I have lived and worked close to White Downs on the Penwith Moors near the Land's End Peninsula in Cornwall, for many years now, and during that time have written music including Solo Piano, Piano Duet, Song Settings, music for SATB, Male Voice Choir, Female Choir, Flute & Piano, Violin & Piano, Brass Quartet, String Quartet, Recorder Consort, a 'cello Concertino and other instrumental works, including incidental music for a variety of films and videos. My natural inclination is towards 20th Century English and French music in particular plus the permanent inheritance of Bach, Mozart, Brahms and Chopin, always aiming for simplicity and communication.
The piano was my first love and remains the instrument with which I am most at ease. After reluctantly enduring piano lessons at the age of 7 or 8 I refused to continue, until a few years later, chancing upon a piano version of Handel's Largo on my Grandparents old upright, my enthusiasm was awakened. I must have absorbed enough from the early abortive lessons to be able to read and play the piece, although I didn't resume proper lessons until at about 13, when I was asked by an enlightened teacher, whose name I have sadly forgotten, to buy the complete Mozart piano Sonatas; the influence of that composer's economy and subtle variety of expression has always remained. But it was the revelation of the piano music of Chopin, through seeing a now forgotten biopic called "A Song to Remember", with of all people, Cornel Wilde as Chopin and Merle Oberon as George Sands, with the music played by José Iturbi, that galvanised my determination to study seriously, and I still find the work of that extraordinarily inventive and progressive composer an inspiration and a challenge.
I was born in West Ham in 1930 and as a result of the war moved frequently about the country, ending up in south Manchester by 1945. The Manchester branch of the James Ching Pianoforte School, (now largely forgotten), happened to be situated near where we lived and after eagerly leaving Burnage Grammar School for Boys at 16 I spent some time at the Ching school as a student and later as teacher of many of the younger pupils. I had started to compose by this time, much under the influence of Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin in particular. Never attracted by the alarums and excursions of 20th century music with its desire for innovation at any cost and the apparent rejection of virtually all previous influences, I chose to pursue a personal idiom clearly based on the immense heritage of English and European music of the last 500 years: modern classical perhaps, but with a wide range of influences from Early Music to the 20th century mainstream, plus a liberal sprinkling of influences from film music to jazz. Hopefully enjoyable both to play and to listen to.
Music is increasingly being written from a classical viewpoint which is both a pleasure to play and listen to - not a pain - which the disastrous obsessions of much 20th Century music almost destroyed. There is always a place for the Avant Garde, but that is not the only way, and is pernicious if it results in repelling those who might otherwise enjoy being part of a continuing audience for music other than Pop, which itself has spawned an irritatingly ubiquitous use of the word 'song' for everything from a major symphony to a brief (hypothetical) work for solo Japanese nose-flute.
Much of my music is now available in printed score form, and this site contains sample pages and many mp3 audio clips for browsing and buying.
I was born in West Ham in 1930 and as a result of the war moved frequently about the country, ending up in south Manchester by 1945. The Manchester branch of the James Ching Pianoforte School, (now largely forgotten), happened to be situated near where we lived and after eagerly leaving Burnage Grammar School for Boys at 16 I spent some time at the Ching school as a student and later as teacher of many of the younger pupils. I had started to compose by this time, much under the influence of Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin in particular. Never attracted by the alarums and excursions of 20th century music with its desire for innovation at any cost and the apparent rejection of virtually all previous influences, I chose to pursue a personal idiom clearly based on the immense heritage of English and European music of the last 500 years: modern classical perhaps, but with a wide range of influences from Early Music to the 20th century mainstream, plus a liberal sprinkling of influences from film music to jazz. Hopefully enjoyable both to play and to listen to.
Music is increasingly being written from a classical viewpoint which is both a pleasure to play and listen to - not a pain - which the disastrous obsessions of much 20th Century music almost destroyed. There is always a place for the Avant Garde, but that is not the only way, and is pernicious if it results in repelling those who might otherwise enjoy being part of a continuing audience for music other than Pop, which itself has spawned an irritatingly ubiquitous use of the word 'song' for everything from a major symphony to a brief (hypothetical) work for solo Japanese nose-flute.
Much of my music is now available in printed score form, and this site contains sample pages and many mp3 audio clips for browsing and buying.
