First movement of my symphony in F - a piece commissioned by a Mr French (so a few French references!). Artwork by Richard H. Trask.

Symphony No 2 (in F Major)I (Opus 17a)

Symphony No 2 (in F Major)III (Opus 17c)

Fourth and final movement of "French" symphony...

Symphony No 2 (in F Major)IV (Opus 17d)

Impressionistic piece depicting Koi carp in various attitudes enjoying a sunlit pond. A wind chime hangs overhead (depicted by the tubular bells). The "big mother" fish at the bottom of the pond can occasionally be glimpsed as a rising then falling contrabass figure. Shy they may be, but they all come to the surface at the end to feed and bask :o)

Coy Carp (Opus 12)

Clarinet Concerto I (Opus 23a)

Second movement of Clarinet Concerto (minus key-clacks and heavy-breathing!)

Clarinet Concerto II (Opus 23b)

My first orchestral overture, composed back in 2012.

Tower Block (Opus 6)

Piano Sonata second movement: palm of left hand used to play the opening chords. D-flat major central tune modified and used in second part of "Bipolarity".

Kai Sonata II (Opus 24b)

"Morning on the Waterfront"
The Llandoger Trow is one of the oldest pubs in Bristol, and is noted for being associated with the early English novels "Robinson Crusoe" and "Treasure Island". I wrote much of this piece in the “Jacobean Bar”, and is scored for classical guitar, string quartet, a pair of clarinets and strings.
(graphic based on a painting by Charles Parsons Knight)

A Tale from the Llandoger Trow - II (Opus 8b)

To celebrate the conclusion of my first concerto, I went a bit mad.
Boogy-woogy, Soft Kitty, Mastermind and pianistic laughter all scramble for attention...

Piano Concerto - Third Movement (Opus 7c)

Based on the third and final part of my first novel "The King of the Stars", this symphony employs a very large orchestra (quadruple woodwinds, eight horns, large battery of percussion, etc).
The four movements correspond to successive stages of a nightmarish alternate reality created by the main character, Jadd Santeney. From Wagnerian mists to folk dances; elements of Prokofiev and Scriabin to an overarching insistence on the number 3, this work is quite short (only 20 minutes), but covers a lot of subconscious ground...

Symphony Number 1(3rd mvt - The King of the Stars) (Opus 10c)

Adding a drum kit and a synthesiser to the orchestra turned out to be quite liberating. A third symphony became a synth-symph, and this is the concluding part where threes are everywhere... :o)

Paul Owen

Tiny Retreat part 8 (Opus 19h)

Calm, wistful... a harp and a gong set a meditative mood, whilst divided strings, and a handful of wind, express love and gratitude for those within...

"Sleep" in G (Opus 31)

First movement of my Second Piano Concerto. Opening half a minute contains the three principle ideas (drone, contrapuntal flurry and simple piano melody in A minor), which are then developed. Violent, jazzy solo from piano, then two more subjects are introduced and explored. First cadenza appears half-way through the movement, which is then revisited in the closing bars. All material is recycled in 2nd and 3rd movements as subtle and not-so-subtle variations.

Piano Concerto No 2 (1st Movement) (Opus 28a)

A March in 3/4 time... for Tripods, presumably... :o)

March No 3 (Opus 30)

March No 4 (Opus 33)

One of the happier marches... subtitled "Carnival", it depicts a street party in La Mancha (with fireworks imagined through a drunken haze).

March No 2 (Opus 34)

Music inspired by my first novel ("The King of the Stars"): Third part of the novel itself...
Ancient forest; main characters as primitive homunculi... etc etc.

Symphony Number 1 (1st movement) (Opus 10a)

String Quartet (1st movement) (Opus 4a)

An orchestral march with strains of Orff :o)

March Number 5 (Opus 35)

Piano Concerto - First Movement (Opus 7a)

Symphony Number 1(4th movement - Troplah) (Opus 10d)

String Quartet (2nd Movement) (Opus 4b)

March Number 1 (Sam's March) (Opus 9)

This is "masculine" march to the "feminine" waltz which comprise the first half of Opus 38 (final movement currently under construction). The fact that the march involves very little variation, is loud and brash (and finishes in half the time that the waltz takes) can be interpreted in any number of sarcastic ways...
The final movement will be a marriage between these two musics, and thus presumably will have a few fights along the way... :o)

"Fasting March" (Opus 38a)

The final movement of my "Fasting Suite". The first movement ("Fasting March") represents masculinity; the "Fasting Waltz" (a.k.a. "Waltz on Ice") represents femininity; the "Fasting Finale" represents the marriage between the two. The opening is calm and serene, as new-found lovers are wont to hide their faults and tip-toe around each other's. The main tune is begun by the feminine side, and more often than not the tunes are out-of-step with one another. Tensions rise until the masculine brass goes out on a binge and comes home cold and drunk, and the feminine comforts the masculine with a tune of sweetness and rapprochement. The two parts of the marriage then move forward, referencing each other and promising a new tune, which keeps getting batted back into the famine theme from the previous movement. There can be no doubt that the feminine side wins in the end..! :o)

Fasting Finale (Opus 38c)

A "Chamber" Nocturne for violin, 'cello, two pianos, two gongs (different ones... one player) and six timpani (two players).

