Arabic atmosphere, voice, piano, percussion and reeds

Medina (with Aliye)

Celtic jig for violin, piano and frame drum

Jig - violin

Piano obstinate with assorted brass and percussion, featuring Mike Lovatt (trumpet) and Paul Clarvis (assorted percussion).  Seven beats to the bar throughout.

Urban jungle (Paul Clarvis, percussion)

Belitha Blues

Mirrors

Manhattan noir (trumpet - Mike Lovatt)

Sweet and Right (RADA films) - four cellos

Pastoral track featuring Anny Chen (violin)

Softly she goes (Anny Chen - violin)

elegiac piece for violin and cello and strings, in similar space to Barber's Adagio for Strings.  Anny Chen (violin) and Alessandro Sanguinetti (cello).

Elegy for strings

Theme music for a powerful film written by Owen Sheers about soldiers returning from Afghanistan and learning to cope with both psychological and physical damage.  This piece is composed for piano, solo cello (played by Dr Alessandro Sanguinetti), french horn section, marimba, bass drum and snare drum with orchestral/sampled underlay.

Sweet and Right: main theme

Theme and incidental music for TV documentary

Blackadder:  the Lost Pilot - UKTV Gold

Theme music for the podcast "Have you seen?" released in October 2023.

Have You Seen?

Opening cue from Norman Gregory's award winning feature film, A Reason to Leave, piano, cello, bowed marimba and percussion.  Recorded at Belitha Studios with the composer at the piano.

A Reason to Leave (cello - Dr Alessandro Sanguineti)

Funeral scene from A Reason to Leave - trumpet/guitar

Soulful track for piano and strings, the piano recorded at Belitha Studios

Solace - piano

Lieder in style of Richard Strauss, recorded at Belitha Studios with the composer at the piano.  Text by Goethe harvested from Mahler's 8th symphony.

Das Ewig Weibliche (Ciara Hendrick, mezzo soprano)

Sampled track with clarinet, piano and percussion suitable for a radio quiz show.

Zero Twenty

Retro horror movie

piano patterns plus orchestral/electro, melancholic

Reykjavic

I composed this descriptive piece after climbing Suilven in unexpectedly clement weather in May 2016 and it was recorded in summer 2016 at Belitha Studios with Anny Chen playing violin and the composer at the piano.  It was premiered by Alex Lomeiko (violin) and Tomos Xerri (harp) at a concert at the British Museum on 21 June 2018.

Suilven (Anny Chen, violin)

Short track in B major featuring Dr Alessandro Sanguineti (cello), Laura Ware-Heine (oboe), me (Steinway B) and sampled strings and french horn.  Recorded at Belitha Studios 25/26 March 2017 with the oboe added later.

Aftermath (piano, cello and chamber orchestra)

Simple minimalist piece built around repeated ostinato pattern in right hand and rising fourths in left, with a more lyrical middle section.  Towards the end a discreet euphone is added to the texture.  The piano is a Steinway B recorded at Belitha Studios, 12 March 2017.

Clouds (for Jara)

Christmas carol composed for the London Philharmonic Choir which gave its concert premiere under Toby Purser in the Royal Albert Hall on 20 December 2017 in two concerts introduced by Alan Titchmarsh.  Recorded by the choir of St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, Holborn Viaduct, at the church on 30 January 2018, conductor Peter Asprey, recording engineer Steve Parr.  As of 2019 the piece has been adopted by the UK homeless charity Crisis and all composer royalties pledged to the charity.

Ring The Bells (choir of St Sepulchre, Holborn, Peter Asprey)

Simple folk piece for guitar and violin evoking the Scottish highlands.  Recorded at Belitha Studios, Yuri Kalnits violin.

Lochinver

Minimalist impressionistic piano piece recorded by the composer at Belitha Studios on 22 April 2018 (Steinway B).

Cirrus

A piece for unaccompanied choir commissioned by the British Museum to evoke their permanent Celtic exhibition and first performed in the Great Court of the museum at the summer solstice, 2018.  Awen is the Welsh/Breton word for poetic inspiration.  The Druid symbol for awen represents the Triad of the Sunrises, the three points of light at which the sun rises on the equinoxes and the winter and summer solstice.  Awen may be pronounced as it looks or alternatively as a-oo-wen.  Recorded at St Andrew's Church, Thornhill Square, Islington on 9th September 2018.

Awen - London Philharmonic Choir under Artistic Director, Neville Creed

Composed at Belitha Studios, October 2018 and recorded there by the composer on the Steinway B.

Etude no 1 for piano

A short piece for piano recorded by the composer on the Steinway B at Belitha Studios, 8th November, 2018.

Film noir

Guernica

A simple, minimalist piece developed from an improvised ostinato pattern in the right hand.  The title, reflected in the quiet ending, is borrowed from one of my favourite hymns, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (text by John Greenleaf Whittier, an American Quaker, to the tune "Repton" by Hubert Parry).  This was recorded by me on the Steinway B at Belitha Studios on 24th September, 2020.

Small voice of calm - for Valerie

Elegiac piece composed for Vicar of Dibley:  Inside Out - a passage where Emma Chambers and other cast members are remembered.  Recorded at Belitha Studios on 20th January, 2021 (under strict COVID-compliant conditions) with cellist Dr Alessandro Sanguineti and the composer at the piano.

"In memoriam" - from Vicar of Dibley: Inside Out (UKTV GOLD)

Paul started composing at school and read music at Cambridge University where he was Music Director of Cambridge Footlights. After a successful first career he is now pursuing a second career as a composer working primarily in film and choral music.

His music reflects his classical training but is diverse in style deploying a wide range of sonorities, both recorded and synthesised. His music is characterised by strong melodic content and he is preoccupied with the relationship between music, narrative and images. Paul's music has been performed and broadcast in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.  Representation for film music is by SMA Talent.

Popular tracks by Paul Fincham