Author: artsyhonker

New music for Pentecost: Sweet Spirit Comfort Me

Byartsyhonker May 18, 2012 1 Comment
St Paul's Cathedral had another composition competition. I only found out about it around ten days before the deadline but decided it was worth at least looking at the suggested texts and having a go at writing something. The result? Three verses of Robert Herrick's "Litany to the Holy Spirit", set for SATB. It's a bit mournful perhaps, but so is the text. Each verse is set differently, so adding...

How to introduce new music in churches

Byartsyhonker April 16, 2012 1 Comment
I wrote this as a comment elsewhere, and thought it perhaps worth reproducing:You can get congregations to sing new music, but it takes a bit of work and cooperation from your organist/music director/whoever. 1) If you have one, see if you can get the choir (or music group or what have you) to sing the new tune (possibly to old words!) as a Communion hymn or an anthem a few times.2) In the weeks...

To everything there is a season.

Byartsyhonker March 27, 2012 3 Comments
In May 2000 I moved to London. To Hendon, precisely. My plan was to teach music and convert to Judaism and, eventually, marry the boy I was chasing. I was nineteen.I don't remember how long after moving there I got my first piano student in the area, but it wasn't a desperately long time. She was a lovely older lady who'd been on a "singing for the brain" course and wanted to study the piano in...

Flash Compline, Monday 26th March

Byartsyhonker March 25, 2012 1 Comment
There will be a Flash Compline service at 8.30pm on Monday, 26th March, in the gardens of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street tube and mainline stations - here's a map Music: We will use this setting of Compline. We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £2 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident...

Give us back our NHS

Byartsyhonker March 20, 2012 2 Comments
Scum who don't know how to feel They're so rich they have to steal Eyes all glazed from looking west Give us back our NHS! We won't take rule for the rich While the poorest feel the pinch. There's no mandate for this mess Give us back our NHS! Words by @Eithin and @LosTheSkald, music by me. Please sing it, teach it to people, make videos, write more verses, whatever. It's under a CC BY-SA...

Laetare: #plent growth so far

Byartsyhonker March 18, 2012 0 Comments
So, I've been sowing some seeds each day in Lent. Some of them have failed; some I've planted on outside, where I try to protect them from the voracious ravages of "Brother" Snail. Some are still indoors in their pots.I can't find an easy way to put all the pictures in the blog I've been keeping at tumblr, so I've uploaded them here instead.And one final photo, not from the #plent project, but...

What I am planning for Lent…

Byartsyhonker February 15, 2012 0 Comments
No, not the music -- more on that anon. I'm planning something else.I'm planning on sowing, each day of Lent, some seeds for edible plants. I'll be posting pictures to Tumblr and those will turn up on Twitter; once a week I'll try and do a summary post of some sort, which I'll link to from here and FaceBorg and various other places for those of you who aren't into Twitter.Do feel free to join me,...

It’s Up To Us to Change the Narrative

Byartsyhonker February 2, 2012 9 Comments
I was thinking the other morning about community size, economies of scale, and our perception of other people as human beings worthy of care and respect. In larger communities, where everyone doesn't know everyone else, the media have quite a lot of power over how we see one another. And now Cameron's government have passed the Welfare Reform Bill.I don't know whether the Daily Fail, the Sun and...

Flash Compline, Monday 23rd January

Byartsyhonker January 21, 2012 0 Comments
There will be a Flash Compline service at 9.00pm on Monday, 23rd January, in the gardens of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, near Liverpool Street tube and mainline stations - here's a mapMusic: We will use this setting of Compline.We will have a small number of spare copies, which you can purchase for £2 if you want to keep them, or borrow if you don't. Don't worry if you aren't a confident...

If you buy my music, I will make more.

Byartsyhonker January 12, 2012 0 Comments
If you liked the Twelve Days project and you'd like to support me in making more music, the album is now available to purchase from Bandcamp. You can pay as little or as much you like, and you can download the music in a variety of formats (including FLAC and .ogg). The recordings themselves are still under a CC BY-SA license, so having downloaded the album you can put it on USB drives and give...