CD info with Liner Notes
With the help of a major grant from Creative Scotland and support from Sabhal Mor Ostaig (the Gaelic College on Skye), John released an exciting collection of his musical works on three CDs featuring some historic as well as new recordings from some of the top musicians in their field throughout Scotland and the world. These include Dreaming of Islands, Circus Suite, and the historic battle, Bannockburn. They've received some great reviews here and in the USA.
You can purchase John's CDs in the STORE
You can purchase John's CDs in the STORE
DREAMING OF ISLANDS
The culture and environment of the Isle of Skye, where I live, inspires much of my music and, particularly, the music on Dreaming of Islands, with settings of Gaelic poems by Sorley MacLean and Iain Crichton Smith. The classical music of the Highland bagpipes has inspired Luis for solo violin, and Wai Taheke for solo flute. Both respond to the rhythms of nature and are musically and technically demanding. The rhythms of nature also dictate the music of the Clavier Sonata and Skyelines, though they are in a different idiom. The title and opening tracks were composed for dear friends who have shared the same dreams. |
CIRCUS SUITE
Of the three CDs of my music, Circus Suite covers the widest time-span and is the most classically orientated. While my Circus Suite and The Old Composer Remembers consist of character pieces, the Suite for Solo Violin is cast in a more traditional baroque style, using different dance forms. The whole CD is a kind of kaleidoscopic suite featuring a variety of idiom and instrumentation. The Flute Sonata is the earliest (1965) and of course The Old Composer Remembers (2002) is among the most recent. Recent, too, are the tributes to Hirini Melbourne, for whom I composed the poem and flute solo featured here. The last piece is my Cello Sonata – my favourite instrument from schoolboy days. |
BANNOCKBURN
Bannockburn features three pieces about battles which took place in 1314, around 200, and 1942. Bannockburn itself was commissioned in 1972 for the National Trust for Scotland for their new visitor centre and the music follows the story of the battle over two days. There is nothing overtly Scottish about it, though some say nearly all my music has the sound of Scotland at its heart, and they may well be right. Throat, for soprano, carnyx and percussion, uses a reproduction of the 2000-year-old boar-headed Celtic war trumpet. The music evokes the period of the Pictish-Roman conflicts. Carrier Strike was composed for a concept of Ian Hamilton Finlay’s in which an ironing board doubles as an aircraft carrier, and becomes a metaphor for both domestic and international warfare. It may seem at first to be light-hearted, but the piece also refers to the Battle of Midway and is not without its disturbing elements.” |