Category: Composing

  • Dispelling or furthering myths?

    ‘Myths are of great significance to those in the music business and music education. Our thinking is guided by: the relationships and dynamics between artists, writers, and producers; those who market, deliver, and distribute music, such as the record companies and publishers; the consumers and fans of music, who ultimately pay for it all; and…

  • Challenging conceptions

    On to the first chapter of Burnard’s book (2012). ‘For most of us, ‘musicla creativity’ refers to a particular type of practice, perhaps that of the Great Composers’, rather than to multiple possibilities’ (7) strikes me as odd as I have never considered that to be the case, and wonder where such a claim comes…

  • Three days in Rio

    I can’t believe three days is up. I arrived in Rio 9.30 pm local time Friday and pretty much got to work on the Saturday helping with the final preparations and even devising and recording new material. Saturday ended with the first performance of work, a piece combining visuals, music, acting and movement exploring the…

  • Can we teach composition?

    After another batch of coursework is complete for GCSE and A-level music I like to look back and reflect on the year. I firmly believe in composition being an integral part of these examinations as it is the natural culmination of the study of musical rhetoric, in terms if its theoretical and stylistic constructs, and…

  • Writing with Logic

    I thought I would find it difficult receiving instantaneous feedback on what I write – via email – but I’m enjoying the process. My current work is music for a physical performance piece “Rubbish Body of Soul” working with Beo da Silva and Mauricio Carneirio. The work, just under thirty minutes long, will be performed…

  • Writing for physical theatre

    April is looking like it should be a rather exciting month, and after hearing and seeing so much music over the past couple of months (OAE mostly, but some opera and more recent music) I feel ready to write again. At my PhD viva I mentioned that the next step in my own writing was…

  • Charm is the word of 2012

    Catching up with the latest issue of the Monocle – February edition – and Andrew Tuck’s editorial draws attention to charm as the word for 2012: “Honesty, integrity, simplicity, durability, tactility are words that help all manner of firms thrive but oddly they never seem to make it past the door of a business school.…

  • Do I fear forgetting?

    I envisaged blogging to be a rather impersonal venture: I would not mention anything other than my creative pursuits and evade commentary on me and my personal experiences. Now my PhD is coming to a close and I complete the necessary amendments before the final submission I am struck by how important a concept of…

  • Operatic vernacular

    Listening to the London Road recording reminds me not only how effective this production was but how the vernacular style of speech and singing is immediately engaging for me. I think back to my interest in the Aberfan disaster of the sixties and how hearing accounts of the event by those in the community was…

  • Connect CPD

    It was fantastic to catch Sean Gregory, Director of Creative Learning at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Sean took the time to speak more about the continuing professional development in creative leadership offered by the Guildhall School to help me write an article for Music Education UK (Spring 2012). I attended…