Four short tracks I sequenced back in 2021 for a character podcast called DeadEnd Dave: "A monthly podcast following the adventures of David Sherriden, hapless necromancer, and his friends as they forge relationships, fight monsters and try to pay the rent on time."

Which is character is your favourite?

Link to the podcast: open.spotify.com/show/5jEDPMEqVKG…bbb0a50f79524453
Follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/deadenddave
They are on episode 10 and counting!

DeadEnd Dave

Auriel The Unseelie Fae Queen

Jimmy The Hunter

Morgan The Mer

One of my main fears after leaving university was that, due to not having a reason to compose, nor a deadline to compose to, I would stop composing, and thus lose any momentum that studying composition may have given me. To counter this, and also to develop my understanding of music technology, every so often I fiddled around with some newly purchased sound libraries. I've finally released this piece from the purgatory of my MacBook.
How satisfied I am with this piece is, as it always has been, in constant flux. Part of me feels it is lacking something (whether a crucial piece of mixing/mastering knowledge, or better kit, or perhaps more analogue elements/good quality audio recordings of real, live instruments/sounds), but I'm never completely certain. Other times, I listen and enjoy it, and then get suspicious of my enjoyment, and then confirm that I am, indeed, enjoying it. One thing I am certain about is that I am grateful to the people to whom I sent my piece for advice and criticism. To you I say thank you, and despite whether or not the effects of your advice is audible in this piece, I shall definitely implement what I have learnt from you into my next piece.
Synthony is not perfect, and there are definitely facets about this piece and its creation process that I have learnt to do differently or better in the future (I certainly won't be making anything quite so long for a while).
I intend for this piece to be a stepping stone towards better sounding music (or, more importantly, just 'more' music).
This piece has no real purpose, hence the generic name. It has four movements. Movement 2 was the movement from which everything grew; the introduction was added later. I was largely inspired by video game/electronic artists such as the composer of the Minecraft soundtrack (C418 aka Daniel Rosenfeld), and the Machinarium soundtrack (Floex aka Tomas Dvorak), and to a lesser extent Ochre aka Christopher Leary, who's music got me interested in music technology in the first place. I have also been inspired by my friends, colleagues, and former lecturers as well. Whether these influences are audible or not, I don't know. Certainly movement 3 was inspired by 'In The Wall' by Tomas Dvorak; this may be audible a bit.
There are original lyrics in the final movement, each verse of which starting with a quote from various sources (see below). If these lyrics had a point, they don't anymore. They are simply random lyrics for a random piece of music on top of a random video. Although I did use their addition as another opportunity to try my hand at poetry, I eventually covered them up with distortion; the vocals still fulfilled their main purpose, which was a last little bit of variety before the piece's close.
"Gas, grass, or ass; nobody rides for free." (I got this from a serial killer character from the Netflix series 'Mindhunter'. I may have misinterpreted the meaning of the phrase. I was at the microphone testing if I wanted vocals at a certain point and, as embarrassing as it is, this was the first line that came to me. The lyrics that follow ask and explore why I may have included it. And instead of changing these to something more profound or savoury, they just became the final lyrics.)
"...a man with two legs that never learnt to walk." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Beware the man of a single book." - St. Thomas Aquinas

I got the idea to construct a video from stock footage from a recent release of a fellow composer, James Tocher. See and hear that awesome piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-XyKoml4fE 
To create the video, I used iMovie. All videos used are not mine and are subject to fair use. They are available for free download at: https://videos.pexels.com

I hope you enjoy this. If you have any useful tips or criticisms, please do let me know and I will try to incorporate them into my next piece.

Synthony - Mvt. 1

From 7th January 2019 to 3rd April 2019, I attended a short evening class (two nights a week) in 'Sound Design for Creative Media' at the SAE Institute, under the tutelage of Jose Macabra. The class introduced us to the history of sound in relation to the screen, as well as sound for its own sake, and how sound used to be and can be manipulated to fit another purpose, or to just escape from its original one.
Over the course of the class, we started looking into possible projects that we could all work together towards. My colleague, Constance Eldon McCaig, asked if we may be interested in contributing to the sounds in a play that she'd co-written entitled 'Salmon'. Her play is about a young man struggling to come to terms with the death of his pet dog, though as we progress, we realise all is not as it seems. We were delighted to help with the play!
Though this piece doesn't best represent the repertoire we looked at in the course (we touched on many atonal, timbral pieces, soundscapes, fine art, electroacoustic music, and Musique concrète, amongst more!), Constance requested one of the pieces to contain piano and violin, and to evoke a sadness relevant to certain scenes in the play. I had already come up with a not-fully-realised version of this idea a few years ago, but struggled to do anything with it. Turns out it was just waiting for the right commission.
Performing on this track is myself (Christopher Webb) on piano, Aradia Santisteban Anillo on violin, and Zoë Annesley on vocals. It was recorded in a studio in the SAE Institute with Jose Macabra at the mixing desk, recording, and taking videos and photographs.
There are many different versions of this piece, including ones that were slower, or with more electronics, etc. This version is one I edited myself, though I didn't do much to it, to be honest.

