Introducing

Herewithin is a visceral collection of guitar orientated songs.  Probably best browse well past this one! :/

The Viola Swamp Ensemble – Blithe

Music based the ideals and tuning systems of different times (modernist, platonic, ancient Indian, lambdorma &c.), composed between the Fall of 1998 and Summer of 2001.

Of Low Entropy

A collection of music composed between 2003 and 2004

Patterns in Counterpoint

THE GHOST OF EMPLOYMENT
Symphony with the traditional four movements dovetailed, composed upon a cantus firmus.  
The first movement in sonata form, and has tubular bells outlining a Schenkerian analysis of the movement, with the cantus firums prominent.  The first subject of the exposition has the subject, countersubject, and themes in augmentation.   The second subject has the cantus firmus in the tenor.  Then there is the Development.  At the recapitulation, there is a stretto and false entries.

The Adagio is isorhythmic.  The Minuet polyrhythmic.  The Final movement begins with the countersubject of the Sonata Movement, and then three is a section where the theme is hidden between nine parts, and finally a section using extended chord and a 'descant ' part.

INTERSECTION
Uses the themes of 'The Ghost Of Employment' and 'Awaiting Caitlin Rose' simultaneously.  Hence joins the symphony to the musical offering.

AWAITING CAITLIN ROSE

Partly inspired by Bach’s Musical offering, and partly an A-level pupil called Arun who asked if I could write similar canons to Bach’s.  It is written to celebrate the birth of my third child Caitlin Rose.

* Theme – the complete theme is played once through
* Permutation canon – arranged so that within four variations Caitlin’s theme and the four counter subjects appear in all four possible transpositions in relation to one another
* Table Canon – Caitlin’s theme played both in its original form, and played backwards upside-down simultaneously
* Crab canon – Caitlin’s theme played as a crab canon.  Note the question and answer between parts.
*Antiphon (using permutation canon themes) – an antiphon arranged so that on the left hand side of the stage there are flutes, oboes, horns, and violins; and on the right hand side there are the bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violas, cellos, and double basses.  The antiphon uses the themes from the permutation canon.
* Mirror Canon – Caitlin’s theme played accompanying itself by being played in inversion.
* Perpetual Canon – based on part of Caitlin’s theme
* Prolation Canon – Caitlin’s theme plays once through with an obligato playing as much of the theme there is time for played at one crotchet is equal to a minim.  This has a string accompaniment.
* Canon over ground bass – Caitlin’s theme is used as the ground bass for a two part canon played above 
* Sixteen-part counterpoint – with Caitlin’s theme as a cantus firmus

Awaiting Caitlin Rose

Microsphere 1 - Adagio

I'm So Glad I Found You

TBC1

Written 9th September 2014 whilst attending a British Dyslexia Association music education event.

The picture contains some dyslexia related musical cryptogams (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_cryptogram)

Also, here is a great video about dyslexia: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhV9SyVmwA

BDA Song

HELLO SONG
"Christ in Our Lives.  No Limits... Just Possibilities"
Watney and Bradley 2014


These are my friends, these are my friends,
We’re all at St Joseph’s School together,
These are my friends, these are my friends,
I forgive and accept you; you’re always my friend.

These are my friends, these are my friends,
We’re all at St Joseph’s School together,
These are my friends, these are my friends,
I forgive and accept you; you’re always my (build up rhythm) friend.

||: 
Hello (clap clap), Hello (clap clap), hello everyone,
Hello (clap clap), Hello (clap clap), hello everyone,
Hello _______ it’s good to see you here,
Hello _______ it’s good to see you here,
We’ll keep you safe, it’s okay, (sigh of relief:) Ahh ahh ahh (build up rhythm except last time)
:||

[Bridge: instrumental / percussion break]

These are my friends, these are my friends,
We’re all at St Joseph’s School together,
These are my friends, these are my friends,
I forgive and accept you; you’re always my friend.

These are my friends, these are my friends,
We’re all at St Joseph’s School together,
These are my friends, these are my friends,
I forgive and accept you; you’re always my (slow down) friend.

