Philip Sheppard

Art

Graphic scores

Music drawn as pictures. Each score is written into the shape of its subject.

Watch Philip tell the story behind a graphic score →

Panoramic graphic score of the School Farm Studios live room
School Farm Studios
September 2023 · Dedicated to Andrew Sunnucks. The basis for the covers of Go Go Go!, The Sense of Things and Regency Redux
Graphic score drawn as an X-Wing starfighter, with a bass line beneath
An X-Wing for JJ Abrams
2015 · Drawn for JJ Abrams after he used Philip’s music to launch Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Comic-Con · Watch the Comic-Con reel
Graphic score drawn as the Fallingwater house, with staves as its terraces and waterfalls
Falling Water
June 2019 · Auctioned for an ASID scholarship
Graphic score drawn as a great breaking wave, its staves forming the crests and spray
A Wave for Dr Wave (after Hiroshige)
2013
Graphic score drawn as a McLaren Formula 1 car
The Art of Fine Tuning
Montréal, 9 June 2016 · for Team McLaren, Amanda McLaren and Jenson Button
Graphic score in brown ink shaped as the X-15 rocket plane
X-15
2006 to 2007 · In the Shadow of the Moon, cue MM03, for solo violin, marimba, celeste and orchestra · Watch the score sessions
Tall graphic score of a flowering tea plant rising from mountains and a river of staves
The Art of Tea
2016 · For John McKee, a label for a gin bottle for Headframe Spirits
Graphic score drawn as a terrier, its fur made of staves
After Bach
2018 · For John, David and their dog Leland. Based on Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major
Graphic score in pencil and ink, its staves curling into ribbons that form a heart
Write It on My Heart
2026 · Pencil and ink, based on a sketch for The Book of Dust

Behind the score

Where the music comes from

Short films from the studio and the score sessions. New ones appear here as they are released.

Recording the score for In the Shadow of the Moon | Philip Sheppard conducts at AIR Studios, 2006
How I wrote Kara’s Theme from Detroit: Become Human | Cello + Loop Pedal
I invented this cello technique at school and years later used it on a Bowie song

See the full playlist on YouTube →