This was an unplanned performance al fresco by a bonfire at Larkbeare Farm, Devon in September 2008

Straight Lines A Capella 21 Sep 08.MP3

This a recent rehearsal recording of my new setting of John Keats' rather saucy poem "Dawlish Fair" recounting his seduction of a local maiden on the road between Teignmouth and Dawlish, during his sojourn in the former town.  The premiere performance of the song will be at the United Reform Church in Teignmouth at 7.30 on Friday 7th March as the opening concert of the Teignmouth Classical Music Festival.
You can tell it's a rehearsal because my phone rings at the end, and I forgot to turn off the mp3 recorder - and the piano's out-of-tune too!
DAWLISH FAIR
Over the hill and over the dale,
  And over the bourn to Dawlish--
Where gingerbread wives have scanty sale
  And gingerbread nuts are smallish.

Rantipole Betty she ran down a hill
  And kicked up her petticoats fairly;
Says I I'll be Jack if you will be Gill--
  So she sat on the grass debonairly.

Here's somebody coming, here's somebody coming!
  Says I 'tis the wind at a parley;
So without any fuss any hawing and humming
  She lay on the grass debonairly.

Here's somebody here and here's somebody there!
  Says I hold your tongue you young Gipsey;
So she held her tongue and lay plump and fair
  And dead as a Venus tipsy.

O who wouldn't hie to Dawlish fair,
  O who wouldn't stop in a Meadow,
O who wouldn’t not rumple the daisies there
  And make the wild fern for a beddo! 

) 24.02.14 Dawlish Fair.MP3

Puzzle jigs walkdown

The Journey 4 March 2012

Out of the many hundreds of songs of written, very few have been "lurv" songs, but this is probably my favourite.  

Impossible Words sung by David Haines

Out of the many hundreds of songs I've written, very few have been "lurv" songs, but this is probably my favourite.  

Impossible Words sung by Stephanie Green

Just Like You Multitracked DH

Stargazing a capella 21 Sep 08

David Haines was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live programme on 16th March 2013 about his work as Songwriter-in-Residence with the Cambridge Science Festival, Massachusetts.  The presenters were Richard Cole and Sian Williams and their studio guest was philosopher Alain de Botton.

Saturday Live Radio 4 16 March 2013

Straight Lines a capella 21 Sep 08

This is a draft demo version of the opening number from a new music theatre work I'm writing with Justin Werfel.

Sun rise, water flow
Bird cries, cattle low
Clear skies, grasses grow
Bright eyes, breezes blow

Morning in the Village and the day begins again
(Morning! -- hello -- howdy -- good day)
Time to get to tending to the livestock and the grain
(Sleep well? -- not bad -- Feeling? -- okay)
Time to get to weaving and to cooking and to clean
(Hungry? -- you bet -- tired? -- no no!)
Life's a busy cycle that's familiar and routine
(Up yet? -- oh yes! -- Ready? -- let's go!)

For the River is the center and the essence of the Village
And we weave our lives around it and it holds us like a frame
As the seasons and the people pass in a never-ending sequence
The water's always changing but the River is the same.

Sunrise from Water Wars 17 March 2013

Heartwarming Christmas song about how your friends and family will drop you like a ton of bricks if you don't spend all your money on them at Christmas.

DID YOU SPEND ENOUGH MONEY THIS CHRISTMAS?
Did you spend enough money this Christmas
To prove that you love your family and friends?
Did you spend enough money this Christmas?
Oh, if you didn’t you’d better get out and spend
’Til you’re deep in debt or else you’ll just fret
About what they think of you
If you’re not ten grand in the red, I bet
Your family and friends will be most upset 
About your not showing suitable due respect, expect them
Tearfully to disown you, oh “too-da-loo”
Tearfully to disown you, they’ll be crying
“Too-da-too-da-too-da-loo, too-da-loo”
They’ll be weeping “too-da-loo, too-da-loo
“Too-da-too-da-too-da-loo”
 
Did you spend enough money this Christmas
To keep all the fat cats fat, fat, fat?
Those bankers really need our hard-earned cash so
Max out the credit card on booze and tat
Are there pennies in your piggy bank lying low 
Pound coins hiding out in your purse?
You know your friends won’t love you if you don’t go
Right now and spend ‘em on gifts - Holy Cow!
You know that they’ll be thinking ‘Who’d’ve thought it
Don’t know how a friend of mine could be so mean but
Now I do-da-loo, tearfully we disown you
We’ll be crying “Too-da-too-da-too-da-loo, too-da-loo”
We’ll be weeping “too-da-loo, too-da-loo” 
“Too-da-too-da-too-da-loo” ‘

You didn’t spend enough money this Christmas
In the festive spending spree you are way behind
You’ve missed your golden opportunity, the shops are shut
Never mind, you can spend your final pennies online, my love
Put it all on plastic, you’ve got time, my sweet, my dove
Doesn’t really matter, it’s the thought that counts above all
Spend your money on me, and things will be fine
Spend your money on me (should you feel so inclined)
Spend your money on me, ‘cause of your love it’s a sign
You need to spend it all on me
Friend of mind, friend of mine, friend of mine

Did You Spend Enough Money This Christmas?

Diana the Huntress is sung supposedly from the point of view of Actaeon, who had the misfortune to chance upon the goddess bathing naked in a pool whilst he was out hunting with his dogs.  Glimpsing the goddess nude was an unforgivable sin, and Diana transformed Actaeon into a stag.  He was torn to pieces by his hounds.  My song imagines that even as he dies, all he can think of is the extraordinary beauty of the divine Diana.
I wrote the original song in about 1979 or 1980 while I was studying composition at the Guildhall School in London.  It was originally just for solo voice and piano.  More than a decade later I added the chorus parts.  I have recently (February 2021) tweaked the song further and made tutor tracks for my community choir, the South Devon Singers.  This is the 'tutti' option of those tracks.  Not a professional production, as I'm sure will be obvious!

Diana The Huntress

Songwriter/composer specialising in choral and vocal music inspired by science, though I've written a huge amount of other material too.
In 2009/10 I was the first ever Songwriter-in-Residence with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and the Millennium Seedbank.  Kew distributed my song Mr Darwin to all 22,300 primary and special schools in the UK as part of their Big Plant Hunt Project sponsored by the Wellcome Trust.
In 2010, a 250-voice performance of my 'science oratorio' Powers of Ten was the official opening event of the first USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington DC, sponsored by the University of Maryland, Lockheed Martin and the festival itself.
In 2011 I was the world's first science festival Songwriter-in-Residence, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sponsored by MIT Museum.


David Haines

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