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. [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/04-moon-over-meadow.mp3]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]
Here’s a third piece called The Long Letter[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/07-10-long-letter.mp3]
Philip Sheppard is a composer specializing in film and television soundtracks. He is also a solo cellist and a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.
Recent films include In the Shadow of the Moon (which won numerous awards including the World Documentary Prize at Sundance), Henry Mind of a Tyrant for David Starkey’s landmark C4 series and the forthcoming feature Sergio.
He was was commissioned to compose and produce the music for the London 2012 Handover sequence at the Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony. This included a new version of the UK National Anthem. He recorded and conducted the London Symphony Orchestra playing his Olympic sequence (entitled This Is London), and together with Steve Robson produced a new version of Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis performing Led Zep’s Whole Lotta Love for the culmination of the ceremony.
His stageworks includeSacred Monsters for Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan and In-I starring Khan and Juliette Binoche.
He regularly writes and plays with UNKLE and has featured as a guest artist with numerous rock musicians including Scott Walker, Jeff Buckley, David Bowie and Jarvis Cocker.
The albums received rave reviews on release and are regularly played on Radio 3. The tracks feature a specially commissioned electric cello that has become a cornerstone of many of Philip’s compositions.
Listen to Philip playing his cello solo piece solo Woodwork here: [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/woodwork1.mp3]
Listen to Jasmine here: [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/13-jasmine-1.mp3]
The albums attracted the attention of Scott Walker, who invited him to play at his Southbank Centre Meltdown Festival. They collaborated again on Pulp’s album ‘We Love Life’ with Jarvis Cocker and after that on Walker’s critically acclaimed album ‘The Drift’.
He worked again (as string and choir arranger and conductor) with Jarvis on his recent solo album, and has arranged and recorded strings for David Bowie (Heathen), Jamelia, Sia, Oasis and Suzanne Vega. He also regularly records string arrangements for The Hours, and joined them on tour for the Narcissus Road album tour.
Conducting in Abbey Road Studio
His recent collaborations with Ivor Guest, Brian Eno and Robert Logan have included tracks on Grace Jones’ new album, and cues on the Oscar-Winning documentary Taxi to the Darkside. He appeared as an interviewee and solo cellist in 30th Century man – the recent Scott Walker documentary.
Philip regularly collaborates with James Lavelle and UNKLE. Philip appeared as cello soloist on Never Never Land. Since then, they have written and produced the album ‘End Titles….Stories For Film’ (with Gavin Clark, Josh Homme, Chris Goss and Pablo Clements) following the success of the recent album ‘War Stories’. This led to the limited edition release of End Titles Redux which was recently performed live by the Cinematic Orchestra.
Philip and UNKLE also reworked the X-Files theme for the recent movie.
Film soundtracks
His first orchestral soundtrack was commissioned for the documentary feature, ‘In the Shadow of the Moon’, which won major awards at the Boulder, Florida, Indianapolis and Sedona film festivals, as well as the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The soundtrack was released on Lakeshore Records.
Listen to excerpt here: X-15 Jet [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/03-x15-jet.mp3]
“The film features all-new interviews with the astronauts themselves, still bright and viable after all these years and full of descriptive stories to tell, as well as never-before-seen footage accompanied by Philip Sheppard’s wondrously uplifting score.” GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
Listen to excerpt here: Mare Nectaris[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/02-mare-nectaris.mp3]
In 2009 he recorded a score for Sergio directed by Greg Barker which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and will shortly be broadcast on HBO and the BBC.
With filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk in Korea
Kim Ki-Duk, the award-winning Korean director recently featured Philip’s compositions in his feature ‘Dreams’.
His composition ‘This is London’ performed by the London Symphony Orchestra acted as an overture to a new version of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love, featuring Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis – produced by Steve Robson, Page, Lewis and Philip.This was performed from the top of an unfolding London double decker bus.
Jimmy and Leona on the bus
Philip was also commissioned to arrange and direct a new arrangement of the British National Anthem for these events, which has subsequently been used by City Hall in London for its citizenship ceremonies. He also wrote the eight minute sequence for the Paralympic Handover ceremony – (which included a tea break within a hiphop battle).
Listen to the UK National Anthem arrangement here: UK National Anthem Beijing Olympics [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/anthem-july-20th-1.mp3]
Philip has produced the music for two recent BBC TV live events; The Manchester Passion and The Liverpool Nativity. These have won numerous awards, including the BBC award for Best Music Production of the year, which was awarded to Philip, together with the writer Stephen Powell.
TV scores
Philip has written a set of pieces for Viol Consort, recorded by Fretwork and vocal consort Alamire which forms the soundtrack for Dr David Starkey’s forthcoming series on Henry VIII on Channel Four, broadcast to mark the 500th anniversary of Henry’s accession to the throne.
Listen here to extract: O Dolce Nocte [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/o-dolce-nocte4.mp3]
Philip wrote a suite for piano, strings and electronics that forms the soundtrack for Robert Winston’s new series, ‘Superdoctors’, shown on BBC1 in the Autumn. His music regularly features in the Horizon strand of documentaries on BBC2.
His piano composition ‘Crystallised Beauty’ has received over 100,000 hits on YouTube after being used as the soundtrack for the ITV Jane Austen Season trailers. Listen to Crystallised Beauty here: [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/01-crystallised-beauty.mp3]
Dance and Theatre
Philip is proud to have had a long and fruitful professional relationship with dancer Akram Khan. He first joined Akram as an improvising cellist in the Kathak projects ‘Third Catalogue’ and ‘Ronin’, collaborating with Hanif Kureishi and the AK Company for ‘The God of Small Tales’.
