- Charles Mackerras
- Dvořák: Quartet in F Op 96
- Sten Frykberg
- Adrienne Lecouvreur
- Yan Pascal Tortelier
- Lynda Sayce
- Atau Tanaku
- Emir Kusturitsa
Pachelbel Carols
News from British composer and arranger Paul Ayres
British composer, arranger, conductor, organist and accompanist Paul Ayres, whose compositions, arrangements and performing groups often have names such as Satsumas are the Only Fruit, Music of the Fuchsia and Always look on the bright side of life, would love to share a few of his new creations with us. What he calls his obsession of combining carols with the famous bass line from Johann Pachelbel's famous canon has resulted in a newly extended version of Ayres' existing medley How many carols? This now runs for nearly nine minutes, and includes eighty-six carols - every seasonal tune that Ayres can think of, including - by kind permssion of the composer - John Rutter's Shepherd's Pipe Carol.
The arrangement is available for SABar, SSA, TBarB or pretty much any three part combination of voices or instruments. He suggests that choirs could use this as a competition at their concerts, by asking the audience how many carols they can hear in the arrangements.
For further information and a demo recording, visit Paul's website at paulayres.co.uk then select 'catalogue' then 'choral' and look for How many carols? (Version III). Then select 'Online recordings' to listen to the demo recording.
The beginning of How many carols? by Paul Ayres
That's not all ... here's a selection of other pieces that Ayres hopes might appeal - with durations listed, so you can choose whether to check out one, two, all five or none at all, depending on your time availability and inclination ...
Picture This (2 mins) - a song from Paul Ayres' children's musical Darius and Alexander - look in the 'music for theatre' section of the 'catalogue' area of Paul's website for 'Darius and Alexander', then select 'Online recordings' to listen.
Home sweet home - a simple three-part unaccompanied setting (1 min). This is at paulayres.co.uk / 'catalogue' / 'choral' / 'Folksongs for 3-part voices'.
An arrangement of The Beatles' Michelle (4 mins) at paulayres.co.uk / 'catalogue' / 'choral' / 'Michelle'.
An SATB arrangement of The first Nowell (if you have 45 seconds spare) at paulayres.co.uk / 'catalogue' / 'choral' / 'The first Nowell'.
For any pianists out there, a current work-in-progress: Eight Short Preludes Not By Bach (2.5 mins) is a free adaptation of music ascribed to J S Bach (BWV 553-560) for piano, organ or ensemble at paulayres.co.uk / 'catalogue' / 'instrumental' / 'Eight Short Preludes not by Bach'.
Paul Ayres in 2021
Paul Ayres comments:
If ever you're part of a conversation, or even overhear one, in which someone says 'oh, it would be great to have a new piece written for this occasion/concert/event/service', please jump in with 'hey, I know this chap called Paul Ayres, he's up for bespoke composing or arranging' (and if this leads to a commission, I will owe you a bottle of something nice).
Finally, as we pointed out in a news item last year, it's also worth considering Paul Ayres Messyah - an in-progress re-working of many of the movements of Handel's masterpiece which is different to most other arrangements and is possibly, in the spirit of Monty Python, 'not the Messiah' but 'a very naughty boy'. See paulayres.co.uk / 'catalogue' / 'choral' / 'Messyah'.
Posted 30 August 2024 by Keith Bramich
