Tag: look what I made

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...

When you made this planet

Byartsyhonker December 8, 2011 1 Comment
Some time ago, Thomas Thurman drew my attention to a text to try setting as a hymn. The story behind the text, as well as the text itself, is here. After spending the requisite months sitting in a "drafts" drawer while I got distracted by other things, and some help with editing from various people (Dr Christopher Parker at St Mary's Addington was particularly helpful), I think it's about as...

Song for October Ending

Byartsyhonker August 31, 2011 0 Comments
In around 2006 I wrote this SATB setting of a poem by my grandmother. The weather is a bit autumnal here today and a few people were talking about things they like about autumn, so I thought I'd post it even though it's two months early. SONG FOR OCTOBER ENDING For a season cold rain imprisons us; our lives circle around coffee cups, blue teapots, things simmering on the stove, baking in the...

In Commendation of Music

Byartsyhonker April 18, 2011 0 Comments
Somehow, I neglected to blog about this at the time... last year I wanted to make a birthday present for Stella, who keeps everything ticking over smoothly at Quire. So of course I wrote a piece of music. The text is by one William Strode, and I chose it (after the usual laboured searching) because it was a fairly simple metrical poem which I could set in the style of an 18th-century glee. PDF...

The Lord Bless Thee

Byartsyhonker April 16, 2011 2 Comments
I wrote this for the King James Trust 2011 composition competition. I had intended to enter both categories but failed to get my act together in time, so this was thrown together rather hastily. However, I do like it for what it is: short, sweet, simple. It should work well with either organ or piano. If you had a flute or another instrument, it would lend itself to a descant based on the...

Music for St Michael and All Angels

Byartsyhonker September 29, 2010 0 Comments
Today I've been to St Paul's Cathedral for Evensong, to hear the winning entry in the recent New Music Competition. There were 58 entrants, out of which one was chosen for the £1000 prize. Andrew Cusworth chose the same text as I did for the competition, one previously used by Richard Dering in this gem (YouTube link). It was interesting to hear the difference in our approaches to it. I like to...

Give Us Grace

Byartsyhonker September 23, 2010 0 Comments
Earlier this year, Rev Kathryn Fleming asked me to write something for the patronal festival of St Matthew's, Cainscross, which was this Tuesday. It needed to be something fairly simple, a round perhaps, something the congregation would be able to pick up quickly and sing at the service; it needed to be relevant to the occasion but useful for other situations as well.   I was happy to make an...

Two compositions

Byartsyhonker March 21, 2010 0 Comments
At some stage I will probably stop thinking of my life in terms of "since I finished at Trinity", but for now it's still such a change that I'm quite regularly struck by how different life is. One of the joys of having more control over my time is that I have been doing more composing. I have half a dozen things unfinished at the moment, but I've also written three pieces since December. One of...

Busy…

Byartsyhonker November 5, 2009 0 Comments
I do seem to be having something of a dry spell, in terms of blogging here. I have been quite busy! I composed an anthem; it was sung during a church service on 27th September. The sheet music is available here and a MIDI file here; I don't yet have a suitable recording. The piece is dedicated to Rev Dr Catherine Dowland-Pillinger, on the occasion of her ordination to the priesthood of the Church...