A Short Tune for a Play named 'Salmon'

After recording the several versions of 'A Short Tune for a Play Named 'Salmon'', we decided to use the remaining studio time to improvise. Some of the themes still come through.
This is the full version, though particularly from about 5:45, I feel a piece of music starts to form. From that point, we really start to give each other space to shine and experiment with harmonies and our instruments a bit more.

A Group Improvisation on a Theme for a play named 'Salmon' (Full Version)

After recording the several versions of 'A Short Tune for a Play Named 'Salmon'', we decided to use the remaining studio time to improvise. Some of the themes still come through.
This is the first part of the split version. Personally, though I still like it, I feel we were still getting off the ground a bit.  From Part 2 though, we really start to give each other space to shine and experiment with harmonies and our instruments a bit more.

A Group Improvisation on a Theme for a play named 'Salmon' (Part 1)

After recording the several versions of 'A Short Tune for a Play Named 'Salmon'', we decided to use the remaining studio time to improvise. Some of the themes still come through.
This is the second part of the split version. From here, I feel we really start to give each other space to shine and experiment with harmonies and our instruments a bit more.

A Group Improvisation on a Theme for a play named 'Salmon' (Part 2)

In these uncertain times, I don't know when or even 'if' I will release another composition. Thus, I am giving the sheet music of this piece away for free. I do ask for a small donation as a token of appreciation for the piece, or as a token of sympathy for how difficult it can be to stay creative in general. Money would certainly be an incentive to continue creating, but again, at this moment in time, I cannot guarantee I will continue.

Link to sheet music: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m4pbpe5wjo2eqfw/AABupdc8JNaM1zXo9csgNi0Ea?dl=0

Link for donations: http://paypal.me/webbophone 

Let me know if these links don't work.
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Evaluation

I am writing this in haste as I have spent too long on this project and I need to get back to searching for a more stable income.
It was a different experience composing with pencil and paper; I'd always previously jumped into notation software or a DAW. I had to play the notes on a piano in order to hear them and decide whether it sounded good. This meant that I pursued ideas I would have otherwise discarded after hearing how awful they sounded played by general midi or other bad software instruments. I did, however, compose this piece on an upright piano with the practice pedal on; I was worried that this meant it would only sound nice in that context, but I hope the video proves otherwise.
When transcribing my handwritten notes into Sibelius, I tried my best to check, double-check and triple-check for mistakes, but there are a couple that slipped through the cracks. These are now corrected in what will be your copy of the score, but they unfortunately made it into the video. It should hopefully not affect your watching experience, though.
For the recording process, I used two pencil mics to get a nice up-close recording, combined with a recording from further back to capture the natural reverb of the room. I also tried to account for phase cancellation, which is something I hadn't paid much attention to in the past.
Another 'first' was thinking about the visual experience as well as the sonic; I hopefully made myself nice and presentable, wore a suit, and tried to put on some mood lighting. I may have had the camera set up wrong as the footage was quite grainy. Finally, I included a colour-coded score in the video, which is again a first for me. Highlighted in the score are the subject, countersubject, and a third motif which, once introduced, I didn't want to stop using.
The piece uses extended harmonies, but is relatively traditional. Anyone who knows me or my work knows I usually like to experiment in my music, but this one just turned out like this.
I tried to write it so that it can 'easily' by arranged for string quartet. In the folder of the sheet music, you can find a hastily-assembled version for string quartet, but I was unsure of how much detail to include vis-a-vis slurs - I have an understanding of stringed instruments, but I don't play one for myself, thus I didn't want go through the trouble of inserting marks of articulation thinking I am being helpful when I am actually not. That was my logic anyway. I've added slurs to my string music in the past with minimal problems, but time is of the essence.
I hope you like what I ended up with - the video, the scores, the lot. Be sure to let me know if you download a copy of the sheet music as I don't think I will be notified automatically.
Thank you to the church that allowed me to use their grand piano.

Fugue on Oranges and Lemons by Christopher Webb

Composer, chorister, performer, transcriber, arranger!

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