Note – all guitar ‘YouTube’ performances are either amateur performances by the composer or computer-generated
Note new works will be posted both here and on guitarcompositions.weebly.com)
Variations On Cadair Idris (2022) (21 mins) Guitar Duet
Fragments of Fading Light (Symphonic Variations)
In Memoriam: Stratford Caldecot 1953-2014.
There are currently three version of this work : for solo guitar, duet guitar, and for chamber orchestra with harp.
GUITAR DUET VERSION PDF (Scores)
Technical Note: This audio recording is created directly from the score in Finale (v.27) using the NotePerformer (3.3.2) synthetic orchestra.
ORCHESTRAL VERSION
Technical Note: This audio recording is created directly from the score in Finale (v.27) using the NotePerformer (3.3.2) synthetic orchestra.
Orchestral Score PDF‘s
These PDF prints follows standard film score conventions. Please contact me for parts.
For conducting the score must be printed (scaled up) on to A3 paper. The work is download as 11 separate files (that is the Theme, followed by 9 variations and the Epilogue).
Please contact me directly for .zip file of the instrumental parts or complete score as one zip.
SOLO GUITAR VERSION
Notes for All Versions of ‘Fragments’:
I’m fascinated by light – its tones, its hues, its depth, and especially the colour of light on the hills or water of the estuary as the day dies away every evening. Just before dusk, in the fading light, every second is precious – those precise sparkling blues on the water, that splash of purple high on the hillside, reflecting a distant yellow sunset, are all so transitory, so brief. Once seen, savoured, and appreciated in the soul they have already gone, like the notes of a plucked instrument they are already dying, constantly diminishing and fading – but not lost. Individual notes die but the essence of the music is the pattern held timelessly and eternally in the mind of God.
The piece is an elegy – to Stratford – a good friend and a great man, but not for one moment should one think that his light has faded. On the contrary, in the music when all seems lost and desperate the main theme returns – our Christian hope is in the resurrection, in the light and the life that never fades.
Work on Fragments of Fading Light began around 10 years ago and a first completed version was performed in Manchester in 2016. This present version is a complete rework of the 2016 material into a set of variations (and now available scored for three alternative forces: viz: solo guitar, orchestra and guitar duet). Each variation is colored by fragments taken from C S Lewis’s Narnia series. Stratford was an influential authority on the writings of C. S Lewis, I hope he would have approved.
The Movement Titles (quotes) s are:
Theme: ” . . . it was only a year ago since we left but everything looks as if no one had lived in Cair Paravel for hundreds of years.”
Variation 1: “Come in! Come in! Fortunate favourite of the Queen – or else not so fortunate.”
Variation 2: “. . . flowing robes and orange-coloured turbans, . . . a wise, wealthy, courteous, cruel and ancient people”
Variation 3: “And when they looked at her they thought they had never before known what beauty meant”
Variation 4: “. . . a smooth, green lawn, a ship so brightly coloured that it looked like an enormous piece of jewellery, towers and battlements, banners fluttering in the air, a crowd, gay clothes, armour, gold, swords, a sound of music. . .”
Variation 5: “[The ship] . . .. . . had just run up to the top of one glorious blue wave, and the nearer slope of that wave came down towards you, with streaks and bubbles . . .”
Variation 6: “She felt frightened only for a second. . . the world beneath her so very far away that it seemed to have nothing to do with her. . . floating on the breath of the Lion was so extremely comfortable . . .”
Variation 7: “The Lion was singing still . . . but it was also far wilder. . . Can you imagine a stretch of grassy land bubbling like water in a pot?”
Variation 8: “I feel in my bones, . . .that we shall all, one by one, pass through that dark door before morning. I can think of a hundred deaths I would rather have died.”
Variation 9: ” . . . the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan’s right.”
Epilogue: “. . . at the mouth of the great river of Narnia . . . How it all comes back! . . . We could pretend we were in Cair Paravel now.”
Sonata Seven
Sonata Seven : Programme Notes
Sonata Seven is dedicated to my friend, Hugh Symonds. In my mid teens he was my closest friend. Two years ahead of me in school, Hugh naturally became my role model – the most potent influence upon my life. I was so fortunate. Hugh was such an inspiring, clean, healthy, open person; an ideal worth copying. I didn’t just walk in his footsteps, I ran in them.
