Newsletter 18 – Special Performances
Performances by D W Solomons and some others based on my compositions and a few by other composers
Youtube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g2m4zJueb0&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLY_6jpSyPq0miaFM_yfn0U
Swing Door for Jazz band (dws)
I got rhythm George Gershwin
Hey big spender by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields from the musical Sweet Charity
This is my lovely day by A P Herbert and Vivian Ellis from Bless the Bride
Passacaglia (dws) arranged and performed by Aaron Larget-Caplan for guitar solo
There is a rose in my garden (dws)
The centipede dreams of tap dancing – silly impro based on my setting of the Centipede and the Frog (dws)
Tonight when I got your letter (dws)
Toe in the water an improvisation by Keith Searle and dws
Jubilate performed in Hollinfare (dws)
Rêvé je (Am I dreaming) by Gabriel Bataille
Chocolate Waltz – improvisation (dws)
Ilze composed by Kristen Carmichael-Bowers, Paul Chi and dws
Our Father by Reginald Smith
Vocal impro based on a guitar study by Fernando Sor
Prelude to a storm (dws)
Letters from the East (dws)
Feuer und Wasser (Fire and Water) (dws)
Be not afeared (dws)
Some silly songs (dws)
Asexual Blues (dws)
The madness of a headmistress (dws)
To paint the portrait of a bird (dws)
The outside and the inside after a poem by Melissanthi, which is first quoted in Greek by a friend of the poet and then sung in English (dws)
As gleams the rosebud (dws)
Mad about the boy (schoolgirl section) Noël Coward
La cigarette (dws)
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis – “Songs of a little bear” based on some of the melodies of the Poohratorio (dws)
The Poohratorio – an “oratorio” based on a chapter from Winnie the Pooh (dws)
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Newsletter 19 for 10 Wind Quartets
The works include:
Bifocal Rag, with a nod at bitonality
Bones and Birds based on a movement from my first string quartet, in which the third voice down plays in Dorian mode whilst the other instruments play in octatonic mode
Exprompt based on my song written for James Russell, using his Armenian poem of farewell.
Feuer und Wasser based on one of my first ever songs based on a poem by Otto Wanke which says (in translation) I must settle my mind on this, that fire and water do not go together.
Jellicle wind which was originally a madrigal I wrote on T S Eliot’s Jellicle cats
Not time to get up yet, in which the slumbering adolescent tries to wake up and ends up falling out of bed.
Ostinato 11 initially written on words I wrote on Kallmann’s syndrome.
Quintra – a curious early work in 3 and 5 time.
The quiet way you move me based on a song with lyrics from a play called Barabbas, in which the Virgin Mary sings to her newborn son.
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef-iHObG8Rg&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLAF9ey4evfZmhmbHOB77L_
Newsletter 20 – Variations for flute quartet.
In November 2022 I commissioned a series of videos to be performed by flute-playing members of the Budapest Scoring group. These comprised my variations on various old gospel hymns (especially from the Sankey Collection – many thanks to fellow alto Edith Brockhurst, who introduced us to them at the choir of All Hallows in Loughborough) including Count your blessings, The old rugged cross, God be with you till we meet again, various Christmas and Easter carols including I saw three ships come sailing in, Blessed be that maid Mary, God rest you merry, Hearts and voices heavenward raise, and some extras such as Sweet and Low (Barnby’s version) and Hélas madame (attributed to Henry VIII).
Some are for the standard flute quartet (2 C flutes, 1 alto flute and 1 bass flute), some are for 3 C flutes and alto flute and some are for 4 C flutes)
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur84pvl3E1w&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKKrcVgm0nn5PW-Vt0iJ_Rn
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Newsletter No 21 Winter Celebrations
45 songs starting with
The feast of lights
Al Hanisim
2 Chinese New Year pieces
Solstice song
Saturnalia song
Winter scene
followed by various songs for Christmas: humorous, pensive, children’s songs, full of praise, seasonal
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oprPAq1_-jY&list=PLFA661318AAC08E91
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Newsletter No 22 Sheralyn and Dawn
2 musicians at St Michael’s Cornhill went up, after various services, to Dawn’s nearby apartment in Denning Point to make these recordings:
Twinkle twinkle little Star
O little Town of Bethlehem
Early one morning
Flow not so fast ye fountains
O Christmas tree
Praise to the Lord
The Ash Grove
The quiet way you move me
Sequence for Alun’s Poetry
Silent Night
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcTQ_22sVQ&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKEV68AMuFnARTC1FPbe8yP
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Newsletter No 23 Music performed by Chris Benson and David W Solomons
Music performed in the late 70s by Chris Benson (cello and recorder) and me (guitar and voice). The original recordings were on cassette tape, so the quality is not great, but I did my best to improve the sound
Virgo and Taurus (the original performance)
Variations on folksongs from Alsace
Bergamasca Variations
Meinau Rag
Cotillon by Jean Hotteterre
Sketch in B flat
Doric victory (with Chris playing both cello and recorder)
Summertime rag (composed by Chris)
A la recherche
Sketch in E Dorian
Ta Maman (I play guitar and also sing in this one)
Pieces in which Chris plays recorder:
Now and then again
and 4 Japanese folksongs.
