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Sunday, the 25th of January 2026  #Mokafe #Brussels #Splash #SeaSymphony #BrusselsCathedral #GuntherVanDeven #LaurentFobelets #GalerieDuRoi #notebook #composing #gestation #orchestra #symphony #violin #flute #brass   I am in my favourite café in Brussels, Mokafe. It’s a wonderful old style café brasserie in the glorious Galerie du Roi, an indoor shopping arcade built in 1846. It has no background music so it is perfect for the gestation process in composing.   I have just com

Wednesday, the 26 th of November 2025, very early morning  #Tide #SeaSymphony #SciathlúireachMhuire  I just woke up with a map of the final section of the 4th movement. I reached for my miniature pad of manuscript paper but it was not there. I had to get out of bed to get my notebook. It now has a structure for the model transposition of the cantus firmus, an augmented version of the ancient Irish melody which opens the movement and the figuration to turn it into a grand fi

Tuesday, the 25 th of November 2025  #composing #mentor #Cambridge #PatHalling #quartet  What should have been a rather dull seminar about commissioning turned into an inspiring session. In particular, Spitalfields Festival director Sarah said there were some really interesting voices only emerging late in life.  The most common reasons are raising a family and financial constraints getting in the way of composing. For me it was the fear of not being taken seriously.   I hav

Monday, the 24th of November 2025  #Tide #SeaSymphony #composing   Sometimes it’s difficult to commit. The big theme in the middle section of the fourth movement has been going round my head for three weeks now, gradually filling out with counter melodies and ever more beautiful similarities from adding instruments into the top line as well as underneath. But somehow I hold back from committing the full orchestration of the section because I think something better will come a

Sunday, the 23rd of November 2025  Composing On The Train  #composing #orchestrating #inspiration   I arrived early to sing at all Saints, Fulham, so I had the chance to spend 15 minutes on the 4th movement in the lovely coffee shop opposite Putney Bridge tube. I did some work on the middle section on the train yesterday to Buxted but I was too tired last night to transfer my notes on the printout onto MuseScore. So this morning was a good opportunity to flesh out the orchest

Sunday, the 9th of November 2025  #composing #inspiration #Tide #SeaSymphony    A day full of music – singing Victoria Requiem a 4 this morning at St Patrick’s Soho, listening to new music from the Carr Consort conducted by Gavin Carr, singing Byrd 4 part mass and Vaughan Williams Valiant For Truth. In between, I find time to work on the 4th movement of the sea symphony. Inspired by the cantus firmus in the Victoria Requiem, I worked on a possible Cantus Firmus for the finale

Thursday, the 6 th of November 2025  #composing #Tide #SeaSymphony   Pasta and Polyphony (aka Thursday Night), four friends round to eat, drink and sing. They asked me about the composition process, which is still a mystery to me. What comes first, melody or harmony? My notebook has fragments of melody and whole tunes (including the big theme in the 4 th movement). It also has harmonies – oscillating chords or full harmonic sequences. The big theme has been matched with one

Sunday, the 2 nd of November 2025  #Tide #SeaSymphony #composing #notebook   I left my notebook in Sheffield – I'm used to forgetting things now and almost always have a contingency in place. I started a new notebook today and got to use it during breaks in a day out – glorious singing in Ealing Abbey, a feast for the eyes at the Brands Museum, coffee and a snack in Ladbroke Grove, then shopping. It is then that I needed time out, after overload. I sat like a lost soul on a