I've been composing formally notated music since embarking on my Master's degree at the University of Surrey in 2021. Some of my scores are presented below as score videos, with the full scores to download. If you'd like to perform any of these pieces, please drop me a line at [email protected].
Jazz-Rock Kidnap Showdown on the Vallance Road, for oboe, bass clarinet and piano (2025)
This is a submission for another New Music Brighton concert to be given by Hannah Shilvock, Catherine Underhill, and Viola Lenzi in September this year. For now this rendition is a shonky MIDI one; I can't wait to hear it played be real musicians! Here's my programme note, for context: "This piece started out as an homage to the Miles Davis sideman and bass clarinetist Bennie Maupin, but try as I might, I couldn’t stop it turning into a pastiche of 70s UK cop show themes. Oy veh: honour thy mistakes as hidden intentions. So instead imagine Maupin, on a rare London visit with Miles, bundled into the back of a Ford Cortina at the end of a sawn-off shot gun, driven through the back streets of Bethnal Green to meet a jazz lovin’ and slightly demanding gangster’s girlfriend, with Regan and Carter in hot pursuit. Or something."
A Curious Lobster, for classical guitar quartet (2025)
This is a piece I wrote for one of my teacher Gregg Isaacson's non-BGQ quartets. It's intended to be an intermediate-level piece, although I have to say that some of the chord voicings and campanella effects in guitar 3, and some of the 12th-17th fret lines in guitar 1 might be a tad challenging! It turns out it's actually rather tricky to write convincing music that's easy to play. Who knew?! NB: it's a MIDI rendition at this point.
Lascia Ch'io Pianga (G.F. Handel), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2025)
This is my arrangement for four guitars of Handel's beautiful aria "Lascia Ch'io Pianga" from his opera "Rinaldo". The audio is only a MIDI rendition at this stage, but should give some sense of the piece. I hope to play it with some human guitar players at some point later this year!
Maraṇasati (Morendo Sempre), for cello and vibraphone (2025)
Although I've used elements of graphical scoring in some of my previous pieces (most extensively in "Three Poems by Li Bai"), this is my first attempt at a fully graphic score, with fairly minimal strict musical instruction. The piece is intended for inclusion in a New Music Brighton concert to be given in June 2025 by cellist Bela Emerson and percussionist Adam Bushell. Assuming the piece is performed, I'll re-post the score here with audio; for now, it's purely visual!
Vexopédie No. 1 (An Ostracised Beetle), for solo piano (2025)
This is my contribution to a concert given by Late Music in York in June 2025, commemorating the centenary of Erik Satie's death. The piece is something of a conceit, mashing up Satie's best-known piece, the first Gymnopédie, with perhaps his most notorious, Vexations, and takes several cues from Satie's eccentric scoring techniques (including somewhat surrealist performance directions!) Thanks to the amazing Duncan Honeybourne, who performs the piece here.
The Level at Midnight, for classical guitar sextet (2023/4)
I wrote this piece at the tail end of 2023 for Jon Rattenbury's Brighton Guitar Group to perform at a New Music Brighton concert in the summer of 2024. This version features me playing all the parts. Many thanks to Jon for his scoring suggestions.
A Prayer, Offered Lightly, for piano (2024)
This short piece for piano is a gift to my three children, Joe, Frank and Lily, in recognition of the recent and tragically early loss of their mother, and in admiration of their courage and the amazing support they've shown each other. This version is a MIDI rendering; I'm hoping the piece may be played in a New Music Brighton Concert in 2025. Many thanks to Peter Copley for his feedback and hugely helpful musical and notational suggestions.
Tears of Pleasure Ever Flowing (G.F. Handel), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2024)
This is my arrangement of Handel's beautiful Air and Duet from his oratorio "Theadora" (1755-59). The transcription draws heavily on several piano reductions, in particular one by Alex Demutskiy, and is transposed from the original key of G to D. This is a MIDI rendition but I'm hoping the Brighton Guitar Quartet will roll it out in our 2025 concert season.
The Aleph (A Lullaby for Albert Frank Nikky Ferrier-Hopkins), for two classical guitars (2024)
Here's a short piece I wrote to celebrate the birth of my first grandchild, Albert. I premiered the piece in performance with Shaun Bullard at the Guitars by the Sea festival in Brighton in October 2024. This version is a MIDI rendition for now, but I'm hoping to record it with Shaun at some point. The downloadable score incorporates fingering and technical suggestions from my fantastic teacher Gregg Isaacson.
You Only Live Twice (John Barry), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2024)
This is my latest arrangement for the Brighton Guitar Quartet, a re-working of my favourite Bond theme song, from 1967. This version is a MIDI rendition, but I hope to record it with the group in concert in 2025.
Picotudes #1-5 for classical guitar (2024)
I'm currently writing a series of classical guitar mini-studies, or "picotudes". Each piece is a response to, or in some way an adaptation of the studies in Reginald Smith Brindle's 1980 collection of guitar studies, "Guitarcosmos Volume 1". I've written five so far, and will add more here as I complete each batch of five. The audio on these - so far! - is a midi rendition.
Johnson & Johnson (or, Blues in E) for piano (2024)
This is my first piece formally written for piano, which was premiered at a New Music Brighton concert by Karen Kingsley in October 2024 and later played by her in a recital at Portsmouth Cathedral. It's something of a conceit, bringing together melodic materials from "The Witches' Dance" and "Hellhound on my Trail", supernaturally-themed pieces by two very different Robert Johnsons, the English Renaissance lutenist and the great Mississippi bluesman. Many thanks to Peter Copley for his detailed and invaluable feedback. The version below is a MIDI rendition. You can hear Karen perform the piece here, or see her here. Thanks to Roger Harmar and Paul G Terry for the audio and video respectively.
The Pillars of Hercules (Lost Soho No. 1), for two electric guitars (2024)
I wrote this piece to perform with my good friend Paul Dallaway at a New Music Brighton concert in April 2024. It's intended as a collision of Reginal Smith Brindle and King Crimson. Or something. The audio on this recording is MIDI; you can hear me and Paul perform the piece here; thanks to Roger Harmar for the audio and of course to Paul for his fantastic playing.
The Honeycomb Conjecture, for classical guitar quintet and electric bass guitar (2024)
A piece originally intended for a New Music Brighton concert given by the Brighton Guitar Group, but now hopefully to be performed at some point in 2025 by an expanded line-up of the Brighton Guitar Quartet. This recording features MIDI renditions of the guitar parts.
Three Poems by Li Bai, for mezzo-soprano, viola, guitar, vibraphone and recorded atmospheres (2022)
My most ambitious composition to date, a 30-minute, 5-movement chamber piece based on poems by the Tang-era Chinese poet Li Bai, sung on this recording in classical Mandarin by my fellow Master's student Yi Zhang, with the brilliant Ellie Blackshaw on viola.
Three Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, for voice and guitar (2022)
This is a piece I wrote as part of my Master's at Surrey, a short three-movement piece for classical guitar and mezzo-soprano based on sonnets by the great Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. On this recording, my fellow student Yi Zhang sang the vocal part beautifully, with me accompanying on guitar.
Casualties of the Dharma, for brass quintet (2023)
I wrote this piece for a New Music Brighton concert given by Brass Fusion; sadly it wasn't picked for the show (in retrospect it's metrically quite a challenge without a conductor). The piece was workshopped with the great Gavin Bryars at a residential workshop in the French Pyrenees in the summer of 2023.
Guitar Quartet No. 1 (2022)
This is another piece written as part of my Master's programme at Surrey, a classical guitar quartet, recorded on this version by me on all parts. The Brighton Guitar Quartet played the piece's inner movement, "The Age of the One Moon" as part of our 2025 repertoire; you can hear us play the piece at St Laurence Church in Falmer here.
Sheep May Safely Graze (JS Bach), arranged for guitar quartet (2023)
My arrangement of the famous aria for soprano, two flutes and continuo, from Bach's "Hunting Cantata" (BWV 208). This recording is a live performance by the Brighton Guitar Quartet in Falmer in 2024. My thanks to Steve Gordon for help with the initial orchestration, to Gregg Isaacson for guidance on the performance instructions, and of course to my BGQ bandmates for playing so beautifully.
Doom Scrolling for four-piece rock band (2022)
A slightly odd one, I agree. But to explore some of the rhythmic and harmonic concepts in the second semester of my Master's programme, I thought prog-metal might be the way to go. Of course.
She Erases a Constellation, for flute and guitar (2021)
My first real attempt at "formal" composition, written in the first semester of my Master's degree. It's a MIDI rendering at this point, I'm afraid; I'm hoping to get around to recording it properly in 2025.
On the Empty Pianos, Puppeteer Spiders, for string quartet and recorded atmospheres (2022)
Another piece from the second semester of my Master's programme, a single-movement piece for string quartet and atmospheres, somewhat (loosely) riffing on Lutosławski's "chain" compositions. The strings on this recording are MIDI.