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odjsNXFsoTY&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLJ9uoH0Qpkx1u51Kpd1bTv
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Newsletter No 24 Thomas Tallis
3 choral pieces sung by the dwsChorale:
If ye love me
Tallis’ Canon
Spem in alium
Why fum’th in fight for string quartet
If ye love me for 4 flutes, 3 flutes and alto flute and for wind quartet
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wP4I5lsEUc&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SK-f0Rn-S0L-IqTurWrSbEP
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Newsletter No 25 Henry and Daniel Purcell
Henry Purcell:
Vocal/Choral:
Dido’s lament
Hear my prayer
Rejoice in the Lord alway
Music for a while
Mucus for a while (image Purcell singing this in the tavern after the service!
What can we poor females do (tenor and alto)
Instrumental:
What can we poor females do (2 baroque flutes, live)
Nymphs and shepherds (clarinet and guitar)
One two three (three violas)
Daniel Purcell
Gavotte for flute and guitar
Gavotte for clarinet and guitar
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_HVKuPRHrE&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJjp3yTy1tQA3A1j815LWB6
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Newsletter No 26 Ludwig Senfl
Two sung by my mutitrack choir (dwsChorale) Das Geläut zu Speyer and Mit Lust tret ich an diesen Tanz, followed by various instrumental arrangements, both religious and secular.
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_S3WZ6fD_M&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLky_ez7TsLEV4uIzvEn85I
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Newsletter No 27 performances of my music by Matthew Curtis
The ballad of green broom
Ding Dong merrily on High
The Bell ringing
The earwig song – in English and then in German
Psalm 70
Hiawatha and his mittens
The message of Christmas
Heaven’s Dance
Green grow the rushes oh
The cloned sheep song – in English and then in German
The keeper did a hunting go
Wine and water
Modal Mass
Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis songs of a little bear
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yumtXSa_o-w&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SK0JiEw5PVrvAqYNmlMg4XP
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Newsletter no 28 – Alcohol
(Hoping I’ll still be on the wagon by the time this is published! Aha, I am!)
Ode to a nose, after A son nez by Basselin
Alcohol by Gavin Ewart
Hair of the doggerel by Gavin Ewart
Bring us in good ale, medieval drinking song – sung version followed by a version for woodwind quartet
Tourdion (Quand je bois du vin clairet), sung version followed by instrumental arrangements
Liste des vins – impro at the Fallowfield Old Time Music Hall 1996
Wine and water poem by GK Chesterton – original vversion followed by the version sung by Matthew Curtis
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPbTCWzWe9k&list=PL069D494691BBC40E
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Newsletter no 29 – Duos and 1 solo for Baroque flutes
Duos:
Seltenes Glück – Rare Happiness (Telemann)
Oculus non vidit – Eye has not seen (Lassus)
Splitter Richter – Fragments of judgement (Telemann)
Die Frau – The woman (Telemann)
What can we poor females do (Purcell)
Pavane des saisons – Pavane of the seasons (Jean-Baptiste Lully)
Variations on As with gladness, based on Treuer Heiland wir sind da (Conrad Kocher)
Sanfter Schlaf – Sweet Sleep (Telemann)
Solo:
Suite in D for baroque flute by D W Solomons
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_aSPNaf_lQ&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKL1FeQGc3qc9XSVDjUyY2m
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Newsletter no 30 Comic and Curious
Several of my comic and curious creations that are not already included in earlier newsletters
It was a lover and his lass
Silent Gnat
Motor Bus
Hari Bouriquet
A madrigal of naivety
El Grillo – the cricket
Oh come all ye fatful
The flamingo – poem by Gavin Ewart
The legend of the knight who got lost in the wood
The Bringers of Beethoven
Bananas are politically very sensitive
Psalm for today
The choir in the rain
Thackeray’s poem about Goethe’s Werther:
In French Les douleurs du jeune Werther
In German Die Leiden des jungen Werthers
In English The sorrows of Werther
The 12 days of Christmas
Il est bel et bon
Wenn der Pott aber nu ein Loch hat (There’s a hole in bucket)
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3epCprfLM&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJKOqfjs9fOiYSs4puisRYQ
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Newsletter No 31 Some of my guitar solos
Brigitte
Soliloquy
Japanese song
Dorian dance
First song
Second song
Third song
Fourth song
Paddy asleep
Romance
Coming out of the fog (original recording)
Romance for Pamela
Prelude No 2
Rag in Seven
Sonata in Ripon
Lullaby 1982
Souvenir of St Valentine’s day 1975
Can’t help loving that man (Jerome Kern)
Long ago and far away (Jerome Kern)
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a48OHnjI2XE&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJFEcg9daQmlEQHcmeQtLt8
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Newsletter No 32 A la chinoise
A la Chinoise for piccolo and flute quartet
Chinese ensemble Part 1
Chinese ensemble Part 2
Noonday Jig
Early morning for Hulusi
Goldfish mosaic movie with Chinese canon
Chinese Canon (or Chinese Dance) for flute duo
Chinese Tune for solo Dizi
Lazy guitars – an improvisation for 4 guitars illustrated by Chinese ivory horse figures
Chinese New Year String Quartet
Chinese New Year Celebration with live fireworks
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR0_MIli96Y&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKTbNYZJ3drQcx0qSYg-Vuy
