It’s all about today! The fifth, and most popular of the Five Christmas Fanfares. A most spirited little nugget it is.
Song Stories: Hodie Christus Natus Est
Categories: Song Stories
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Categories: Composing Projects Completed, Song Stories, Uncategorized
Composing a song for some Year 6 pupils as they prepare to leave the primary school part of their lives and move on.
Song Stories: Spring Moon
Categories: Song Stories
Spring moon. A sickle. Tides ebb and flow. Salt. Silver. Still sand and water. I set this haiku by David Keen to music in four different ways to accommodate performers of various musical skills and confidences
Song Stories: Slow Down! Red Squirrels!
Categories: Song Stories
It’s a single-line song for children about the some of the wildlife we see in Northumberland and the road signs that protect them, with piano accompaniment and optional vocal harmony and descant parts.
Autumn Sea: Song Stories
Categories: Song Stories
Autumn Sea is a song in up to seven parts for choir and piano and is inspired by the North Sea at Warkworth Beach in Northumberland. It has been performed by adult and children’s choirs in the past. Here’s its story!
Song Stories: Henry Hotspur Percy
Categories: Life As A Composer, Song Stories
During the Hotspur Festival of 2009, celebrating 700 years of the Percy family at Alnwick Castle, I wrote this 3-way partner song for a local school to perform in the town of Alnwick, Northumberland.
Song Stories: Pigeon Hands
Categories: Song Stories
The story of a lullaby inspired by William Roberts’ painting “The Pigeon Carriers” for single line voice with optional harmony parts and descant.
Our School Is Like The Taj Mahal
Categories: Composing Activities for Classes, Song Stories
This school song was written for the opening of a new school building at Grangetown Primary School in Sunderland. It compares the new school to other famous buildings around the world. The lyrics have been successfully adapted by several other schools.
Snow White Songs: I Will, I Will, I Will, I Will, I Will
Categories: Song Stories
It’s a panto happy ending! Heart-warming it is, and no mistake. It changes time signature a lot too, but do you know what – it didn’t bother anyone! Children can sing things in any style as long as its presented to them in an enthusiastic manner!
Song Stories: That First Christmas Night
Categories: Song Stories
It’s going to Worksop! Or at least it’s going home for Christmas. The message of these lyrics comes directly from the heart of someone who has thought a great deal about what Christmas means to her.