Composing in the 21st Century

It feels like the end of an era today! I've now written my last composition on the old Piano and expect the new Piano to be delivered at around 11 a.m. today. The delivery people are taking my old Piano to the new owner's home en route as part of the deal.

At the time of writing I am slightly nervous as I hope the new instrument is going to represent a major and genuine improvement on the old Piano.

The reason for being nervous is that I didn't physically try out this instrument but bought it on the nod of a couple of independent dealers who were both highly enthusiastic about the model.

There's a lot of raving going on about it on the internet as well.

The make and model number is Yamaha YUS3S.

Here's the Piano version of a new song I've been working on today for the Switzerland project.

A lot of my music can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/FeBland1

The only problem is, that to hear any of it you need to "get Scorch" (a free download) from here:

http://www.sibelius.com/download/index.html

Scroll down until you see "get Scorch" then follow instructions to get the download.

Sibelius Music is a great website it's just that you need to get the download to be able to hear anything over there!

This is the new version of the Tango which will be premiered on CD in March 2009 in Spain.

Everything seems to be done with collaborations these days! This composition is no different. While a guest at David Johnstone's place in a small village near to Pamplona, N.W.Spain I composed "3 Spanish Pieces" for his Trio - B3 Classic.

I was actually over there for the premiere of some Jazz Compositons they played for me at a prestigious concert in Alcoy, Valencia.

In an odd 8 or so hours during the 7-day stay, I put together a collection of three new Spanish-style original compositions for David's exact lineup for his trio i.e. Piano & Cello & Clarinet.

This Tango movement has "received the treatment" from David Johnstone & his Trio B3 Classic Colleagues, Joanjo and Joan. I received about 3-4 hours ago, my sheet music MS scribbled all over in red with a 101 - more like 501 suggestions for little changes here and there. In the end I made 601 changes as I threw in about a further 100 tinkerings of my own into the little miniature!

Hopefully none of this will even be noticeable to the casual listener who will just enjoy the new version of the compositon. (The old version will be flamed tomorrow as it is way too late to start flaming things right now!)

Now it seems a commercial CD-recording is imminent (at least for this Tango Movement out of the three movements I wrote in March 08).

It will have to be rehashed for accordian and string quartet - this, apparently is quite a popular lineup for Tango ensembles. And the beauty of David's Tango Accordian lineup is that they are meeting very imminently to record another professional level CD!

It looks like my Tango is a dead cert for the project - so nice to have some more great news flooding in there!

I’ve just sold my Piano and will be getting a brand new one delivered next week!

Old Piano was model U3 from 1988 cost £2,800 in 1988 and sold for £1,700 in 2008 (I have been trying to sell it for 4 years for prices between £2,250 and £3,500, in the end, I just thought “what is my bottom price” and I settled for that). My Tuner found the new buyer. He came here and tuned it up this morning – 2 hours later, one of his clients bought it from me “sight unseen” on his word alone! They are transferring the money through to my account. It should reach my account in 3-4 days and my new Piano will be here 9-10 days and they will deliver my Piano to the new owner.

The new Piano is also a Yamaha. The model is YUS3S which is one model up from the U3. It is £7,438 in Chappells, but I got it for £6,195 from Venables a Hampshire dealer that does the best deal on Yamahas in the UK.

Let’s hope that this is the beginning of a domino effect of positive news!

Someone will pick up a bargain here as I am letting my U3 go for 1700. The 'real' price is 2500 and if it is still unsold by the time I get my new Piano (in about 30 days' time) I will put the price back to 2500 ONO.

If you (or anyone you know) is interested, do let me know & I am happy for you to send my ad around via email.

http://www.gumtree.com/london/61/29943661.html

Three Jazz Flavors by Erskine Butterfield.

I took the day off today, which means I didn't do any composing! Instead, I recorded a couple of pieces on the Piano. Piano playing/practising doesn't count as work as it is something I do for pleasure!!

I needed to edit this quite a bit!

Track: Anthropology Parker/Gillespie

As he who does not merit a namecheck on my blog has been gifted UK Eurovision for '09, I am going to see if I can work with my Swiss colleagues to enter my song for Switzerland-Eurovision instead.

Hopefully I will get a shot for UK in 2010.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra4MLlNsV7k

I found a few minutes of spare time to do this Jazz Piano recording for YouTube today.

The music is "Lady Bird" by Tad Dameron.

I have now written a song that would be highly suitable for the UK entry for Eurovision 2009.