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Newsletter No 33 Pull the other one, it’s got bells on
Upon Christ Church bells
La campana by Donizetti
Well rung Tom Boy
On the King’s coming home by John Blow
Bell Dance for tenor saxophone and piano
Bell Dance Variations for flute and guitar
Sleigh Ride for harp, strings, bells and triangle
Ding dong merrily on high with bells
Ding dong merrily on high for jazzed up flute sextet
Jingle Bell Rock arranged for one man choir
The Youtube playlist is here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f7043qbPrM&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKTS21wE9sGe06678GD3xCf
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Newsletter 34 The Fruitful Pond
Music composed/arranged by David Warin Solomons performed by musicians in Costa Rica, produced and edited by Marco Antonio Perez
String trio:
German and Alsacian folksongs
String quartets:
No, Time thou shalt no boeast
Ostinato 12
Not time to get up yet
Jellicle Catgut
Variations on Ke Arona
Dance for Pan (Cotillion)
La Folia Variations
Twinkle Pluto, planet no more
Chinese new year of the goat
Brass ensembles:
Quartet: For he’s a jolly good fellow
Sextet: Ding Dong merrily on high
Trio: German and Alsacian folksongs
Youtube Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6M4WCc08tg&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKNRwmJEb2oOheOXg7S8uf0
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Newsletter 35 Approaching Reality
Ravel Virtual Studios made these very realistic sounding versions of my music:
Love and Death – variation on the Tristan Chord
Nocturne for String quintet
Swabian Railway Song
Spanish Extravaganza
Blue Boar Blue string quintet
Waiting in Woomera
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGWlgR7OXCg&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKnli2L265lQ6yAyrhIvk0U
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Newsletter 36 Sale connections
Videos with connections to Sale in Cheshire – either images or music or both.
Japanese song for flute, alto flute and bass flute in the Japanese garden in Walkden Gardens, Sale
Round we go (Walkden Gardens)
Strongaling the drunken giant (near Worthington Park)
The Hubbard Saga performed in Sale.
Tightrope walker (with Scott Joplin’s Entertainer) (Worthinton Park)
Dorian Serendipity (Bridgewater canal as it goes though Sale)
String quartet accompanied by chain-saw carvings around Sale and nearby towns
Acacia with 3rd movement of Honey Flowers (bumble bees in the roughland area of Worthington Park)
Catch that bee (bumble bees in the roughland area of Worthington Park)
Benji the dog who loves bricks and stones (Worthington Park)
Rusty the dog with 3 balls (Worthington Park)
Be not afeard (Walkden Gardens)
Along the road to Quintaquirk (Worthington Park)
Passacaglia for flute and guitar and for violin and guitar (Conway Road, Sale Moor)
Rejoice in the Lord alway (attr Redford) (St Martin’s church Ashton on Mersey)
Long impros lamenting two trees next to our block of flats in Sale Moor (using sections of a 1989 improvisation in both cases):
Lament for a cherry tree
Death of a laburnum tree
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL7KfmghoMw&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SI2lwrgS7TI6aORvPuUXblS
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Newsletter No 37 1993 tape (recordings by Gary Savage with David W Solomons singing in the flat in Sale)
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DObaa2etXtg&list=PLBEF4516DC7639BEC
The quiet way you move me
The finding of St Anthony
Summer is i-cumen in loude sing tishoo – the Sneezing song
Romance for Lissie
Messe miniature de Marie
Beetle’s wings
Lookin’ just lookin at the personal ads
The mending of fuses
Cheng 7 – an oriental improvisation
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Newsletter No 38 Christmas Collaboration with Reinhold Behringer and William Sveglini
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxbYSzxd8GM&list=PL0A94A2BD20AE5648
Im Märzen der Bauer (In March the farmer…)
Alle Jahre wieder Kommt das Christuskind (Every year the Christ child comes)
Süsser die Glocken nie klingen (the bells never sound sweeter)
O Tannenbaum (O Christmas tree)
O Holy Night
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Newsletter No 39 Poems by John McCrae, Music by Mike Roberts, sung by David Warin Solomons
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZJPWQ-MdI&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SIGIZpeegyzZ8mzWelDQqH2
In Flanders Fields
Isandlwana
The night cometh
The unconquered dead
Song of the derelict
Slumber Songs
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Newsletter No 40 French Renaissance part songs and madrigals
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La08nOg5wic&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKVgjrV_6k1PVy7faSVZ8A4
Se j’ay parlé
Au joli Bois
Vignon vignette
Pilons l’orge
Nous sommes de l’ordre de St Babouyn
Chantez à Dieu
Medieval chanson based on Je langui – Domino – Pucelete
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Newsletter No 41 Fell Clarinet Quartet
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqoFjRLSONE&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SIpx8VQxZFSBg_An2SfT1r-
Tants Fraylach (a Klezmer style dance)
Folksong Wedding:
Deer me (a keeper would a hunting go|),
Red Rose (My love is like a red red rose)
Green Broom,
One oh! (Green grow the rushes oh)
Mhairi’s Wedding (and all folksongs married together
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Newsletter No 42 Vermont
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4oDyy7a8qs&list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SL1bRf7Q5RaO-evh1E4Hflr
Music included in my interviews with musicians in Vermont (known as Kalvos and Damian) not yet covered in other newsletters.
