Springwatch This piece was written on a cloudy Thursday when the calendar said we were well into spring, but winter was having none of it.
Here are my original A Minute’s Peace compositions from Day #29 to Day #42. A compilation of these pieces is available to stream or download here.
Nocturne in G Minor (Op. 1 No. 1) I had a go writing something in the style of a Chopin Nocturne, specifically Nocturne in Eb major (albeit in a minor key). The chords are probably a little too poppy, but I like the melody, and I’m pleased with the descending chromatic run at the end. Unsurprisingly, this was not recorded in one take.
Departures This was an attempt to capture a bittersweet farewell: the pain of parting coupled with the joy of the memories that have been made. It also features an audacious key change that I only just get away with.
Miles Apart For this piece, I tasked myself with writing a dance track, just without any synths or drums. I came up with a little tribute to Robert Miles. I later turned this into an actual dance track, which you can find elsewhere on this site.
Running A Bath This one was originally on my grandad’s old piano that now lives in my dad’s house. I’d forgotten about it for ages, but I rediscovered it on a voice note on my phone. It was written quickly while I was running a bath, and in the original recording you can hear the water in the background.
Emilia And Noah (An Unmade Film) I have no recollection of writing this, but it’s from around 2018. I can now confirm it’s the love theme for a romantic comedy set in Lyon, written by Richard Curtis and starring Anne Hathaway as ‘Emilia’ and Chris Hemsworth as Timothée Chalamet as ‘Noah’. It will never be filmed.
Drama I like going from 4/4 to 6/8 time. It’s a nice little finger workout. I don’t remember much else about this, but it is indeed dramatic and also has my signature sadness at the end.
Satie Goes Salsa This obviously starts with a pastiche of Satie’s Gymnopédies before inexplicably turning into a salsa. I have no idea why, but I quite like it.
PreTrip This one was written a few years ago, but subsequently just sat on my hard drive gathering dust until being resurrected for this project. A Minute’s Peace has provided a lovely opportunity to breathe new life into ideas that would otherwise by forgotten forever.
Jet Lag This was writen shortly after a flight home from the US, and I wanted to capture the wooziness and out-of-time feeling of jet lag.
How Strange The Change (From Major To Minor) Some experimentation with modulating from minor to major chords. The chords also remind me of the loading music for Grand Theft Auto V.
Ostinato Sometimes I start a piece by selecting some random notes and basing a melody or chord progression around them. For this one, I started with the suggested* notes C, D, G, E and the piece revealed itself from there.
*thanks Gosia
Return A 25-year-old piece by me and and my friend Dave that I attempted to Philip-Glass-ify. I love the key change from C major to Db major. The original, and very different, version is here: https://warheadsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/return
Sanctuary This might be my favourite A Minute’s Peace piece. I find it very evocative, which inspired me to write some accompanying prose, turning it into a very short piece of programme music:
A meandering river flows through an apocalyptic wasteland, widening and deepening as it finds its way to the sanctuary of the open sea.
But the sea is no more.