Hugh, always a dedicated athlete, began running to school and back each day in his sixth form years. This does not sound much until you realise it was a run of around 6.5 miles in each direction. I lived a little further away; when I joined him my journey was 7.5 miles. Both Hugh and I were members of Altrincham Athletic Club, a group of inspiring people. Thursday night was club night, after the club run Hugh and I would sit in his house together drinking coffee and listening to music. In those days we knew nothing about classical music. Hugh’s taste became my taste – his preference for what was known at the time as “progressive music” was what we listened to – ‘Soft Machine’, ‘Pink Floyd’, ‘Pentangle’, ‘Yes’, and ‘King Crimson’. What impressed me most about progressive music, and still impresses me now, was that the musicians have something to say, imaginary soundscapes to create, moods, emotions and messages to communicate. Today my ideal of composition remains a picture in sound.
Inevitably as Hugh and I went to different universities we drifted apart. He was at Durham where I wanted to be, I was at Oxford where I didn’t. There I wonderfully misspent the state money devoted to my further mathematical education in studying the guitar under Gerald Garcia. Only later was I to damage my left hand and have to work for a living after all.
Meanwhile Hugh (legitimately trained as a mathematician), went into the public school sector and remained athletic. As a fell runner he quite literally ‘got to the top’, winning the coveted “Three Peaks” in 1984, 1985 and 1987. Then in 1990, he set a new record (66 days 22 hours) for a continuous traverse of all the “Scottish Munros” – that is all the mountains over 3000 feet. Having succeeded, Hugh then ran on to include England, Wales and Ireland (in 97 days). It was a stupendous achievement, his entire journey achieved on foot and supported by his equally talented wife and family in a camper van.
Hugh and Pauline retired relatively early – and unlike many – retirement was only the beginning. Hugh and Pauline are now one of the stars of crazyguyonabike.com, famous for their cycling exploits all over the First, Second and Third World. One mainstream cycling magazine refused to include their account of their adventures in the Central Asian ‘…Stans’ because the editors thought such trips too dangerous.
This sonata is an overdue tribute to my friend. Hugh plays the guitar – If I’ve got it right he will be able to play it!
The Open Road.
Like Hugh, I find self propulsion along a highway a most satisfying experience. My efforts in this field are more modest. About 80 miles in my “rocket armchair” (Quest Velomobile.nl) is about my limit. For Hugh and Pauline however, their open road is on a colossal scale – whether it’s 6000 miles down South America, 3000 across Australia or countless thousands across those half-governed areas of Eastern Europe and Central Asia that uk.gov suggest we avoid. The road may be hard going, even dangerous – but it’s open.
Lightest Peru.
Unlike Hugh and Pauline I’ve never set foot in Peru. Most of what I do know came from a long conversation I had on an aeroplane with an international mining engineer who had chosen to retire to Lima. The engineer himself could have stepped out of the pages of Graham Greene or John Buchan – was his revolver still in his pocket? In writing this I forget my limited parochial impressions (Paddington Bear, Marmite sandwiches and London suburbs etc.) and try to imagine Hugh and Pauline’s experience of Central and Southern America. In my music tropical sunlight is filtering through trees onto a languid slow flowing river. I’ve seen pictures*. It’s clearly a beautiful and enchanting place, especially if you’ve got the confidence and nerve to cycle thousands of miles on unmapped dirt track roads. (*One picture Hugh showed me was of something like a bus shelter surrounded by lush green jungle on the banks of a river. Hugh then calmly told me that Pauline had been very ill and spent a whole day in that shelter with a temperature of 108 waiting for the once weekly ferry!)
The Munros.
As he finished his epic journey Hugh gave several television interviews. I can’t remember them clearly but I can remember the overwhelming sense of triumph. How could one man travel quite so far so fast ? even when provided with a huge daily input of highly calorific food. For Hugh, no doubt, it was episodic. Perhaps one day battling with the snow, ice and sun on exposed mountains – the next, maybe more dangerous, dodging speeding traffic on the road sections between mountains. Constantly aware that one bad twisting stumble and fall, one bad chill, would be the end of the entire expedition. Those with imagination will be able to hear and see the bleak towering peaks, the treacherous shifting mists and the tiny lone runner almost invisible on those long slopes.
Variations On Cadair Idris (2021) (~19 mins)
This PDF is of the newly revised revision. A duet version should be available Feb 2022.
(The recording is currently of a previous version.)
The well-known song ‘Cadair Idris’ was written for harp by Bardd Alaw (John Parry) in or before 1804.
Sonata IV ‘Italia’ (2020) (~21 mins)
1) Milan Happy memories of working in Milan .
2) Roma. My unique (and dangerous) visit to Rome.
3) le Alpi – volare a nord Flying North out of Italy
Folk song arrangements
Eighteen ‘Fantasy Arrangements’ of old Welsh children’s songs. – Arranged into to 6 Suites of 3 songs. The arrangement into suites is purely for convenience and as one suggestion from many possibles – they can played on their own or in other combinations
For each piece there extensive notes on youtube(not here). Open the URL directly in youtube to see those notes.