Pale Blue for organ
Variations on du schoener Lebensbaum
Jam Fancy with recorder solo
Jam fancy with crumhorn solo (aka Crumhorn Pattie)
Lost in microtones (!!!)
Christmas haikus for alto and piano
Octatonic Rag for piano
Dawn in the room for alto and piano
Schubert’s Heidenroeslein for alto and hackbrett
Sagesse for alto and guitar
Malgré moi (Prévert) – 2 voices and guitar followed by 2 ocarinas and guitar
Details for wind quintet
Rosa Divina sung by Margaret Jackson-Roberts (baritone) and me (alto)
Landscape before sunrise for organ
Newsletter 17 William Byrd
Including
Live performances:
Ave Verum performed by the dwsChorale
Ave Verum performed by Manchester Cathedral Voluntary choir
Cradle Song performed by alto voice and guitar
Cradle song performed by alto with electronic strings
Gloria tibi Domine sung by the Manchester Cathedral Voluntary choir
Electronic performances:
Cradle Song, Ave Verum (Hail true body), Haec Dies (This is the day the Lord hath made) and a Jigg arranged for bassoon and guitar
Youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKXtBBqhuvGjFh-7-rg9TLC
Newsletter 16 Cats and Dogs
The pieces include:
The cats duet (obviously!) performed by me on multitrack with the late Themba and Vusimuzi in attendance and also a live version from the Old Time Music-Hall in South Manchester
Whimsy No 1 for alto and guitar
McQuiddity – a doggie parody on Macavity
Cats love stilton cheese (hmmm!)
Jellicle catgut for string quartet performed by a group in Costa Rica
An Tiger – a song I wrote for my late tabby
Cats cradle for harp solo
Cats at midnight based on a madrigal by Michael Wise
Wrong side of the door – isn’t every cat the wrong side of the door!?
Hair of the Doggerel based on a poem by Gavin Ewart with a lovely image of a dog apparently suffering from a hangover
How much is that doggie in the window (obviously!)
and two videos created in Worthington Park, Sale:
Rusty the dog with 3 balls – don’t ask, just watch!
Benji the dog who loves to lick bricks and stones
Youtube Playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJZf9SnHBywc5OGBbwP8yy-
Newsletter 15 for March 2023
10 String Quartets
The Budapest Scoring String Quartet performed ten of my quartets back in October 2022.
They included: Prayer before the Close of Day, based on the chant Te Lucis ante terminum,
Quartet in the rain based on my limericks about a choir suffering from the perils of rain upon their music sheets and their health,
Antonelli Rag based on my feelings about leaving Piazza Antonelli in Ghemme, Italy, and my good friend Jenny Robson,
A la Chinoise which is based on one of my Chinese style compositions, A la Valse: a cheeky quartet,
Dinner time rag, which is a ragtime reflecting my feelings for food,
Dorian Serenade based on my setting of the 23rd psalm based on the translation by Martin Luther,
I saw a stranger yestreen (which I used to call “The crofter’s song”) which relates a scene in which a crofter is blessed by showing hospitality to a stranger who then turns out to be Christ
Modaliter, which is based on my modal mass
Past Two o’clock, which is a parody on the old song “Past three o’clock”, but in this version the singers are disturbing the neighbour by their late-night singing
Here is the youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLqY42Y1CFqTKmRKGHiQ965
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
Newsletter 14 for February 2023 Roundelay
I sang with the Unitarian chapel choir (Roundelay under Alan Myerscough) based in Manchester many years ago, both in the city centre there and also in Chester.