Some months ago, I spoke to PRS and said I might write a song for Eurovision and did they have a contact number for me?

They gave me the name and number of the organiser, Kevin Bishop at the BBC.

Last week, I tried to phone Kevin Bishop and I got a strange answerphone run by a company called "Expressions". I left a message on their answerphone and asked them in all cases to return my call even if they could not help. They did not return the call.

I phoned PRS again - twice. On Thursday and Friday. They promised to phone back "on the day" with the new correct name and number of the person responsible for organising Eurovision. They did not phone back.

I phoned the BBC switchboard. They told me Eurovision is run by the Songwriters Guild. They also mentioned that Kevin Bishop resigned from his job one week after Eurovision 2008.

I left a message with Songwriters Guild on Friday. They did not phone me back.

I phoned Songwriters Guild today. They told me MPA run the competition.

I phoned MPA. They told me BBC run the competition.

I phoned up PRS again. They now confirmed that they have no idea who is running Eurovision, but "why not try the BBC again and see who it is who now has Kevin Bishop's job".

I am now in the process of phoning the BBC switchboard again.

In the meantime, I also sent about 15 emails to BBC and another 15 to two websites which are to do with Eurovision. One official and one unofficial. I have had no helpful information back from any of these emails yet.

1. Waiting to hear regarding 'big' contract. Chasing 15th Oct.

2. Trying to enter Eurovision, but unclear where to submit to - chasing various leads.

3. Writing material for Switzerland pop project.

4. Working with Cellist in Spain.

5. Piano Colours CD with pianist Alvanis on the verge of official release.

6. Recording the odd track for YouTube.

7. Various other musicians dotted around the Planet in touch with me regarding performances (and occasionally, CDs).

Dear Jonathan,

Many thanks for your message.

Songs for Eurovision are selected or commissioned by the television production team. I'm afraid they don't accept unsolicited songs for inclusion.

Best wishes,

Radio 2

Song Lyrics here:

http://www.postpoems.com/cgi-bin/displaypoem.cgi?pid=705892

One of my YouTube friends who is really only an amateur keyboardist but very talented is about to be the first person (other than me) to play my compositions on YouTube.

He goes by Thomandy on YouTube and his page is here:

http://uk.youtube.com/user/thomandy

Why not get a pro- to play it?

Many reasons. One though, is that I aim some of my compositions at the "Educational" market and therefore it is a good thing to have intermediate players performing my work.

A group of visitors were being shown through Beethovenhaus, Bonn and they came to Beethoven's piano. Without waiting to be asked, a woman sat down and performed a horrendous rendition of the Moonlight Sonata.

After she finished, she said to the guide, "I imagine many famous pianists come and play this piano."

The guide answered, "Last month, Paderewski was here. We asked him to play a composition on Beethoven's piano and he said, 'No, I am not worthy.'"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski

http://www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de/sixcms/detail.php//startseite_museum_en

I have 3 tracks on UK iTunes!

I've been on Spanish iTunes for most of 2008, but just searched under FeBland and got 3 hits with the Warner Bros recording.

Anyone reading this might like to buy track #3 as that is the most fun piece of the 3 which are published there.

Soon (hopefully) the whole of Piano Colours will be on UK iTunes. The CD has just been released but (possibly) not 'launched' yet.

From Cellist David Johnstone in Spain:

BIG NEWS HERE TOO!

THE B3 CLASSIC TRIO HAVE BEEN PUT FORWARD FOR CONTENTION OF THE SPANISH PERFORMING RIGHTS SOCIETY (S.G.A.E.) NATIONAL AWARD IN THE HONOURS IN THE CATEGORY OF "BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE" FOR THEIR SUCCESSFUL CDs 'CHAMBER MUSIC DISCOVERIES'* AND 'NEW CHAMBER MUSIC DISCOVERIES' WITH WARNER MUSIC.

*Contains 3 tracks which I composed.

Maybe we won't be finalists or win, but just being put forward by Warner is fantastic. They're only proposing a famous violinist and us!

Part two:

I think 'Piano Colours' my CD with Pianist, Alvanis has been or is on the verge of being released now.

I have a number of comps here - the vast majority of which are going to be sent to Classical Radio Stations around the world!

I will email these radio stations to see if they are interested and ask for the name and address of the exact person to write to!

The next sketch for the Switzerland April 09 project with Mike Turtle and Jessica Knoll.

Here's my latest comp. for the Switzerland project.