Hello Song

You're the reason I'm trav'lin' on [...]
But I wish there was somethin' you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
But don't think twice, it's all right [...]
You just kinda wasted my precious time

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Live / Bishop Otter)

GUTTED. NOT GOOD ENOUGH (lyrics © Oliver D G Bradley)

Don't know whether I ever told you
But I love you
We're not together now
It hurts there's too much time

No-one to hold me now 
Please still be there for me
I can't sleep at night
I need you here with me
I love you, could you love me
I love you, could you love me

I would sleep with you
I would marry you
Just name anything
I want to be with you

We could lie together in bed
Until the early morn
Oh naked, innocent and warm
Just tell me whatever it takes

* solo * 

I respected you
I loved you
I needed you
Guess I realised too late

No-one to hold me now 
Please still be there for me
I can't sleep at night
I need you here with me
I love you, could you love me
I love you, could you love me

Please try

Gutted, Not Good Enough

Ole Country Skies

The first half of the song has 12 string guitar, influenced by the Bryds, and orchestration influenced by Nick Drake.  The ending is influenced by the Velvet Underground's "European son", "Black Angel Death Song".  This version uses a prolation canon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolation_canon) kith the Arvo Pärt's Cantus in Memoriam 

JUST A THOUGHT (lyrics © Oliver D G Bradley)

Hey, life
How are today
I saw a moment ago
The other side of you

There you were 
In a robe of black
You were here
To take this human life

Satan, he runs our lives
He will not let go
He has all our souls
But God is holding on

You can't believe he'll help us
The Devils just too strong
Soon god will be no more
so why keep holding on?


Just A Thought

INNOCENT NYMPHO (lyrics © Oliver D G Bradley)

Hey little girl,
Oh so sweet
Lying there, with the 
Innocence of the young

Lying naked
Like a five year old
Lying Naked
Don't know what it means

You sit there like a young girl
You play with yourself
It don't matter who looks on
Innocence like the young

Innocent nympho
Legs spread open wide
Innocent nympho
Please don't take me

Then what happened one day was 
You came into my life
Asked if I'd be your own 
And feel your soft below

Lying naked
Like a five year old
Lying Naked
Don't know what it means

So sweet there
Don't know what it means
don't matter who it is
sweet like a new born bridge

Innocent nympho
Legs spread open wide
Innocent nympho
Please don't take me

* solo *

Innocent nymho
Innocent nymho
Innocent nymho
Please it's not true

Innocent Nympho

Had some odd feedback to this one at university from the Head of Music when I performed it in the chapel.  He said, "If your intent was to impress, then you failed ;  if your intent was to shock the Lord, you succeeded."

A bootleg of this performance (circa Autumn 1998) is available from the link below.  The Legendary Nigel Ripon (https://soundcloud.com/nyzhl-1) was on drums and Tim Fox was on bass.  Sorry for the not too good quality of the recording,  It is a recording of a copy of the original recording :/  Anyhow, here's the link :

bootleg :  https://soundcloud.com/oliver_bradley/bishop-otter-i-praise-to-the-lord/s-9o183?in=oliver_bradley/sets/viola-swamp-live-outtakes/s-Lvttw

PRAISE TO THE LORD 
 
Praise to the Lord,
He loves us so.  He loves us so,
He would have died just for you or for me.
So great is his love, so great is his love.

Love your neighbour as your self, 
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
These are the greatest commandments, 
The law and prophets hang on these.

Say a prayer send a letter from God,
Send out all the love that you can,
And give your thanks to the Lord, 
Thanks to the Lord. 

Eternity without the Lord,
This is the way it can be,
But if your give your thanks to the Lord,
And believe in your heart the Lord God raised him from the dead,
Then you, you will be saved.

Praise To The Lord

An ideal performance in just intonation should cause a tonic drift (see W. A. Mathieu's Harmonic Experience) of about a quartet tone (42 cents / greater diesis).  This is an attempt at breaking equal temperament, from the seemingly separate realms of quarter tones, and just intonation.  The theme of just intonation and quartet tones occurs in later work in new ways.

Comma Phenomena, III The Great Diesis

In an ideal performance, a notes pitch in relation C changes by the degree of a musical commas dependent upon context. 

Comma Phenomena, II Enharmonic Genus - Mode Around

Comma Phenomena I, 42 Cent Disjunction

In this piece, the theme of the '1st Marcosphere' is hidden between instruments and in summation tones.