This is a series of videos of some of the works we performed, including John Stainer’s How beautiful upon the mountains, Arnold Cook’s cradle song, John Tavener’s Love bade me welcome, Harold Darke’s Fair daffodils, my own song Rosa Divina, an unidentified song (which I have given a title based on the first line) by Unitarian composer David Dawson – please let me know if you recognise it! – a song by my Delian Society friend Mike Starke and many others.
Here is the youtube playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKbZZZID3iURYJDuZxihR5r
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
Newsletter 12 for December 2022 – John Dowland
Arrangements of various songs by John Dowland, including the wonderful performance of Flow my tears by Jess Gillam on soprano saxophone, various vocal arrangements of that song sung by me and instrumental versions of this and his other works, with and without divisions.
The complete Dowland playlist also includes versions of:
Come away, come sweet love
Come again
Fine knacks for ladies
I saw my lady weep
Can she excuse my wrongs
What I never speed
The youtube playlist for Flow my Tears is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKEqUSCFoDSQTdBq0cUk4Dr
The youtube playlist for all of my Dowland arrangements is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJoKb97euqXhEjMZkaj5O0U
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
Newsletter 11 for November 2022
“The 1993 tape” – music composed and performed by me and filmed on camcorder in 1993 by Gary Savage.
The songs are:
“The quiet way you move me”
The words come from Nevil Frenkiel’s play Barabbas, in which the Virgin Mary sings a lullaby to the baby Jesus
The finding of St Anthony
The text, written by Claude Louis-Combet for the film “Les Tribulations de Saint Antoine”, is sung from the point of view of the saint and refers to his feelings of gender ambivalence.
Summer is i-cumen in, loude sing tishoo!
A parody of the old English canon, but here the singer suffers from sneezes due to hayfever.
Romance for Lissie
A vocalise that I wrote for my friend and flatmate back in 1985.
Messe miniature de Marie (2 versions)
Song based on a poem by my friend Marie Keyser, with a few liturgical added words.
Beetle’s Wings
A setting of a pantheistic religious poem by Audrey Vaughan (there is another version also in the August 2022 newsletter).
Lookin just lookin at the personal ads
Totally fictional ads which could have been entered in the lonely hearts column of local newspapers. I refer to various ages and sexual tastes of some lonely people but with an upbeat and comical feel.
The Mending of fuses
Setting of E O Parrott’s poem which is a comic parody of Henry Reed’s The Naming of Parts, in which a lecture on the parts of the Enfield rifle is juxtaposed with observations about nature in springtime. In Parrott’s parody the idea is reduced to the domestic chaos of a household which cannot mend its electrical fuses.
Improvization (or Improvisation) for meditation on Gu-Cheng
or “Cheng” or “guzhen” 古筝 (Chinese zither),small bells (xing or Peng Ling 碰铃- also known as touch bells or finger cymbals) and bass and alto voices. (The camcorder recording is just for the first few seconds – then I use flights of fancy!)
The youtube playlist is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBEF4516DC7639BEC
If you have missed a newsletter, or if you wish to look at any of them again, you can find them all archived here:
https://dwsolo.com/newsletters/
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
Newsletter 10 for October 2022
Music for clarinet solo in Classical and Klezmer styles
I recently commissioned the Hungarian clarinet player József Dávid to record some of my compositions and arrangements for solo clarinet. As he specialises in Klezmer, a large percentage of the pieces are performed in that style, but he also provides classical style performances.
The pieces include my arrangement of Jingle bells in both styles, Telemensch (The isolated one) in classical style, based on some songs by G P Telemann, Odradek inspired by a short story by Franz Kafka (Die Sorge des Hausvaters), Klezomaticus, being a sort of “automatic flowering” of Klezmer style, the first performance of Shem Ru’ahh (the spirit is the name) and many others.
The youtube playlist link is:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SKNBz6XlmA4eFFX141ySMLQ
The Bandcamp audio CD is at:
https://davidwarinsolomons.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-solo-clarinet-by-david-warin-solomons-performed-by-j-zsef-d-vid
Feel free to share this information with others 🙂
If you would like to look at previous newsletters, you can find them here:
Newsletter No 09 – September 2022
music for recorder/voice and guitar performed by Tasse and D W Solomons
During the late 1980s Nigel Tasane (Tasse) and I performed many pieces for recorder and guitar and also for recorder, voice and guitar. It seemed a good idea to group the best examples into a youtube playlist.
Many of the pieces are classical/renaissance arrangements – such as Dowland’s Flow not so fast ye fountains, Gluck’s Gavotte from his Ballet Don Juan, sonatas by Georg Friedrich Händel and Diogenio Bigaglia, the Jewish prayer Adon Olam, various folksongs etc.
Others are original compositions including mainly my settings of poetry by Gavin Ewart – The learnèd hippopotamus, Venus (A goddess has just checked out), The madness of a headmistress, A cup too low, and various others, which we were honoured to perform at a concert with Gavin Ewart himself in the audience.
