On a lighter note - listen to a track from the 1971 vinyl recording we have just transferred to CD - the harpsichordist is John Pattinson.

On the family tree front we have a new family to welcome!  - the HARROPs of Barnburgh - link below

NEWS at July 2009: old photographs have a fascination all of their own, so each quarter we plan to feature one from our collection - maybe with a musical connection, maybe not.  You may view this month's choice further down this page.

First performance - Duo for Alto Flute and Piano - performed on February 28th 2009 at the Ellen Terry Building of Coventry University, in a  concert organised by the Central Composers Alliance - the performers Clare-Louise Appleby, flute, and Julian Hellaby, piano. 

- the concert was recorded by Alan Hames and we are delighted to include here an extract from this delightful premiere - details below.

One of our COMPLETUS Compline settings "Look Down O Lord / Be Present O Merciful God" has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.  This was on November 4th 2008 and the music was selected and introduced by the incomparable Rob Cowan.

Our sheet music and the COMPLETUS CD are now available on - a brilliant site dedicated to classical music.  More titles will be added later, but for now the printed music for the Sonata in A minor for Violin and Piano and the Vocal Scores for the six settings from Compline can be obtained on-line from Tutti.co.uk, quickly and with complete confidence.  

Eight sample pages for the  sonata have now been added on this site - and  the AFFINITIES CD is also available from Tutti.co.uk.

This site has now been redesigned and most of the links are active, so enjoy your visit.
The educational sites follow the main vocal and instrumental sites, and then come the two children's cantata sites which are an appropriate link between the earlier ones. Other sites, which follow, includes an interesting story of ducks - and a genealogical mystery.

PHOTO GALLERY And what links these faces to our web site?
Hans Gal was born in Vienna in 1890.  The latter part of his life was spent in Edinburgh and he died there in 1987.  He was a prolific composer and I recall his attending a concert at which we were performing one of his works - 'we' being the Glasgow String Orchestra, which Adrian Secchi had founded in 1956 - rehearsals I remember being in Cecil Street, off Great Western Road. This concert must have been around 1959 and by coincidence I shortly afterwards played alongside his daughter, in the Edinburgh Rehearsal Orchestra, I think.   In 1934 Gal composed his "Lyrical Suite on Robert Browning's dramatic poem Pippa Passes", for soprano, flute and string quartet.  One of its earliest performances was in Vienna in  May 1936, and it was performed there again in October 1997, but nearer to home the work was played in Edinburgh in 1987, with George Gwilt the flautist and the Edinburgh Quartet, with soprano Francesca Green. (The text is a translation into German by Helene Scheu-Riesz.) Also in 1987 Francesca sang Gals' Fünf Lieder, op.33, accompanied by Leon Coates, again in Edinburgh. Back in 1964 Leon, I and cellist Ann Morris had formed a piano trio taking Beethoven and Schubert etc to Staffordshire schools and music groups, and among our contacts then was a young solicitor Reg. Browning - the very same who forty five years later would be the stimulus for the composition of my own Five Songs of Asolo, from Pippa Passes, which Yvonne Howard and the English Piano Trio are recording for Ardross House. Much more about that presently!

Previous Photographs

Talking of Archives .....  here's a bit of fun! This 1971 vinyl record has just been transferred to audio CD. Here is one of the tracks from side two, which also includes the Delius Serenade from Hassan, a couple of Handel movements and the Fiocco Allegro! The recording dates from 1971 and was made for an educational project at Madeley Teacher Training College in Staffordshire, where John Pattinson was a lecturer and where I was one of several visiting instrumental staff. <<The Bluebells of Scotland>> - in an arrangement by William Honeyman (1845-1919).

