It's been a while since I posted, I was so focused on writing music for Mary's Dowry Productions, we had a backlog of films which we wanted to finish and release and we finally did it! I wrote three film scores in a row for Hildegard of Bingen, Saint David Lewis and Saint Dymphna. They gave me three opportunities for different styles of music and I was taken back 19 years to my first semester of college where we were asked to compose something in the style of Hildegard of Bingen!
In 2005 when I started my degree in music composition for professional media at Northbrook College, I had not heard of Hildegard of Bingen but we started right at the beginning before covering all styles and progressions of music and it was my favourite class. I was just getting to grips with Cubase for the first time and doing a crash course in VST sounds. With my student loan and grant I purchased Symphonic Choirs and I was the only one in my class to really study how to make the choirs speak. I used the choirs to realistically speak words and for my piece I had them sing in plainchant one of Hildegard of Bingen's poems. It was this that I dug out recently to use in my music score for the film after all these years!
Saint David Lewis gave me an opportunity to fuse some Welsh and Historical styles and Dymphna was something simple and uplifting. The films are now available on DVD and Instant Video.
MUSIC CD ALBUMS
After all of this and 18 years of Mary's Dowry Productions I realised that I was drawing a lot upon similar styles and sounds and had become entrenched in writing music as an underscore for film. My last album was VALLEYS which was 10 years ago. I have produced a lot of Holy Spirit calming tracks which are easy for me to do but what I started out with at aged 14 is folklore, folk, Celtic style which I would compose at the piano and later on the Clavinova. I miss these days. I wrote 3 tracks for VALLEYS at the piano, transcribed them and then worked then into multiple instrumental scores on the computer. They are so much more layered and interesting.
A few months ago I put everything away and decided that I wouldn't compose anymore, I was completely worn out. However, this week I have turned everything back on and gone for something completely new. I am into wildlife, conservation, climate right now and so I asked my sister for some nature titles and am going for a more fairy tale, nature style and really utilise my Forest Kingdom sounds. Furthermore, I have dug out my manuscript paper and I shall be writing them at the clavinova so as to go back to my roots!
GOING DIGITAL
I still send out CD albums regularly but I am hot on making everything available digitally. Yesterday I counted which albums are on Spotify, iTunes etc and am making the rest available. I am not making music soundtracks available digitally but the Holy Spirit series, the Ancient Fusion series and the "others" such as Autumn, Christmas and future ones. I'm very excited about this new direction! Check out my music on #Spotify
