Cassie - 20 minutes 1 second

Strings, piano and a church organ - written in memory of a good friend .

Put the words “Creative Process” into Google and you’ll get over 95 million results – maybe I should read a few but I’m inherently suspicious of patented 4 step systems, 5 stage cycles or 8 discrete states of consciousness.

Creativity is the Holy Grail for composers – at least it is for me. The idea that by the time I have finished, there will be something that hasn’t existed in that form before is both thrilling and terrifying. If I think too much about it I get paralyzed – for me it’s kind of like the late Douglas Adams’ approach to Flying.

So, I sit at the piano, often with a metronome keeping time in the background and I play; I play anything that comes to mind, whatever my fingers want to come up with, doesn’t matter if I’ve played it before or if it belongs to someone else – I just play – and then – I start to think about something.

Cassie was Charlotte’s companion and I wrote this for her after Cassie had passed away. Charlotte has far better words than I do – you can read about Cassie here.

Richard - 13 minutes 52 seconds

Multiple strings over two distinct piano themes inspired by my brother, Richard.

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My older brother has his birthday every year on the same day, the 11th of December - it is the most normal thing about him. He is an amazing human being and I love him. This was written for his 41st birthday - the opening cadence was sung in my head, "Richard my brother," and off it goes.

I experimented a lot with this track. the core piano theme came first and defined the structure. I then laid 4 different string voices on top, one pass after the other without listening to the previous pass. By then removing what didn't work, I arrived at what you hear now; a piece for a string quartet with piano. This is another piece that I look forward to sitting down and developing if I ever get time!

It was Richard who opened a door to this magical musical world in which I now live and adore, I will be eternally grateful for his invitation.

The dramatic change in the piece at around six and half minutes is a variation on one of Richard's creations. We have played music together for most of our lives and he is a terrific singer songwriter guitarist and musician. This is a variation on a song called "This Way Out" from the Stirling Brig years. I always loved his lyrics, they were always - and still are - from his heart - and "This Way Out" spoke volumes to me.

Coming out of that variation back into the core theme at ten minutes or so, I'm trying to create a sense of hope and optimism. Which is of course what I wish for him and his family.

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Richard is part of The Thinker's Playlist.

New music2work2 - Wendi 163 Keys

Development of Wendi's G minor theme in 163 bpm - Keys only.[audio:163-keys-256.mp3|titles=Wendi - 163 bpm - Keys|artists=music2work2]

I haven't played in ages - it's a very scary thing sometimes.

Tonight I asked Wendi for a number between 45 and 200 - she came up with 163 - I plugged that into the metronome and got to work on her G minor theme. I really love this piece - there are a couple of clams and the end still needs work but it's getting there. I recorded a couple of string tracks from the Roland but they're just not going to work - need to get my head round Reason and MIDI - always something new to learn.

More later...

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