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Tuesday, 17 th of March 2026 #composing #composernotebook #Tide #SeaSymphony   Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh!   Irish roots run deep, especially in Tide which opens with an ancient Irish melody, at once celebrating and fearing the sea. So it was appropriate to start our St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Irish College in Leuven, created by the connections (by sea) between Ireland, Spain and Brabant in 1600. There we enjoyed performances by Les Fous de Bassan, Aindrias de S

Tuesday, 10 th of March 2026 #composing #composernotebook #Splash #SeaSymphony   It’s a great moment, finishing a piece. But scary too. Is it OK? I don’t know. I need to pluck up the courage to listen to the MP3 playback. Ready? I’m listening now and really enjoying it! It’s full of expectation and surprises. Just like the splash from the sea. Regular irregularity. Or, irregular regularity. I’ll ask a couple of friends to do quality control.   Then, I’ll get to work tidying

Wednesday, the 4 th  of March 2026 #composing #composernotebook #Tide #Splash #Tube #Oliver #MyHolyPlace  I’m halfway through my notebook – three months of ideas, sketches, doodles.  Tide, 3 rd movement of my Sea Symphony. For full orchestra (2222 4331). The big theme. Outline of modes. Counterpoint in the finale. Tide was played in private by London Repertoire Orchestra a couple of weeks ago.  Tube, for Percussion Orchestra of the City Lit. Flexible scoring and voices. Sket

Tuesday, the 17 th of February 2026  #musicindustry #history #nationalarchives #25yearrule #copyright #musicians #producers #termextension #nationalcurriculum #composing #DCMS #government #newlabour   It must be 25 years ago, because the documents have been released to the National Archives!     They reveal my role as Music Industry Adviser to the Government and numerous actions before and after that time getting better rights for musicians.     And now, a young academic is

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