Simply Classical was recorded by the RPO Strings at Abbey Road, with Lucy Wakeford on harp & Paul Mottram on piano

# Title Time
1 United 3:15
2 Vibrant Heritage 2:16
3 Rest Easy 3:21
4 Moonlight Escapade 2:09
5 Classic By Design 2:56
6 Troubled Heritage 2:16
7 Gentleways 2:57
8 Moonlight Liason 2:08

The collection of tracks have a particularly strong classical feel to them, with a conscious nod to more than a few of the great composers of the classical/romantic eras. In this circumstance one is in the unusual position of writing as if one were a classical composer but with the knowledge that the music should be optimised to work with picture. Often classical music does work very well to picture anyway provided it doesn’t become too complex or emotionally turbulent but it’s fascinating to contemplate what Mozart & Beethoven might have composed if they had had a media brief.

“In Moonlight Escapade I really did let myself imagine I was discovering a long lost movement of a Mozart piano concerto”

Generally though, I would describe the musical style as generically post-classical as usually there is some element that takes it beyond pastiche. In Classic by Design it’s maybe the addition of Marimba and a slightly clockwork feel and in United, it’s the addition of ethnic percussion groove underpinning the melodic strings and choir. Vibrant Heritage, or a least a version of it, started life as the title theme of a documentary series produced by Waddell Media called ‘The Big House’ before being worked up into a full length media track. It’s really quite classical in harmonic and melodic style bar the syncopated violin rhythm that forms the bed to the piano melody. Troubled Heritage is a minor key version of its’ sunnier brother Vibrant Heritage. It’s amazing how dramatic a mood transformation it is by simply flipping the tonality in that way and keep all the other musical components the same as before.

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