Suite I
15) Os Gwelech yn Dda Ga’i Grempog (G major)
2) Cysga Di, Fy Mhlentyn Tlws (G minor)
10) Y March Glas (G major)
Suite II
8) Can y Melinydd (E minor)
4) Morio (C major)
5) Deryn y Bwn o’r Banna (E major)
Suite III
16) B’le wyt Ti’n Myned (E minor)
7) Robin Diog (A minor)
9) Hen Fenyw Fach Cyweli (E major)
Suite IV
18) Y Fasged Wye (A major)
6) Bu Farw’r Cathod (C minor)
13) Ton Ton Ton (B minor)
Suite V
17) Pedoli (A major)
12) Marwnad yr Ehedydd (D minor)
3) Torth o Fara (A major)
Suite VI
14) Bachgen Bach o Dincer (D minor)
11) Si Hei Lwli’Mabi (A major)
1) Rew Di Ranno (D minor/major)
Prelude and Allegro in Eminor (2019)
- Prelude: ‘Historic Events’ (~11 mins)
- Prelude: ‘Historic Events’ (Themes from) (~6 mins)
Sixth Sonata 2019 (~25 mins) ‘The Hurdy-gurdy’
(Dedicated to my children). A children’s story by Alison Utterly: ‘Brock the Badger’ mends the Hurdy Grudy.
1) Cracked Songs The songs of the broken hurdy gurdy
2) Brock’s Magic – Brock finds the magic ‘lost chord’ and mends the hurdy-gurdy
3) Sunshine and May Day Brocks’ friends, the little pigs, wind the handle and wildly dance
Sonata V 2018(~22 mins) A minor ‘Tax Man’
The joy of dealing with an inefficient, incompetent government department. (Dedicated to Bleddyn Hughes (ACCA) of Laud Meredith Chartered Accountants)
1) Tax Man The agitated mental state of of a man persecuted by HMRC
2) Illusory Rest The alternative mental state of the persecuted victim.
3) Last Dance The joy of finding an accountant that does it all
Sonata II (revised 2016) (~20 mins) D minor ‘Echoes of Western Australia’.
(Dedicated to my wife)
NOTE: SONATA II (First Movement) is currently under revision –please contact me if you would like to play this piece
1) Mundaring Wier (Moderato) The tragedy of O’Connor’s last project.
2) The University of Western Australia (Lento) Remembering sitting with my wife in the University grounds by the Swan river.
3) Kings Park: The First Rule (Allegro) Riding our tandem after dark at crazy speed in Kings Park Perth.
Sonata III (~27mins) E minor 2016 ‘Penrhyndeudraeth.’
Dedicated to Hilary Field. All four movements relate to my canoe ‘voyages’ in the estuary.
NOTE: SONATA III is currently under revision –please contact me if you would like to play this piece
1) Yr Awel dros yr Aber (Breeze across the Estuary) Gentle ripples of the open water.
2) Ynys Gifftan. (‘Gift Island’) A dangerous moonlit trip on a powerful incoming spring tide.
3) The Insomniac’s Lullaby. Festival Six – the entire village deprived of sleep by a rock concert.
4) Y Mor Agored. (The Open Sea) Leaving the (relative) shelter of the estuary for the wide-open sea.
Occasional pieces
Sunstone 2014 (6 mins) dedicated to my friend Kenneth Johansson. (Technology and war)
Fading Light (revised 2018) (12 mins) – dedicated to my late friend Stratford Caldecott (1953 – 2014). First composed 2014 but incomplete at his death – only completed 2018. This is an early work, please see “Fragments of Fading Light” above.
Bright Dancing light – Toccata (2017) (6.00) Arpeggio study (Very demanding to play)
Side B – ‘Easy Listening’ (2017) (6.48) Jazz influenced in D minor.
Studies
Invisible Dances (easier pieces)
The Unexpected Holiday (2017) (~4 mins) – A slow plaintive melody
Running on the Sand (2017) (3.20 ) – A very energetic quick piece
Mr Krankky – self-portrait (4.55 ) – All the oddness of my personality
Spring (2017) (5.35 ) – A Stravinsky-esque dance
Sonata I (~ 40mins) E minor ‘Sonata Meirionnydd’ 2012.
Dedicated to Gerallt & Marian Jones
1) Pen y stryd (‘Alaw’) The splendid open panorama seen from ‘Pen y stryd’.
2) Llyn Celyn (‘Catrin’) A meditation on beauty and destruction.
3) Y Bala (‘Megan’) A musical description of energy and optimism.
4) Tu hwnt y Dyfodol (‘Elen’) Personal thoughts about the future of Christian belief in Wales.
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