 

VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL SITES (non-educational)
"Completus" is a substantial work for double SATB choir lasting over 35 minutes and comprising six movements, the texts for which are all drawn from or connected with the service of Compline.  A performing edition of the whole piece is now available, together with a dedicated web-site where sample pages of each setting can be accessed, together with sound clips, a full text, and order forms, in sterling, American dollars and Euros. A beautiful recording by the Czech choir Ars Brunensis is also now available.
Of the six movements, three are set for double SATB chorus while the Nunc Dimittis (movement II) and movements IV and V   are essentially SATB. The opening movement is "Qui Habitat" (psalm 91/XC).   The third movement is a setting of "Keep me as the apple of an eye" with "Lighten our Darkness" with the last movement an eight part setting of O Radiant Light - which is an English translation of the Latin text used by John Taverner in the late 1520s for his votive antiphon O Splendor Gloriae. The third movement has also been scored optionally with trombone quartet (ATTB).    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< visit the COMPLETUS site >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The work has been recorded by the breathtakingly beautiful Czech choir, Ars Brunensis, under their conductor Dan Kalousek. The church of John Huss, Brno, was a perfect setting for the recording made by Annegret Lange's Vienna company, with recording  and sound engineers Frantisek Poul and Vaclav Frkal - full details on the COMPLETUS site. - April 2007 - I have just heard the pre-master disc - to quote Andrew Downes the choir is simply "superb"! June 2007: the recording is now available - visit the COMPLETUS site for details - "Wonderful music" - Guy Woolfenden OBE CD and vocal parts available now from Tutti.co.uk
		September 2009: "Pippa Passes" - five songs for Mezzo Soprano and Piano Trio - has just been completed. The words are by Robert Browning, from his poem Pippa Passes, first published in 1841. November 2009: "Pippa Passes" is to be recorded in 2010 with wonderful mezzo-soprano Yvonne Howard and the English Piano Trio - details in the new year. August 2010 - DONE! Visit the dedicated Pippa pages for the latest information. <<pippa_passes>>
Duo for Alto Flute and Piano Kerry Milan First Performance: February 28th 2009 The Recital Room Ellen Terry Building Coventry University in a concert of works by members of the Central Composers' Alliance Alto Flute - Claire-Louise Appleby piano: Julian Hellaby The performance was recorded by Alan Hames and this haunting extract (the recapitulation section) captures the mood perfectly: <<play>> The score will presently be available from Tutti.co.uk.   In the meantime, any flautists interested in receiving a complimentary copy of the work, please contact us at ardrosshouse@btinternet.com.
			SCHERZO FOR WIND ENSEMBLE This work had its first performance as part of a Commuters Concert at Birmingham Conservatoire in November 2000. It was performed again, brilliantly, by the Windworks wind ensemble on  November 19th 2006, also at the Conservatoire. The recording included here is via a streamed audio file, for which you will need a fairly fast connection:  <<play>> There is also a full score to view, if you are interested in following what is a very challenging piece, just to follow, never mind perform!: <<view>> For information on buying parts contact ardrosshouse@btinternet.com
VIOLIN SONATA in A minor "Affinities" for Violin and Piano I  Quasi a piacere II  Andante piangevole ma espansiva III  Scherzando IV  Allegro (Rondo) This is a substantial work at some 28 minutes, and should be a welcome addition to today's repertoire. For both players the parts lie well, but the work is not without challenges,  not the least of them rhythmical.  It is a very satisfying and rewarding work - the whole work having been conceived as an emotional journey, from the violinist's first anguished cry to the last movement's idyllic happy ending. Eight sample score pages are now included in a pdf document.  You may also be interested in the notes that accompany the printed score. Just click to follow the links: <<sample pages from the piano score>> "I am thoroughly enjoying playing it .... the whole sonata is really elegant and happy and characteristic of the composer"   !!        - a dear colleague who shall remain anonymous! One less enthusiastic reviewer (for ESTA) refers to the 'enigma' of my having playfully subtitled the last movement as the "bee-sting waltz", while the movement is actually a fairly straightforward ABACA rondo in 5/4 time. She wonders if she detects shades of Brahms in the dotted rhythm sequence!?   (page 8 of the sample pages above)   Here is the last A section (if you have a high-speed connection) of the movement, which includes this passage, and which is in fact the subject of the ESTA enigma <<PLAY>> Clue: although generally speaking the work which I would like to think inspired me was Chausson's Počme - the inspiration for this particular section was my young granddaughter's great enthusiasm for a certain song she was at that time rehearsing in choir ....'when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad .....".   another clue - it goes with Do-Re-Mi!			A recording of the sonata has been produced on the Ardross House label. The performers are Kerry Milan, violin and Itzhak Oda piano and the recording is now available on the Tutti.co.uk site. News at Jan. 2010: there is to be a new recording in July by Jane Faulkner and Timothy Ravenscroft. Details nearer the time. and the parts are available now from Tutti.co.uk
			In the August Strad's "Chamber Music Special" Julian Haylock looks at some seldom-heard chamber music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and I was most interested to read how very highly Haylock rates the three-movement Violin Sonata of 1954  - "a moving summation of Vaughan William's art", the article ending with the observation that VW could hardly have wished for a finer musical epitaph. But what particularly struck me was Haylock's reference to the sonata as being cast in the "inconsolable" key of A minor, though finally ending "in a warm glow of contentment". If nothing else unites the two sonatas it is this, and Affinities' own musical and emotional journey is outlined in the attached <<composer's note>>.
The "New Song" site has recordings, words and scores to download in connection with evocative new music to celebrate the exciting post-Millennium mood of Scotland today - 1. Heart of Scotland - a new anthem for a new age? 2. Flame of Destiny 3. Blue Dawn (and as a bonus 4: The New Twasome!)
			The "Caroline Sings..." site features "Footsteps", "Wings" and "Metropole" which Caroline Milan has performed and recorded -  and not forgetting "Emily Rose"! A song to celebrate a second birthday, "Carousel" - "Happy Birthday, Aged Two, Is there room for me too, As you race of on each new adventure? ....."
EDUCATIONAL SITES
Welcome to a major site for schools and instrumental teachers: "String -and Percussion - Hosanna!" with instrumental (and percussion) parts and recordings of 26 assembly favourites, with audio clips of individual parts. 10 pages of violin music, 10 pages for viola, and 13 pages of percussion, with over 120 sound files.  PDF format for speed, clarity and great print-outs.  Great fun just to browse!
			Celebration String Hosanna! There are 29 songs and carols - Spring, Pancake Day, Lent/Easter, Harvest/Autumn, Halloween/Guy Fawkes, Endings, Hindu and Jewish - for festival assemblies throught the year, where each part can be individually listened to, simply by clicking its name. The melody parts are suitable for recorder, violin, flute etc, while the accompanying line is specifically for young violinists. All pages can be quickly viewed and printed out using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Another great educational site is "Sing and Play Along" with ideas for encouraging young instrumentalists join in school music lessons. There are now ten books available in PDF format, and sound files of all 28 songs are available, plus individual percussion parts for each song. As well as violin/recorder parts, there are melody parts for viola, cello, flute, clarinet, alto saxophone and trumpet, plus piano and vocal scores.			"Sing and Play Along"
			"Carolling Along" - a most useful Primary School resource This hugely popular collection was originally compiled to provide young instrumentalists in Staffordshire schools with the opportunity to join in class and school assemblies, and provides instrumental melody booklets for violin/recorder, viola, cello, flute, B flat clarinet, trumpet and E flat saxophone. A simple percussion score is also included, with short, memorable parts for a variety of tuned and untuned percussion, which can even be listened to individually, simply by clicking on an instrument's name. Later, in response to many requests, a piano accompaniment book was also published, with new accompaniments by me to the twenty one carols. There are separate booklets in PDF format for the seven instrumental melody parts, the piano accompaniment and the simple accompanying percussion parts.
A specialist site for violin and viola teachers, "Images and Imagination" offers sixteen pages of imaginative and very effective group teaching material for use  with young string pupils - - covering rhythm work, slurred and spiccato bowings, positions, creative writing, feeling the harmony and pentatonic work, etc. - highly recommended
