BILL ANDERTON MUSIC
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Compositions

The Treasure of May Hill

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This musical narrative is about the myth of May Hill. Its orchestral overture is based on an old pipe-and-tabor Morris dance tune whistled by Mr William Henry Watts in Tewkesbury, April, 1908, and recorded there by Cecil Sharp.

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Programme: 1. Air of Gloom  2. The Town Council  3. The Landlord;  (Intermezzo)  4. The Tax Man  5. May Day Morris  6. The Despair  7. The Storm  8. The Spirit  9. Composer's Gold  10. Wilma's Return;  (Intermezzo)  11. Finale.

Atmospheres

Four painting-with-music meditations on seasonal haikus by Japanese masters:
Under the Rainclouds - Uejima Onitsura (1661 – 1738):

Under the rainclouds
The plum blossoms seem like stars
   Despite the daylight
Spring: Flute, Viola, Bassoon and Celesta

The Charcoal Kiln - Hayano Hajin (1676 - 1742):
  
The charcoal kiln –

   A deer watches
The evening smoke
Summer: Flute, violin, piano & percussion

Leaves of Ivy - Yamamoto Kakei (1648 - 1716),
   for Jasper:

Leaves of ivy
   Every one astir -
The autumn wind

Autumn: Oboe, French horn, cello & percussion

Snow's Falling! - Masaoka Shiki (1867 – 1902):

Snow's falling!
I see it through a hole
   in the shutter...

Winter: Octet

String Quartets

String Theory - referring to the unifying theory of everything. Also scored for string orchestra:

The (Get It) Together Song - As an eccentric lock-down project, I played all the string quartet parts for this, plus percussion. As my cello skills are nil, this part was transposed up an octave for viola and then the software transposed it back down to sound like a cello!

A Truly Momentous Quartet of Strangeness
and Charm

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A quantum-mechanical exploration in four movements, see Video Installation.

Alchemy In Music

For string quintet and percussion. Alchemy - the art of turning something paultry into another that is brilliant...
Alchemy In Music
Order parts from the Store.
Scores and parts can be downloaded from
Sheet Music Plus.

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Birnbeck Pier

A suite for orchestra, telling the story of the old pier at Weston-super-Mare, its heyday, decline, disaster and rebirth:

Dead Cat Bounce

Octet for wind band
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No cats were hurt in the making of this music.

Whispers of the Garden

Bagatelles for brass quintet
Six short pieces inspired by poems of T.S Eliot, Longfellow, Wallace Stevens, Philip Larkin and Oscar Wilde:
Bill Anderton
Rebecca Northway Photography
The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

A Symphony of Scenes

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The Onion Fayre

More Orchestral Works

Telstar Revisited

For Joe Meek, 'the Telstar Man', whose childhood home and birthplace is just round the corner from my own house:
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Revised audio coming soon...

The Well-Tempered Orchestra

For my local community orchestra: a nice piece but also in need of revision! It has many compositional faults to be sorted...

Arrangements

There is a wealth of untapped material from the wonderful era of old time music hall and musicals.  Here's one of a series, a jazz classic by De Sylva, Brown & Henderson, that I arranged for string quartet.
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Original 'Overcoat' vocals sung by the provocative Ruth Etting
... and a song by Vivian Ellis from 'Bless the Bride':

Inspired by the Offa's Dyke national trail, featured in Ramblings About Music:
Imagination for solo Violin:

Chamber Music

Written for my chamber group, Carnevale:
Francesca da Rimini is one of Dante's favored but condemned characters in the Divine Comedy. Here is her lament for a lost lover:
Francesca da Rimini
With apologies to Vivaldi and Philip Glass:
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