A Composer's Life

When I was 10 I had my first piano lesson and immediately discovered a love for music. When I was 12 I got my first mouth organ and discovered that I could play by ear. When I was 14 I was playing bass guitar and singing in my first rock band. At 25 I was playing violin in a small orchestra. At 36 I was singing bass in the local choir. At 38 I was playing banjo in the Portland Irish group. At 57 I was singing country music in pubs and other venues; just me, my guitar and my partner Anna on alternate vocals and tambourine.

At 10 I wrote my first piano tune. At 14 I wrote my first classic song: "The Last Song". At 18 I wrote "The World And Its Ways" with its heavy guitar riff. At 35 I wrote "A Home Of My Own" with my acoustic guitar on the western slopes of the Grampians. At 40 I wrote "The Jacobite Quartet" for string quartet; my first piece of ensemble writing. At 41 I set Tolkien's songs from "The Lord Of The Rings" to music and arranged them for orchestra and choir. At 45 I set some of RL Stevenson's "Songs Of Travel" to music for bass voice and piano and dovetailed them with R Vaughan Williams' settings. At 57 I set Ned Kelly's words to music for piano and vocal quartet. By the age of 58 I had written over 200 songs and over 70 musical pieces.

I have recordings of many of the ensembles I have played in and of some of my works. Most of these recordings are not of sufficient quality to be placed on this website but those that are I have already released here or intend to release in the future. I also intend to record more of my work as it is an area that has been sadly lacking in recent years. When it is ready I will provide links to it here.

At 32 I elucidated the mathematical structure of music and discovered some new results. I had a guitar made in perfect temperament to my specifications to prove it. At 40 I developed a new chord notation system and the 3 line stave. At 50 I improved upon the lagerphone. At 52 I invented two new trumpet designs using extra valves. At 56 I independently arrived at the Wicki-Hayden keyboard layout.

Music was my first great love and to be a successful musician was my first great dream. Since then I have pursued that dream with all my heart, soul and mind. I have achieved heights as a singer, musician and composer that others can only dream of. Despite this, as of 2019 I am still waiting for recognition. Perhaps it will come, perhaps not, in any event I can go to my grave content in the knowledge that I gave it everything and did not let myself down.

All of my musical work should eventually be accessible from this portal.
Enjoy!