There is also a composition by Tasse, which I reworked but have not published, called “You linger on”. This seems to me to be Tasse’s equivalent of my “Dawn in the Room”. It has to be said, however, that he would often refer to it jokingly as “You linger, Ron”!
Tasse also left a (poetic?) diatribe on my answering machine relating to our rehearsal plans, which appears at the bottom of the playlist 🙂
I have just been informed by Tasse’s daughter, Hannah, that he died last year, so this newsletter is in his honour and memory.
Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SIVXZwOkSFDpo1BEgJ-OnV1
Feel free to share this information with others 🙂
Newsletter No 08 – August 2022
Settings of poetry by Audrey Vaughan
I recently heard from Audrey’s daughter (Elizabeth R Jones) that Audrey died earlier this year.
I therefore collected all of my musical settings of Audrey’s poems and this newsletter concentrates on those.
Prayer to the Virgin is of particular interest: it is performed by Duncan Saunderson (in the days when he sang alto) and myself. It may be the most “Catholic” of her poems.
There are four versions of her “Hoc est enim corpus meum” celebrating the Last Supper, one sung by me and three sung by the Budapest Scoring choir – one using the Audrey’s original English and two using my translations into French and German.
There are two performances (and also a few extracts) of her “Manchester Magnificat” written at the request of the Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir – one being for choir and orchestra and one for choir, organ and piano. One uses the original Manchester Cathedral performance with orchestra, but the rest of the videos here are based on the second performance, which was recorded in Budapest.
There is also a performance of the setting of her Heaven’s Dance – sung by multitracker (and former member of the group Chanticleer) Matthew Curtis
There is a setting of her poem called “To a bee with no sense of direction” where a bee keeps banging against a window but doesn’t realise that an open window is available for it to fly out to liberty.
Christmas Song is a setting of Audrey’s poem about finding the Christ-child in her heart. I recorded my own performance and also a lovely instrumental version for alto saxophone and guitar performed by my friends in Santiago.
Beetle’s Wings is a sort of Catholic Pantheistic poem, which I sang back in 1996. I have to admit a certain amount of pride in getting the top “E”
And finally there is a setting of her poem “Judas” which concentrates on his thoughts just before he hangs himself.
The Youtube Playlist for these performances can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJScDOxuxuaCnVwyPTOXyc6
If you have missed a newsletter, or if you wish to look at any of them again, you can find them all archived here:
https://dwsolo.com/newsletters/
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
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DWS Newsletter No 07 for July 2022 – music for cello solos and duos
I have arranged many of my pieces for cello solos and cello duos, so I decided to commission Budapest Scoring to create videos and audios of these as performed by Ölveti Mátyás and Mády-Szabó Eszter
Odradek for Cello Solo
“The Cares of a Family Man” (“Die Sorge des Hausvaters”) is a short story by Franz Kafka, written in the early 20th century, about a “creature” that the family man sees in his house, which he calls Odradek.
This “creature” has drawn the attention of many philosophers and literary critics, who have all attempted to interpret its meaning.
This work represents some of the descriptions, qualities and aspects of Odradek
Rondino for Cello Solo
A jolly number for solo cello in Rondo style
with a slightly bluesy edge to it.
Telemensch (The isolated one) for Cello Solo
This work is based on 4 melodies by Telemann but with many additional augmented-second twists, in Jewish music style, and various decorations.
Variations on Jingle Bells for Cello Solo
Based on the Christmas/Winter carol by James Lord Pierpont
Chanson des escargots (Song of the Snails that go to the funeral of a dead leaf) for 2 cellos
Instrumental version of my unpublished vocal duo based on a poem by Jacques Prévert.
The poem relates the tale of two snails who go to the funeral of a dead leaf so slowly that, by the time they arrive, spring has come again and the sun invites them to be jolly. They drink lustily and go home a little tipsy.
Country dance for 2 cellos
Simple duo based on a piece that I wrote for our school music competition back in 1972 (It won in the instrumental ensemble section of the competition).
Hölderlin’s Tower for 2 cellos
Instrumental Duo based on my setting of Marie Keyser’s Poem
“La Tour de Hölderlin”
Moves for Two for 2 cellos
Based on my guitar solo Suite in lute tuning.
The rhythms switch between 3 time and 6 time. The whole thing is quite complex but great fun.
Quartier Libre (Leave from Barracks) for 2 cellos
This is based on my vocal duo on the poem by Jacques Prévert.
It relates how the soldier took leave, left his army cap in the cage and went out with the bird (of freedom) on his head.
Rooftops for 2 cellos
Composed originally as a vocal duo as I walked one day from Denning Point in the East End of London to sing at a service at St Michael’s Cornhill around 1986
Un petit Bouquet for 2 cellos
Duo inspired by a poem by Jacques Prévert:
Que faites-vous là petite fille
Avec ces fleurs fraîchement coupées?
