Lyrics, Music, Recording & Editing - Sky

***PERFORMERS***

Sky: vocals, guitar, recorder, beans in a bottle, rain stick

Bob: Accordion

Josh: Piano 

Morag: Drum


***LYRICS*** 

The golden crunch of settled leaves 
And Autumn colours falling where
It seems not even one perceives
The changes felt within the air 

From gentle flow to icy breeze
A sour shift provokes unease
The future harder to discern
Uncertain of the Sun's return 


The light must stay away a while
And winter brings an empty wait
Without it there it's hard to smile
No longer lit, we hibernate 

A home-shaped prison, hollow test
Of lonliness at winter's crest
But even though the heart will yearn
The moon awaits the sun's return 


[Instrumental]


The sun does not replace the moon
But beam upon the darkest days 
So in the spring the flowers bloom;
A child's wish, a lover's gaze 

And in the night illuminate
The memories not lost to fate
While in the light we now can learn
At last to feel the sun's return 


© Copyright 2022 (Music and Lyrics) Sky Ratcliffe/apollosukulele/The Cosplay Bard. All Rights Reserved. 


***DEDICATION***

Writen for Mara as part of the Dorym Nation Secret Santa 2022, who requested 

"orym teaching dorian winter's crest traditions and dorian composing a carol as a gift :D"

Inspired by Critical Role, in particular Dorian and Orym and, by extension, Will.  Thank you Robbie and Liam and Matt for bringing these characters to life for us all <3 

I like to imagine Dorian writing this for Orym as a way of acknowledging both their own individual journeys and their connection with each other. And whilst there are many layers of symbolism going on, there's no need to know about Critical Role to enjoy the music as it works just as well as a stand-alone winter song.

This was made with no professional recording kit, so goals for the future is to get this professionally recorded and make a cosplay music video too. 

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43927476 

The Sun's Return

Written in 2011, Visible Light takes the listener on a journey through the seven colours of the visible spectrum. The composition begins with red in the bare feel of A minor and finishes with violet in the dark depths of E flat minor. The choices of keys come from my synesthesia, the feelings of the colours as I hear the music. Visible Light is scored for violin, cello, flute/piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, piano and percussion. This recording was made in Wells Cathedral in 2012 as part of the annual New Music Week. 

Composer - Gemma Ratcliffe
Conductor - Paul Whitmarsh

Visible Light

Eye of the Star is inspired by the True Game books, a scifi-fantasy series by Sheri S Tepper. In 'Jinian Footseer' there is a poem come spell collection that begins 'Bright the Sun Burning, Night will come Turning' and I set it to music as a 13 part round. It this this round that became the main theme for Eye of the Star.

This recording was made in 2012, the same year it was composed, and was recorded after a 40 minute workshop with my school orchestra. It is wonderful to have a live recording and I'm really pleased to be able to listen to it; however, there are some mistakes and I just wanted to put that out there as something to be aware of. 

Eye of the Star

I wrote this dance in memory of the people killed in the Orlando shootings on 12/6/16, and to all their families and loved ones left behind. It is one of the Dances of Universal Peace, and I led it for the first time at Unicorn Dancing Spirit Camp this year, first in the Youth Leaders' session and again in the final evening session of the camp. 

The words are as follows:

Ya Wadud (the loving one; the most affectionate)
Ya Mani (preventor of harm; protector; defender) 
Ishk Allah Mabud Lillah (God is love, lover and beloved)

Let the love remain and the peace be among us
Ya Salaam (peace)

The dance is about creating a safe space for us to love and sharing that love with the world. It is really important that horrific events such as the Orland shooting do not divide us further - in this case, a divide between Muslims and the LGBTQA+ community. After all, there are many people who fall into both categories. Hopefully this dance will take us one more step along the healing process towards unity.

Ya Wadud, Ya Mani (youth session premiere)

Unicorn 2016

Ya Wadud, Ya Mani (Unicorn evening session)

My audition piece for Voltron the Musical.

Based on S3E19 of Avatar: the Last Airbender, depicting the scene where Aang asks his past lives for advice on how to defeat the Firelord.

Aang, Kyoshi, Yangchen - Me
Roku - Oisin
Kuruk - Callum

Backing - Sibelius sounds............
Yeah, the 'solo violin' sound is supposed to be an erhu, so you're just gonna have to use your imagination for that one.

Lyrics: Me, a mix of my own stuff with parts taken/adapted from the show
Music: All me :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar, nor the characters, I only love them to pieces and let them inspire me.

What Kind Of World (original Avatar song)

Composer, musician and leader of the Dances of Universal Peace. 

Sky Ratcliffe

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