Akram Khan and Sylvie Guillem
In 2006, Philip was commissioned to write ‘Sacred Monsters’ for Akram and Sylvie Guillem. He toured with the production until the Summer of 2007, his final performance being at the Herod Atticus Theatre in the shadow of the Parthenon.
Anish Kapoor, Akram Khan, Juliette Binoche, and Philip Sheppard
In 2008 he wrote the score for In-I featuring Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan, with stage design by Anish Kapoor, and lighting by Michael Hulls.
Complicite at the Barbican 2003
His groundbreaking work for multitracked cellos, Rain Steam and Speed, was featured in Theatre de Complicite’s acclaimed The Elephant Vanishes – based on short stories by Haruki Murakami.
Fashion and Media
Philip has recently written concert works for Alexander McQueen, ShowStudio, Yves St Laurent and Nick Knight. His work Sarabande in Black was performed live by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as the accompaniment to McQueen’s Paris Fashion week show. Excerpt from the track used in the video here:
Philip improvised a live soundtrack for the 24 hour live transmission devised by ShowStudio for Yves St Laurent, and his concert work Victorian Waltz has recently been used as the soundtrack to a film shot by Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben.
Training and early work
Philip Sheppard studied Cello and Composition at the Royal Academy of Music, during which time he specialised in contemporary music. He worked closely with Hans Werner Henze, Sir Michael Tippett and Luciano Berio during this time as a founder member of The Kreutzer String Quartet.
Whilst a student, Philip made weekly appearances at The Spitz nightclub, playing entirely improvised concerts, sometimes featuring his Piano Quintet – formed with Keith Tippett.
He collaborated with pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, who encouraged him to move away from a conventional musical environment, and pursue his composition. Philip Sheppard as a cellist He went on to pioneer electro-acoustic improvisation joining the Smith Quartet and appearing regularly with the London Sinfonietta.
As a member of the Composers Ensemble he joined Jeff Buckley onstage in the 1995 Meltdown festival, to play continuo cello for Jeff’s performance of Dido’s lament. Article here
After completing a Fellowship, he was made a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music where he is now a Senior Lecturer.
Recent reviews
“In the Shadow of the Moon has no need for overstatement, no time for bombast. Even the beautiful score (by Philip Sheppard) is used to provide punctuation notes, not emotional cues.” PHILADELPHIA NEWS
“British filmmaker David Sington does a superb job of eliciting illuminating anecdotes from the astronauts and mixing them with little-seen archival footage and a soaring symphonic score by Philip Sheppard.” BLOOMBERG DAILY NEWS
“The music from Philip Sheppard, which underscores the great space footage, is just right from popular to classical notes.” HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
‘…this prolific young composer puts his custom built cello through its paces, from birdsong to the groaning of ships’ timbers, from detuned harmonics to weird melodic whistles… this is utterly beguiling music…’ THE INDEPENDENT
Philip Sheppard’s album ‘The Diver in the Crypt’ is a perfect introduction to contemporary music GRAMOPHONE
‘Philip Sheppard… an extraordinary cellist who really does create architectural spaces through music and sensational instrumental technique…’ CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE
‘The ‘Glass Cathedral’ works beautifully… it’s gripping music.’ GRAMOPHONE
CONTACT
To contact Philip send a message via his managers (Negus fancey) using the ‘Contact’ Bar at the top of the page.
Just because it’s a Wednesday, and sunny… here’s a track called Watermark for solo piano[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/watermark.mp3]
Anyway, sitting in the garden, writing music. Today’s one of those days I’m grateful to be a self-employed person… shouldn’t go on about it as it’ll start raining, and for all I know you may be sitting at a PC somewhere cold..?
I wanted to let you know that there’s a new tag in the top right hand corner called Free Bits. It’s where I’ll post anything that appears on my other posts such as free mp3 downloads and sheet music, plus the odd preview invite and so forth.
Join me and you’ll be the first to know about future freebies, Henry VIII soundtrack release and download (Mind of a Tyrant), Jane Austen piano tracks and release dates for some films I’ve worked on in the US.
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…
After rather a lot of emails, I’ve finally got around to writing up the piano score of Crystallised Beauty. As everyone who’s asked for it seems very friendly and sociable, I decided to make it for two pianists…
You can still play it on your own if you prefer, but… to fit all the different parts in, four hands are better than two!
It’s free, but please don’t copy it anywhere else – if anyone wants a copy they can download it from here for nothing. If you want to give anything, a comment is always welcome!
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
After the Moonlight (Piano Trio)[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/13-fast-gathering-tears.mp3]And… This is new too The Daguerreotype [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/jb2-old-photos.mp3]Here’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]
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]
Here’s a third piece called The Long Letter[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/07-10-long-letter.mp3]
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]Added 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]
This is a piece (with strings) called keep walking[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/pssst.mp3]
I’ve just been finishing the soundtrack for the new David Starkey series for Channel 4, entitled Henry VIII: The Mind of a Tyrant . The music features the viol consort Fretwork and vocal consort Alamire. The series screens for four weeks around Easter. Here’s one of the tracks O Dolce Nocte: [Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/o-dolce-nocte4.mp3] The 2012 Olympics Documentary London calling from the Building the Dream series finally aired, (it made me dig out my videos from Beijing).
The Psst! Pass it on animation project has screenings in LA, New York and london. Here’s a peak at the twisted animation that uses a track of mine called keep walking, which is now a free download on my piano page. Listen here:[Audio http://radiomovies.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/pssst.mp3]In-I continues its world tour – this week it’s showing in Japan.
Summer’s landed – So soon after Easter?
