Dewi Sant, new instrumental music CD album, choral, fusion, composing a soundtrack

The last couple of weeks has seen me seize the opportunity of a gap between film scores to produce another soundtrack CD album.  I have been asked many times to make the music from Mary's Dowry Productions films available on audio CD.  I have been producing instrumental music albums on CD for over two decades now but I take an awful lot of time out from this whenever we produce a new film and I write the music directly to picture.  We have so many projects simultaneously on the go that I find it difficult to get back into the mind set of a music CD album.  However, the music that I do write to the films is very similar to the music on my CD albums, albeit more directed by the films themselves, but the instruments are the same and my style and sound is the same too.  In fact, sometimes I am pushed into directions I would not usually go because as I am writing to picture, the storyline changes or something is specifically needed and I compose according to that and this adds a whole new dimension to my music style and produces something very interesting. 

Dewi Sant - The CD Soundtrack I have been working on this week

If you enjoy my CD albums like Dreams, Worlds, Kingdoms, then you will definitely also enjoy the albums I am gradually making available of music taken from the film soundtracks in the series 'Calm Your Spirit With Music'.  I am working on gradually releasing as many as I can and this week has seen me taking the music from Saint David of Wales production and creating the CD album Calm Your Spirit With Music Volume 5: 'Dewi Sant'.  I have actually really enjoyed it.  I chose this album because the score was still on my computer as it is quite recent.  I also love this score because I was free to work with frame drums, guitars, baroque guitars and piano for some nice interlude where we included prayers in both English and Welsh languages. 

Screenshot from 'Saint David of Wales' film

I wanted to do more with this music and now as my opportunity.  Unfortunately to create a music soundtrack CD album, it's not a simple matter of just stripping away the narration.  Because the music has been written directly to picture and kind of organically grows according to the narration and plot, the volumes change quite a lot so if the album is to be just instrumental, what was a simple underscore is suddenly brought to the forefront so has to be worked with quite a lot.  Also, it's difficult to decide where to put track changes in as the soundtrack is usually a constant growth, but there are usually natural markers. 

Saint David of Wales DVD Film

I spent the week dividing the score from Saint David of Wales film into seven tracks as well as extending some.  I then spent the last three evenings listening to the tracks whilst watching the film to come up with suitable track titles that would reflect what each instrumental track is trying to tell via music.  I really got a lot out of it and had forgotten just how enjoyable and fulfilling the film 'Saint David of Wales' is.

The track listing is as follows:

Track 1: Dewi Sant (2.00)
Track 2: The Hills of Solitude (3.07)
Track 3: Holy Earth (4.00)
Track 4: Song of Grace (4.24)
Track 5: A Hillside Rising (3.11)
Track 6: Do Ye the Little Things in Life (5.41)
Track 7: Trwy Iesu Grist Ein Harglwydd (Through Jesus Christ Our Lord) (3.38)

I chose 'The Hills of Solitude' for track 2 because watching the film at this point, the music was reflective and spoke of Saint David taking time out in prayer and there was some beautiful scenery. 

In Track 3 the monks were tilling the earth and contemplating so with a play on words to express the monks at work I named the track 'Holy Earth'.  In Track 5, the music builds as the film spoke about Saint David's miracle of the rising of a hill, hence, 'A Hillside Rising'.  I also named track 7 in the Welsh language taken from a prayer included in the film, translated as 'Through Jesus Christ Our Lord'.

Screenshot from Saint David of Wales film showing part of a prayer in Welsh language

All in all, I'm very pleased with this track, the music is interesting and pleasant, both calming and reflective, but exciting and bold in other places, very enjoyable to listen to.  I got a lot out of it each time I listened to it through.  It fits in nicely with all my other CD albums and totally has my usual style of music.  I used some of my favourite instruments in this score, particularly the frame drum with piano.  The CD is available through our online shop www.marysdowryproductions.org 

Calm Your Spirit With Music Volume 5: Dewi Sant

Baroque guitars, mystical Altus voices and emotional strings mingle subtly with the sounds of wooden flutes, tenor viola da gamba, viola de roda, piano and harp to create a union of original contemporary and ancient instruments in a new sound that will draw you in and bring calm, uplift the spirits and delight your ear. Dewi Sant is inspired by all the beauty that is Wales both visually and expressively. Each instrumental track tells the story of Faith, contemplation, joy and peace through music and imagination.

Dewi Sant is available from www.marysdowryproductions.org on CD album worldwide.