VIOLIN TUTOR			- coming later
CHILDREN'S CANTATAS
			<<GEORGE AND THE DRAGON>> is a cantata for two-part school or area choir, suitable for children of about 11 to 14 years old. Catchy tunes, with simple two-part writing, and easy piano and percussion parts mean that everybody can join in what is a fun work with a serious warning message to all bullies! Visit the site - see the scores and hear the music - Caroline Milan, singing all the vocal parts, really brings the story to life.
<<HELEN AHOY!>> is a cantata for two-part school or area choir, suitable for children of about 12 to 16 years old. Its five movements focus on the Gods, the Greeks, the Trojans, the Fall of Troy and finally Helen herself - " ... if she'd only said 'No thank you Paris..' " All great fun, and an education too!			a cantata for two-part choir - five movements telling the classic story of Helen of Troy. Visit the site - see the scores and hear the music - Caroline Milan, singing all the vocal parts, is in fine voice.
OTHER SITES
			10. "Music for a While" has been produced by ASC Records for the Central Composers' Alliance. The CD includes Caroline Milan and Julian Hellaby performing two of the pieces, Wings and Metropole, which are featured on the "Caroline Sings ..." site above. It is a most attractive collection, and the CD is available from all contributing members as well as from ASC Records. Further details from the CCA web site - see link below
Quite different site - the story of the Mallard duck and 13 ducklings born in our back garden! - - the cycle repeats itself! August 2003 and a very late starter! August 12th 2003 - you can watch a duckling hatch! February 2004 and they are back on the pond.  Too early yet to say; but is this going to be another hectic year for us! - update November 2004: no! plenty of activity but no only smashed egg shells this year! quack here for ducks! May 2009: not ducks this time, but more drama in our bird scene - including five cygnets. <birds a-tweet>
<<FAMILY TREE>> new update at August   2010: a fascinating picture of the TYRWHITT family in Arksey, Yorkshire, over five generations from the 1530s - with a further look too at the BOWKER / BOOKER family in Tickhill Outlines now include the Werry / Little,  Callaway, Couch and Frod / Frad families in north Cornwall and from Cumberland, yet more revisions to the Calvert / Walker and Ferguson / Hodgson lines. James Calvert married Eleanor Hope at Kirklinton in 1809 and we have done a lot of research in trying to place him. New at October 2009 - if you are a MILAN are you part of the extended family descended from JOHN MILNE, born in Edzell, Angus in 1787? <MILAN LINK> New at November 2009 - an article of the BROCK families of the Isle of Axholme from 1547 <<AXHOLME LINK>> January 2010: link to the HARROP family connection.			Apart from music and ducks, and our love of crosswords (we are Azed fanatics) researching our family background has become another favourite pastime.  Although we have a large web of several thousand pages we are not currently thinking to put it on-line.  But there are one or two mysteries which someone perhaps may be able to to help us resolve, and by the same token we may have information of interest to others, so bits of trees may appear here from time to time. Our first mystery concerns Lancelot Hodgson who married Eleanor Ferguson on December 6th 1876 at Kirklinton in Cumberland.  Lancelot was born at Upperby near Carlisle in 1855 to a single mother, Jane Walker, and until a few years before his marriage he was called Lancelot Walker.   On his marriage certificate he says his father was called John Walker (a farm servant), so why, sometime after 1871, did he adopt the name Hodgson?

This will be mainly a music site, though, with works for voice, strings, wind ensembles, etc, as well as a wide range of educational material by the composer - if you have just time to visit one or two sites just now, try the new COMPLINE settings, or head for Scotland and its "New Song".  Or for an educational visit, try one of the revised "Hosanna" sites.

A new publishing house has been set up to publish Kerry Milan's music.  It is called ARDROSS HOUSE, and eventually all his music will be available through the new firm.  Further information can be obtained from ardrosshouse@btinternet.com

Thank you for looking in.  Please keep track of  how the site develops. 

 

If you have come to this site from
the Central Composers' Alliance Site, click here to return to its home page.

 

You may also like to visit the Incorporated Society of Musicians' site, which lists other ISM members' websites throughout Britain, both composers and performers.

And if you would like to read a short biography of Kerry Milan, please click here.

 

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