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Random Update

Well calling it 42 is a little wrong because this post wont answer all your questions about life but then will anything? What this post will do is sum up my last few months of inactivity while I’m sitting in Gatwick for the next 8 hours or so.

I’ll start with the most up to date thing first; that of sitting in Gatwick. The reason for this is I’m on my way to Milan for two weeks to attend the soundSCAPE festival. I’m looking forward to it but I am wishing I didn’t decide to do a late night flight to London to get an early flight tomorrow morning but such is life. I get to write this and I might get some of a presentation I have to do written. A weird thing about soundSCAPE is that the composer in residence is Patricia Alesendrini, a phd composer from QUB and the same composer who had to pull of form the composers concert twice due to her performers I’ll health (technically it was the same problem it just happened before the first concert and continued until after the second such is bad luck).

For the presentation I have to talk and give examples of my music for about 30mins or so. I started to look at this about a week ago or so with trepidation but thankfully its a lot better than I thought. Looking through my scores from Quartet No. 1 to Untitled and Relations there is definitely a continuity apart from the obvious obsession I have with Fibonacci. Its quite comforting to find this continuity but slightly annoying that ideas I’ve had recently turn out to simply be codifications of things I have done in earlier pieces. Some of this continuity was a conscious decision, like in Quartet No. 1 a long note moved by a micro-tone after about 1min is used again in Puddle Wonderful (though the recording doesn’t so it that well), others weren’t consciously decided upon, like repeated notes on different instruments in The Space Within and Wondering Wavering Willing. But that’s just a brief start have to work out where to go form that.

I’m going to out a thanks up here both the PRSF/Bliss foundation and Sir Hamilton Harty Scholarship have completely funded my trip to the soundSCAPE festival. So thank you both.

Last week my name changed, well not changed just extended a little. I graduated from Queen’s Belfast with a 2.1 and now have letters after my name! This now means I am on my way to RSAMD next year, not that that was really in doubt because of my offer but its not all confirmed. The only thing that’s a little in the air is that of accommodation, paid the deposit but have yet to hear back if I have got anything or not.

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