Nocturne No 2 (Opus 39)

A piece for ten instruments (commonly known as a "Dectet"), which is closely related to my own "The Wave", "Coy Carp" and the two Nocturnes. Whereas "Coy Carp" was strictly-speaking an "Impressionist" piece, and "The Wave" was rather a practical exercise with structure and form (the "wave" itself being evident from the changing tonal centres), this piece is more emotional and free with form - but still retains cohesion via motivic and harmonic means.

Decet (Opus 40)

The first of five movements of my new Fourth Symphony. It combines symphony with concerto (principally Piano Concerto, but solo violin and 'cello are important to the texture also - so it could be regarded as a synthesis of Triple Concerto and Symphony. Ostensibly in D minor, it frequently stretches into polytonality only to snap back into related keys (F, A and C minor being the principal ones). There are dark chromatic passages in the middle section which are developed in the second and third movements (still under construction).

Fourth Symphony 1st Mvt. (Opus 42a)

The second of the five movements... In the 1st, the piano was pre-eminent, and the solo violin and violoncello had subsidiary parts in this Symphony-Concerto. Now, the piano has an easy time of it - sustaining chords, recalling rhythms from the 1st movement, and "suggesting" alternate chords which are usually regressive (harking back...) or aggressive (denying). The string soloists are still quite minor characters here, and the bulk of the orchestra now fight amongst themselves, tearing up 1st movement themes and pushing for a far-greater violence than was heard in the 1st. At the end of this fractiousness, we segue into the first few bars of the 3rd movement (ostensibly in G-sharp minor, but it soon becomes entirely chromatic/"atonal"... but that is another posting!). The ever-present D-C# motif from the first movement continues to dominate this one, though the colouristically effects of polytonalism are much more evident here (particularly the A-major/C-major/Eflat/Amin grouping).

Fourth Symphony 2nd Movement (Opus 42b)

The first three movements of my Fourth Symphony. A unified work in itself (however bleak!), it sets the stage for the last two movements of this work. The first fifteen minutes is the 1st movement, which is also the 1st movement of a piano concerto. The second and third movements are principally orchestral, but the piano offers percussive/chordal parts crucial to the overall structure of each of the two subsequent movements. In Part Two (the 4th and 5th movements), we have a merging with the traditional three-movement sonata/concerto and the modern symphony, with the piano once again predominant. I have attempted to combine the Symphony with the Piano Concerto with this work - although you can only hear half of each on this recording... (I am still working on the 4th and 5th movements).

Fourth Symphony Part One (Opus 42a, b and c)

The 4th movement, which also doubles as the middle movement of a piano concerto.

Fourth Symphony 4th Movement (Opus 42d)

In this short orchestral work, The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells has been revisited, with all prior cinematic, musical and theatrical versions consciously disregarded.
Since the alien culture depicted was unsentimental and triadic, a piece in triple time
in three main sections to contrast with our own duple existence seemed appropriate. After a brief flourish, the contrasting rhythms are laid down, with a theme of D-A-Bb-(F#) on the horns depicting the tripods in the distance. More instruments, militaristic notions and thematic development add to the sense of urgency. As the tripods arrive, all goes eerily quiet. The middle section gives a surreal depiction of an individual witnessing the scene through deafened ears and the “black smoke” which obscures. This leads to a piano solo representing a simplistic human attempt at rationalisation.
The March returns and drives all before it in a chaotic crescendo.

March Of The Tripods (Opus 41)

Original tagline: "The rise, fall, cascade and final freezing of a droplet of water... for solo piano and a few broken fingers :o)"

The Water Droplet (Live)

An ex-biochemist-turned-broadband-coordinator, I have been lucky enough to be a published author (novels and short stories), and compose in my spare time. I am also a benefactor of two concert halls in Bristol and am currently funding five of our orchestras (Bristol Symphony Orchestra, New Bristol Sinphonia, Bristol Classical Players, Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra and The Bristol Ensemble).

Steve Pain

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks