Canzon Cataclysmico origin story

With the Capriol Suite drawing to completion, my thoughts have been turning to the difficulty of explaining what the heck my music is supposed to be about.

What better way to totally confuse the issue than through the medium of a comic?

This is the (probably) true story of a meeting of musicians across time and an unlikely fusion of new and old music.

I've drawn and published the first episode at Tapas. The platform allows me to add a piece of music via SoundCloud to accompany each episode.

Part one of the origin story is longer than I intend future episodes.  I've added one of the pieces from My Lords and Ladies called Danse de Buffons, which seemed appropriate for a number of reasons.

Pieds En L'Air

Feet in the air? Who knows.

This is the fifth and penultimate movement from Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite. I'm delighted with the  way it sounds but it isn't really what I had in mind to start with. It's a bit of a departure from the other movements I've done, but maybe that's a good thing.

It's not as 'rock' as I wanted but the upright bass and brushes sounded great.

The sheet music looks like a hymn tune and sounds lovely when played by a brass band. I've played 3 parts on brass; flugelhorn, trombone (which is actually my flugel octaved down) and harmon-muted cornet. The resulting 'brass section' sounds good but totally different from the brass in the second movement (Pavane). Maybe when I have a better studio setup I'll record it all again and be more consistent.

The improvised guitar on top sounds ok, I think and is my way of saying 'no, this isn't lounge jazz'.

Bransles - just about done

Of the movements in this Capriol Suite project, this is the longest and it has been the most challenging.


It has all sorts of counter-melodies and cross-rhythms going on, it was far cry from simply deciding which instrument to play which of the original string orchestra parts on. It has many sections; the intro and letters A. through to L. Each is different and needed to be thought about separately.

It is the most exciting movement, and having done this I feel I've broken the back of this whole project.

Third movement of Capriol Suite finished, with a little remedial work to do

This is movement 3, a 'Tordion' which is a light dance "popular from the mid-15th to the late-16th centuries" (it sez on Wikipedia).


On paper there doesn't seem to be too much to it; it's a light dance, and like the first two movements of Capriol, fairly short. I noticed that up till letter B there's a swell and change of style on every fourth bar, so I've souped that up a bit; the biggest is the third time that happens. After letter B (on the sheet music) there's a gradual dim with a change of style from stacc. to pizz. with a gradual dying away so I've tried to reflect that, switching to clean sound at D. That change is not very noticeable because I'm palm-muting throughout (except for the breakouts.)

The top part (Violin 1), which I'm playing on soprano recorder, reaches to the top of the range and in order to hit the top C's I'm whacking them a bit hard. I should get hold of a sopranino so I can play those high parts with a little more finesse.

My Lords and Ladies - album now available - 16th century rocks

With twelve tracks finished I decided to draw a line and call this project finished. There are many more 'Lords and Ladies' but I have other ideas that I'd like to explore.

The music is played directly from the old sheet music, maintaining the renaissance feel of the music, with additional rhythms and guitar improvisation for a modern rock sound. I'm very proud of the result.

"that's certainly different... Well done." - my Mum.


It's available for listening and, if you'd like to keep it forever, for purchase, in two places so far - Bandcamp and CD Baby.

https://canzon-cataclysmico.bandcamp.com/releases

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/canzoncataclysmico

Latest work, Lord Willoughby His Welcome Home by John Dowland / William Byrd

I've just finished this after some late nights and I'm really happy with it.


I upgraded my guitar halfway through working on this. The new one is set up beautifully so there are fewer intonation problems on this recording and I'm learning how to achieve a nicer recorded guitar sound.

Once again the music / chord changes lend themselves really well to a rock style, while still retaining the renaissance feel.

The sheet music I've used is from My Ladye Nevells Booke of Virginal Music (1591) (number 33). That's obviously written for keyboard but as is often the case with harpsichord or virginal music it's not too much trouble to pick out four or five parts.

I'm a little confused though because that collection of virginal music is credited to William Byrd. (It's also rather quaintly spelled 'Lord Willobies Welcome Home'[sic]) I can't see a credit to John Dowland on that arrangement, but I'm sure that Lord Willoughby's Welcome Home is a John Dowland tune.

I've found these notes on the collection of music but it doesn't mention other composers' names, only crediting William Byrd.

So I'm fairly sure that I should credit this to John Dowland, arr. William Byrd. (And rearranged by me.)   If anyone can confirm or clarify,  please do let me know.