Blog

22 July 2014, News
My first run
V. Happy that I have had first run through of my little piece "she is warm" by real, live orchestra. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology you can get a fairly realistic rendition of your music albeit by a bunch of transistors and diodes. A perfect rendition. But even with the rough edges, the wayward intonation, the missed cues and the overloud accompaniment, a real performance or, as I had, a forty minute workshop is so much better. I have pulled she is warm from musicaneo as it looks ...
11 June 2014, News
She is now warm.
She is warm is now posted. I must admit to being envious of other members who have musicians, groups, whole orchestras ready to play their music whenever. Peter Webb, the conductor of the Unley Symphony Orchestra here in Adelaide, has put aside time from our busy schedule to get my first, finished, orchestral piece played. So happy. The Winter's Tale starts as a tragedy but ends up as a romantic comedy where all ends happily but with some regret. The actor Henry Irving said "We close the ...
19 May 2014, News
TNJ
I wonder how many composers re-use their melodies? I was asked to write a little piece in C 4/4, go to E 3/4 and back again in under two minutes. I cheated of course, using a melody that I was keeping for something else. Now have to work out what to do if I ever get to that original piece. Michael Lofting May 2014
12 May 2014, News
My Brand New Day
Written at a time of great personal stress and anxiety. Seems somewhat naive now but it was my first "serious" piece after decades of tinkering so I hope you'll be kind. Mostly my own lyrics, just a few well chosen quotes from poets I have acknowledged on the front cover. The voice part goes from C4 to A5. I thought it would be OK as a flute solo, just need to remember to breathe. Michael Lofting May 2014
09 May 2014, News
My Little Love
That's two whole pieces published! I was given this 'dour" little melody as an exercise in arrangement. Everything I tried sounded funereal until I developed the strong 'cello line which I think really lifts the piece. The idea for the middle section was that the singer of this tune shifts from happy to obsessive about his little love hence the strange (for me) harmonies as he descends into madness. Sid and his camels arrived on Wednesday, much rejoicing. Michael Lofting ...
03 May 2014, News
I wait
After two weeks I expect that the mule train carrying my PIN letter has wound it's way down from the Swiss alps and has now been put onto a tramp steamer that will sail around the Cape of Good Hope and, together with a cargo of bananas, will deliver my letter to a camel driver named Sid who, in turn, will trek his lonely path through the blistering heat of the outback to one day knock on my door and hand me my authorisation so that I can finally start mounting my music online and maybe even sell some. ...
21 April 2014, News
Less Troubled Times Ahead
Just sent in my first piece. Eagerly awaiting my PIN. Less troubled times for clarinet and piano popped into my head one evening while driving home from orchestra. Many pieces, fragments, rhythms do this, usually when I am not able to write them down. I always think "this is the best idea I've ever had"! Of course it's forgotten by the time I get home. Fortunately this one stayed long enough for me to get to Sibelius and start writing. LTT is not the best idea I've had but it was only my ...
21 April 2014, News
She is Warm
Still waiting to get a performance of my first, complete orchestral piece "She is Warm". Based on Shakespeare's Winters Tale it is two hours of play condensed into 6 minutes of music. <SPOILER ALERT> The play has the usual kings, nobles, black deeds, rogues, clowns and lovers. The central theme of the music is towards the end of the play where miserable old King Leontes is shown a statue of his dead wife whom he believed he had caused the death of some sixteen years ago. The statue ...