My first full length (as opposed to my shorter String Quartetettes) String Quartet No. 1 is released today on Bandcamp!

When a friend put up a clip on Facebook from the film 'Into the Wild' with Eddie Vedder singing a song called Hard Sun, I knew I recognised it, but not from that version. I couldn't get it out of my head though, and it was only after a few days and some googling I realised that the version I knew of this song was by Indio, aka Gordon Peterson, who wrote it. He only released one album, Big Harvest, in 1989, which I was given by a friend who thought I would like it - and I did - it is a brilliant album, and now something of a collector's item, if you have the vinyl (sadly I didn't - I only had a cassette, which I lost, which was why I hadn't heard this song for so long). By this time, the song had wormed its way into my ear, and the only way I could cure myself was by doing a cover of it. Claire Dunn and Mella agreed to help me out with it. It was also a good excuse to use my 'personally manufactured', baritone guitar remodelled from a bass acoustic guitar by my friend and talented guitar maestro Paul Belben.

It is available on all the streaming sites too, such as Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/6RQrMwEXiVEm8J08sfdvRM

Since finishing my Digitiphonic version of Strauss' Metamorphosen I have found myself in musical stasis. Not that I'm not doing anything, more that I am doing too much. I have several projects swirling around in my head or partly finished, but no focus or energy to finish any of them. This hasn't been helped by a death in the family and catching Covid, both close together. However, having recovered, almost, from the Covid, I am now close to finishing one particular smaller project. More on that in a week or three. In the meantime I have to own up to having written a book - details here - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60766922-my-reluctant-friend

Metamorphosen Digitiphonic Changes has now been released on Apple Music, Spotify and all good internet music stores. Here is the Apple link for it - 

Tomorrow, 1st April 2022 my reinvention of R Strauss' Metamorphosen is released on Bandcamp.

After 3 years - the first year researching and deciding if I had the courage to attempt it, then 2 years arranging, producing and recording, I have at last finished my Digitiphonic version of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen.

Richard Strauss wrote Metamorphosen at the end of World War 2 as a lament for the destruction of the cultural life and architecture of Berlin - and everywhere else in Europe I guess too - so, even though I started it so long ago, with no idea of what would take place in Ukraine, it seems particularly relevant now, with the needless desecration of war once again tearing apart the fabric and architecture of Europe.. 

Originally Strauss meant Metamorphosen to be a Choral piece, but he changed it to a string piece when he was offered a commission for a strings only piece. So, in this version I have used the words, by Goethe, that he was planning to use. They are beautiful words - the English translation is as follows - 

"No one can really know himself, 
detach himself from his inner being 
Yet, each day he must put to the test, 
What is in the end, clear. 
What he is and what he was, 
what he can be and what he might be. 

But, what goes on in the world, 
No one really understands it rightly, 
and also up to the present day, 
no one desires to understand it. 
Conduct yourself with discernment. 
Just as the day offers itself; 
Think always: it's gone well up to now, 
so might it go until the end."

The final mix is currently with the talented mastering engineer Marcin Bociński in Warsaw. Hopefully it will be finished by early April, then released shortly after that.

My String Quartetettes 0-10 are released on all internet music platforms now. Follow this link for a list of available platforms to stream or buy them - smarturl.it/quartetettes0-10

For the first time in my life I have written a piece of music the tempo of which is marked as 'Grave' (that's 40 bpm, very slow) so in a cunning play on words I thought I would find some shots of graves to put with it. This will be the second movement of my first String Quartet (If I finish the other movements that is)

My first 11 String Quartetettes - miniature String Quartets - are now released on Bandcamp. Further platforms to follow later in the month. I first started writing these when I bought a Windows tablet after my stroke in 2014, and installed an app called Staffpad on it, which lets you write music out longhand with a pen, recognises your writing (if you are careful) and renders it as printed notes. I thought the discipline of having to carefully write music so it could be recognised by the program would be good for the recovery of my right hand, which barely worked. Over the next few years I would write one out every now and again between other projects, then export it to my computer to finish it off, but as they are very short it has taken a while to build up enough of them to make it worth releasing them. When I have built up my stamina and patience, and also finished writing Digitiphonies, I hope to start writing full length Quartets, but we’ll see. They're just a bit of fun really.

Talk about a musical Long Haul. I am now halfway (14 minutes) through my Digitiphonic re-invention of Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen. I am not sure I would have attempted this if I had realised what I was taking on, but I don't regret it. How could I, with such an epic piece of music. My sheer terror of letting down this awesome composition, together with the thrill of discovering the depth of Strauss' notes and modulations, coupled with Goethe's timeless words (which RS was originally planning to use for this piece) have given me the momentum to keep going. Also the help given to me originally by Music Engraver Graham Hall, and then the sweet alto vocals of Claire Dunn and Mella Barnes. Without this support I may not have got very far into this 28 minute classic. It can all still go wrong – it has taken me about a year to get this far and it perhaps will be another year before I finish it.