Que faites-vous là jeune fille
Avec ces fleurs ces fleurs séchées?
Que faites-vous là jolie femme
Avec ces fleurs qui se fanent?
Que faites-vous là vieille femme
Avec ces fleurs qui meurent?
J’attends le vainqueur
[What are you doing there, little girl,
With those freshly cut flowers ?
What are you doing there, young girl,
With those dried flowers ?
What are you doing there, pretty woman,
With those faded flowers ?
What are you doing there, old woman,
With those dying flowers ?
I’m waiting for the victorious one]
Have a Habanera for 2 cellos
A habanera with a Jewish/Klezmer twist.
The Youtube Playlist for these performances (including 3 videos of my own vocal performances with the the original poems shown on screen) can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SL8uWgctQPzrVpxFAdJ6c61
The audio versions can be found on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Bandcamp, Pandora and many other digital distributor sites.
This is the Bandcamp link:
https://davidwarinsolomons.bandcamp.com/album/cello-solos-and-duos
and this is the Spotify link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6svURuHMnqe8MFr1avqEDd
If you have missed a newsletter, or if you wish to look at any of them again, you can find them all archived here:
https://dwsolo.com/newsletters/
Feel free to forward this information to friends and colleagues 🙂
DWS Newsletter No 06 for June 2022 – Music with Lute
From time to time I have performed with lutenists.
These songs include:
“Madonna, il tuo bel viso” (My lady, your fair face) by Verdelot, performed in the 1980s, with Rowena Allen (as she was then called)
and a series of 4 songs performed in 2008 with the late Bob Glover:
“To music bent” by Thomas Campion
“O lusty May” by anon
“Dont vient cela” (Why is it, beautiful lady) by Claudin de Sermisy
“Tant que vivray” (As long as I am in the prime of life) by Claudin de Sermisy
Here is the playlist for all five pieces:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJUrI7khYpRPifh-syK-MFh
I was also asked by Martin Freeth to include our performance of “Tant que vivray” at various points in his video “Fatal Alchemy” which concerned the fatal use of gold by Diane de Poitiers. Here is the videographic result:
http://www.mfreeth.com/fatal-alchemy/
BTW Coming back to the little 1980s recital with Rowena, you might like to hear our performance on lute (Rowena) and guitar (me) of “My Lord Willoughby’s welcome home” as arranged by John Dowland
Feel free to share this information with others 🙂
Newsletter No 5 – May 2022 – poems, translations and recitations by my father Dr S N Solomons
My father’s works have inspired my music over the decades.
Many of them are based on his original poems, with special mention of:
The Park on Sunday, inspired by the heat of day in Queen’s Park in the centre of Loughborough (Leicestershire) – sung here by a choir in New York
In the Deep Dark of the Night – set for voices and trombones
Where am I? – set for flute and strings – in memory of the care home where my mother spent her last ten years
Winter Scene – for soprano, harp, vibraphone and triangle
Dreaming – for narrator, guitar and orchestra
Translations include:
Moonlight on Sea, based on a poem by Gérard d’Houville, for high voices and guitar, performed in New York
As gleams the rosebud, for alto and guitar, based on a poem by Pierre de Ronsard
The Swan for 4 equal voices, based on the poem “Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui” by Stéphane Mallarmé
My Gentle Words for soprano, flute and piano, based on Victor Hugo’s poem “Si mes vers avaient des ailes”
Invitation to the Journey, for alto and piano/guitar, based on Charles Baudelaire’s poem “Invitation au voyage”
Recitations include:
A Company of Cats – a selection of Dad’s cat poems
A Cassandre by Ronsard (French and English versions)
The video playlist of these pieces – and several more – can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SL0G-UysASqGEBRYVvDHScT
Mum and Dad’s website – with her paintings, their poems and his translations can be found at
https://sns.dwsolo.com/
Newsletter No 4 – April 2022 – 19 Guitar pieces performed by András Csáki
Over the decades I composed many pieces for guitar solo, which I originally performed myself (in an amateurish way) from time to time.
They include:
Country Dance, which was originally composed for a group of instrumentalists for the school music competition at Wolverhampton Municipal Grammar School back in 1972, and which won a prize!
Intercity Intermezzo (a.k.a. Song of Concrete) written in whole tones expressing an adolescent fear of the future
8 Easter Essays written during my evangelical days at college reflecting various themes from the Lent and Easter stories
Antonelli Rag composed while I was staying with a friend of mine in Ghemme, in Northern Italy, her flat overlooked the Piazza Antonelli there.
Matmata de profundis based on my stay in one of the “underground” hotels in Matmata, quoting strands of musical ideas from the Tunisian singer Hedi Habbouba.
(When I say “underground” I mean that the Tunisian sand dunes went up higher than the hotels that were built down below, so that people journeying at surface level would look down and see the buildings as if they were underground!)
