What started a long time ago as ’50 Songs for the over 50s’ has now been more realistically subtitled ‘Seven Songs for Grownups’ ! With brilliantly wry, wise and witty words by Alison Rutherford, this is a collection of more-or-less-cabaret songs beginning with ‘Too old to fall in love, too young to believe it’, and ending with ‘… but that was then and this is now’. The title comes from one of the songs:

‘Kiss Me on Wednesday, don’t kiss me now.
Let me anticipate where, when and how.’
…

Following its premiere at Chapel Royal, Brighton, my Clarinet Sonata has had several performances with Steve Dummer (Clarinet) and Yoko Ono (piano). Meanwhile I typeset my Concerto for Clarinet and Strings (written, like the Sonata in the 1970s!) which was given its first performance by Steve Dummer and the Musicians of All Saints.
More recent (2016) for clarinet (+ ‘cello and piano) is the 3 movement ‘In Touch’: ‘Touching In’, ‘Don’t Touch’ and ‘Touch and Go’ which was also premiered by Steve Dummer with players from Talkestra.

The Sonata has now been recorded, with much of my other clarinet music – including the trio and the concerto, on the ‘Simplicius’ CD

On the 20th February in Kingston will be the first performances of an extraordinary dual commission: myself and Cecilia McDowall setting the same poem. The poem, ‘The Silk Road’ by Sarah Pope,  was commissioned, like the music, by violist and music publisher John Harding in memory of his sister. John worked for many years in China for the BBC – hence the Silk Road connection. The settings are for voice with violin, viola, ‘cello and piano.

On 1st March my ‘Sonata Serenata’ (1988) for flute and piano gets its premiere at St John’s Hampstead in a lunchtime concert given by Nancy Ruffer (flute) and Dominic Saunders (piano). Like the Clarinet Sonata, which was premiered last year, this piece has had to wait for its first outing but couldn’t have a more distinguished soloist!

Portions of Eternity is a new song cycle.
Rintrah Roars (for voice, harp and piano), an extract from William Blake’s ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’, was written in 2016 and first performed by April Fredrick and the Riot Ensemble. I have now rewritten that song (without harp) and added two more – ‘The Bard’ and ‘Thel’ – calling the cycle Portions of Eternity.The title is taken from Blake’s words: ‘The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea and the destructive sword are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.’
Blake’s astonishing texts have often been a source of musical ideas for me: Urizen (viola with piano or string orchestra) was written in 1983 and was followed by This World (for choir and 2 trumpets) in 1994 and Fuzon (string quartet) in 2012.