard. Work harder than anyone else you’ve ever met.
- If you don’t love working really hard you won’t enjoy being a composer (and believe me, it’s a great job)
- Ask people to show you how they do what they do. No composer minds being asked how they put a track together
- 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
- 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
- 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)
- 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
- 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!
- 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.
- 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
- see point number one…
- 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