A 2nd Marcosphere

Influenced by both Plato (Republic and Timaeus and Citrus) and Alain Daniélou (Music and the Power of Sound).  The Phrygian mode, along with the Dorian mode, is one of the only modes Plato would allow in his ideal state.  It also has links with a lost Indian scale used to create music for celestial purposes.  The original score also included a part for the clavier à lumières, as found in some of Scriabin's works.  The piece begins with a solo flute, intended as a reference to Messiaen's 'Le Merle Moir'.  As the piece develops, also makes use of symmetrical chords, an influence from Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Scriabin.   Also includes a four part antiphon, see structure see Virus, antiphon a4.

A 1st Macrosphere

Antiphon a3, I Timbre

Composed using my usual 3 part antiphon form, see 'Fine Line, French Plait, antiphon a3'.  This time made possible through fewer instruments through the use of double counterpoint.  See :  https://soundcloud.com/oliver_bradley/fine-line-french-plait?in=oliver_bradley/sets/of-low-entropy

Antiphon a3, II Permutation Canon Cm

Antiphon a3, III Permutation Canon Gm

Antiphon a3, IIII Permutation Canon Dm

Florid Fugues, Bb Legato Waltz

Crab Canon and Anitphon a3

Passagalia

PROGRAMME NOTES

I chose to write for recorders because of the love I have for Renaissance music – as well as the tactile nature of recorders, where fingers cover the un-mechanised holes.  

     During the composition, I have made use of enharmonic notes; where these notes occur, the recorder player will need to re-finger so the listener will hear the natural quartertones.  Where these enharmonic notes occur there are performance notes in the score to alert its performers of the need to re-finger.  The tick symbol indicates phrasing, hence also where the player are to take a breath.

     The composition is, broadly speaking, a Monothematic Sonata Form, with new material added for the development.  Here however, the usual modulation to the dominant has its usual place taken by a modulation to the sharpened subdominant minor.  Normally in sonata form the first ‘masculine theme’ dominates the  and oppresses second ‘feminine theme’ forcing in into the same key as itself; for this reason some theorists see sonata form as a violent and masculine form.  This is my reason for using the monothematic form, as here there is only one theme, hence there is no other theme to dominate it.

     Some features need drawing attention to, as it is easy to miss them.  The first is the transition, bars 15–23 and 44–52, which uses a scale that I invented:
 
Usually I use this scale as a non-modulating scale, in this instance with the tonic as C.  However, here it I use it over an augmented sixth chord as a means of modulating from C minor to F-sharp minor.

     At bar 58, just before the development, there is a quartertone cluster chord produced by a diminished second; the notes of this dominant chord are C-sharp, E-sharp, F-natural, F-sharp, and G-natural.  During the development at the beginning of bar 63, there is a false relation of a first inversion triad with a major and minor third resulting in an augmented octave; these false relations are a favourite of the English Renaissance.  Also during the development, ascending natural minor and melodic minor scales combine to avoid the Diabolas in Musica at bar 65.

     During the recapitulation one statement of the original melody is in the major key and in inversion, this occurs bars 68–74.  The piece ends with a tutti unison.

Recorder Quartet

Antiphony in 16 parts

Crab Canon

Table Canon

Permutation Canon (not Antiphon)

Theme

Uses the themes of 'The Ghost Of Employment' and 'Awaiting Caitlin Rose' simultaneously.  Hence joins the symphony to the musical offering.

Intersection

Symphony with the traditional four movements dovetailed, composed upon a cantus firmus.  

The first movement in sonata form, and has tubular bells outlining a Schenkerian analysis of the movement, with the cantus firums prominent.  The first subject of the exposition has the subject, countersubject, and themes in augmentation.   The second subject has the cantus firmus in the tenor.  Then there is the Development.  At the recapitulation, there is a stretto and false entries.

The Adagio is isorhythmic.  The Minuet polyrhythmic.  The Final movement begins with the countersubject of the Sonata Movement, and then three is a section where the theme is hidden between nine parts, and finally a section using extended chord and a 'descant ' part.

The Ghost Of Employment (Symphony)

Shrouded Solace

An eclectic mix of contrapuntal and modernist music drawn from across the arts.

Oll noll

Pinned to spotlight

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