Fantasia from the other bank, based on the old German slang term for gay (vom anderen Ufer). This was written many years ago when I was surprised to find that I was gay.
Canzone per Pesach (Song for Passover) originally written for Alberto Mesirca. It is based partly on a song that I wrote for a play during teacher training in Colwyn Bay (Ningal’s Song), glorifying the augmented second of middle-Eastern music. It also appears in the long awaited opera “Aton” and in the “Egyptian Princess” for various instrumental ensembles.
Suite in Lute tuning in which the third string down is tuned down a semitone so that the sound resembles the works of Mudarra and other lute and vihuela composers, allowing for an interesting interplay between open string and stopped string (but a third down from the original lute).
… and many others
So, this year, I decided to choose 19 of these pieces for performance by the professional guitarist András Csáki in Budapest, through Budapest Scoring. He did a wonderful job:
Youtube playlist – videos of some of my Solo Guitar music performed by András Csáki
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SIY_bkHKacXYUrxbsqiUzls
The audio versions can be heard or downloaded from Bandcamp at
https://davidwarinsolomons.bandcamp.com/album/19-pieces-for-solo-classical-guitar
and from Itunes, Spotify, Amazon and others
Do please feel free to share any of this information to others 🙂
Newsletter No 3 – March 2022 Music by Joseph Dillon Ford
Performances of music by the late Joseph Dillon Ford
Joe contacted me back in 2004 asking me whether I would like to join his “Delian Society”, which concentrated on contemporary music in various old styles (but not exclusively) – It was just right for me!
I joined, of course, and added quite a large number of works, as you might imagine!
Joe died too early, but, with the help of his friends at Harvard, Seattle and elsewhere, I have been able to find and publish his music (any money going to his disabled brother via his sister Marsha Koval Ford) and also to make videos of some of his works.
They include works for harpsichord, voices, orchestra, bassoon solo, strings etc
A youtube playlist of many of his works can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJqppqGlr9Sd0KToXx93FBG
His aforementioned Delian Society also now has a webpage here:
https://dwsolo.com/delian-society-suites/
Finally for this newsletter, I would like to mention my performance of the Kyrie (Hospodi polymuy) by a great patriot and composer from Ukraine, in honour of the plight of the Ukrainians:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d15NNO01gFw
Do please feel free to share any of this information to others 🙂
Newsletter No 2 – February 2022 Clarinets and Canticles
“Clarinets and Canticles” comprises performances by Budapest Scoring under Zoltán Pád:
The youtube playlist is
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SLRcoodvemPZQJlenyjLtwp
It consists of:
Te Deum, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for men’s voices and organ
and
Rag Contra Punkt for 3 clarinets
Reed 11 for 2 clarinets and bass clarinet
Reed 11 is a relentlessly limping theme in 11 time that I have used over the decades for many pieces including “The last Village on Earth”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHsIhR06Cy0
and
“Robin Hood forces the Bishop to dance”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fNMXVHoXcs
The playlist does not include the Jubilate – it would probably have taken too long to get the Hungarian choir to sing in Anglican chant style, so, by way of a “bonus track”, here is the original version of the Jubilate which the altos, tenors and basses of Manchester Cathedral Voluntary Choir sang back in 1997 at Hollinfair
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGCpCGUxv_c
BTW Watch for a later Newsletter for the guitar solo of Rag Contra Punkt, to be performed soon by András Csáki
Newsletter No 1 – January 2022 A Modal Vision
News up to the end of January 2022:
The most recent set of live performances involves performances by Budapest Scoring under Péter Illényi for string quartet and flute called “A Modal Vision” – this includes the piece “A modal vision drowns” which is an anagram of my name (as suggested many years ago by my friend Richard Lowe) and includes many modes (traditional and invented) which “compose” and “decompose”.
Other pieces include arrangements of the traditional song Three Ravens and of Charles Villiers Stanford’s The Blue Bird and also two other original works: Air Apparent and Where am I?
- Air apparent is an octatonic composition originally written with alto recorder as soloist, but it works nicely with flute
- Where am I? is inspired by my father’s poem “Care Home”. so I have included that poem in one of the 2 versions of the performance in the playlist, incorporating images from the care home where my mother was cared for back in 2010
The playlist for these 6 videos is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLsXTyKAJ8SJhjzdRisppekUFP6XCobUV
While I was waiting for the video mixes of the above-mentioned Budapest performances I created several other videos. Here are a few that may also be of interest:
Toe in the Water – an improvisation (actually performed back in 1989!) with my friend Keith Searle on keyboard and me on guitar and also singing an alto-vocalise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCNHuTC-yUw
Variations for cello and guitar on Sermisy’s song “Tant que vivray” (using an electronic preview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwg21TlyEQ
and
An arrangement for 2 violas of O’Carolan’s Concerto (using an electronic preview)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTjB7MrzW-s
