Horto, Greece
A fabulous visit to the place where my teacher, George Hadjinikos, lived and worked. And a wonderful recital of my complete Stormlieder by Maria Devitzaki and Christos Marinos, two fantastic artists! It was an absolute pleasure to work with them: their recordings of the 25 songs are definitive! Heartfelt thanks to them!
You can download a pdf or order a printed copy here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/dafydd-bullock/stormlieder/paperback/product-23693043.html
and the CD directly from me via the links page of this website.
CD of Stormlieder
Well, a hectic but wonderful summer so far, with trips to England, Italy, Wales and soon to Austria and Greece. The wonderful CD of my four books of Stormlieder is almost ready to go to production, with a presentation recital in Horto, Greece in August by Maria Devitzaki and Christos Marinos, two fantastic artists! It was an absolute pleasure to work with them: their recordings of the 25 songs are definitive!
You can download a pdf or order a printed copy here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/dafydd-bullock/stormlieder/paperback/product-23693043.html
An interesting summer ahead!
On Friday April 28th my setting of the Nunc Dimittis will be performed at 19.00 in the Constantine Basilica, Trier, Germany, conducted by Martin Bambauer. In June I will record all four books of my ‘Stormlieder’ in Trier, Germany, with Mária Devitzáki and Christos Marinos. The CD will be released at the Horto Festival in Greece in August, where several of the songs will receive their world premiere!
National Libraries
It is so good to know that my music will be collected and stored by the National Library of Wales but now - as well ! - by the National Library of Luxembourg !
Traunsee
Sitting on the Dutch North Sea Island of Vlieland, where I wrote my Vlieland Trio and the Symphonic Poem 1666, but this time thinking of my 23rd Symphony, a one-movement luminous evocation of that beautiful lake in Austria, written last summer.
More immediate than words, for sure. The first music I listened to in a week after 6 weeks of furious editing, revision and part-producing of most of my music. So … come on world, come and get it ….
https://soundcloud.com/dafydd-bullock/symphony-23-traunsee
PDF Blues
Just finished checking and revising over 130 compositions, including parts, ready for establishing my Collection (!) at the the National Library of Wales. Good to know there are decent performing editions to leave to posterity (not anytime soon, I hope). Now to the Symphonies, Symphonic Poems, piano music, choral, vocal, opera ... about half way though. Time for a beer and a few weeks break.
Haggis
So, tomorrow I drive to Bielefeld in Germany to give the Address to the Haggis at a Burns Supper.
Good job I had my DNA analysed, which tells me that 50% of my genetic markers originate in North Wales, 21% in North-West Ireland, 21% in North West Scotland and 8% from somewhere in the Alps.
So there will be some element of authenticity ….
Echoes and Premonitions
Echoes and Premonitions: some thoughts about Music
Far more than just notes and activity, which in themselves are meaningless, music is the underlying universal reality.
The notes and activity, upon which we concentrate, are fundamentally irrelevant and mere surface ripples which distract from the greater depths of a profounder and more important dimension.
I write ‘Echoes and Premonitions’ because, to me, music is increasingly and ever more urgently an ever-present and highly focussed precondition for life, a process of receptivity and focussed awareness.
Music is beyond time, timeless. Its notes, sounds, stylistic characteristcs and manifestations do not really matter. Music is the substance of that place or condition from which we all have come and to which we will all return.
Whether composer, player or listener, in music we may resonate with the eternal.
Composers do not really invent, or create. They simply have a more developed capacity, or inclination, to tune in and re-transmit, in as much as they can, a smallest hint of this greater reality, for some of the time at least.
Truth is approached through resonance and empathy.
There is one song …..