COMPOSITIONS

Music composed by Jamie to a short animation about a young boy having a dream. Composed at Kingston University for the "Score & Screen" module in Jamie's MA Music, using an animation provided.

Songs Without Words (Lieder Ohne Worte), in A-Flat Major, Op 38 No 6 "Duetto" was originally written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy for piano, For the "Score and Screen" module at Kingston University, it has been arranged for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, cymbals and full string section (6 violin 1, 6 violin 2, 4 viola, 4 cello, 2 bass). It is played here by the Kingston Chamber Orchestra at the Visconti Studio, Kingston University.

This is a large-scale composition project for a large Jazz ensemble of nineteen musicians, which demonstrates the clarity of structure and compositional technique. “Footprints to a Camper Van” is modal, written in C Dorian with a 5/4 time signature and a tempo marked “Moderately Slow Funk Groove”. It is inspired by Wayne Shorter’s composition “Footprints”, Kenny Wheeler’s “Nonetheless” and various other modal Jazz compositions. The funky bassline and the dotted rhythms are particularly noticeable. One notable approach to scoring for big band, however, is that the instrumentation here varies between blocks, smaller groups and solos. Also, Wayne Shorter’s “Footprints” and Kenny Wheeler’s “Nonetheless” are not harmonised in blocks, they are harmonised sparsely and with the occasional solo passage. “Footprints To A Camper Van” uses the Intro-Head-Solos-Head-Coda format with a D.S. The Coda is the most interesting part of the composition where there is a massive Crescendo whilst over that, various instruments improvise and at the end of the Crescendo there is a bold, majestic finale with extreme lip trills in the Trumpets and a Tremolando in the Piano and Guitar, with the entire piece ending on a Piano Glissando! The instrumentation in “Footprints to a Camper Van” is a little different, with Flute, two Alto Saxes, two Tenor Saxes, Baritone Sax, Bass Clarinet, four Trumpets, three Trombones, Bass Trombone, Jazz Guitar, Piano, Bass Guitar and Drumkit. The Solos also have Saxophone backings. There is a Cm13 chord harmonised downwards in Widened Lines because it is a much grander ending.The sounds of the Saxes and Trombones blend with one another in order to get a homogenised sound. Kenny Wheeler usually puts Trombones high, so theTrombones here are in a high register too. Higher-pitched clusters are more appropriate for Contemporary UK Jazz. The music in this version was synthesised with Sibelius and NotePerformer.

A whole-tone piece, influenced by the compositions of Thelonious Monk, one of the greatest and most-recorded Jazz pianists of the 20th Century, hard bop trumpeter, Lee Morgan who worked with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, and Billy Higgins, another hard bop scene regular who worked with Morgan. The composition is in the style of modal jazz of the late 1950s and 1960s, a departure from the ‘Functional Harmony’, in order to include more abstract modal colour. Its roots were the Classical composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel whose use of octatonic tonality and dissonance Monk emulated. He often suspended the tonality of his pieces (tonality bending) by flattening and neutralising the accidentals within the key signature of the piece and used contrasting motifs, dissonance and rhythmic displacement. A further reference to Thelonius Monk are the cluster chords, which together with crushed notes, were the hallmark of his improvisations. Form and Structure: “Higgins, Monk and Morgan” is a short-form 24-bar composition which makes use of Whole-Tone Modes. The piece comprises four sections: the Intro, Head, Solos and Outro. This piece is entirely based on Whole-Tone Modes. The form is A(9-12), A’(13-16), B(17-20), B’(21-24), C(25-end). Harmonic Derivation: This piece makes use of the Whole-Tone Scales on E and C. It is predominantly in a scalic and conjunct motion. The Head section begins with a whole-tone scale starting on E for eight bars and then switches to the whole-tone scale beginning on C for another eight bars. The piece also features D-flat 6/9 and diminished chords in the Coda. This piece marks the departure from functional harmony. Phrase Structure: The form is A(9-12), A’(13-16), B(17-20), B’(21-24), C(25-end). Melodic style: The melodic style is in the form of a 2+2 question and answer and is predominantly in the middle register with a wide range from E flat 4 to G flat 5. Bars 5 - 8 include a musical quotation from Martin Pine and Laura Zakian whose ‘Crab Walk’ , performed during Goldsmith’s Music Week was an inspiration. Bars 17 - 24 emulate the rhythmic style of Lee Morgan with a series of swung quavers in a descending sequence of major thirds. Composed for 17 players for the Goldsmiths' BMus, sound created here with Sibelius and NotePerformer. It was derived from an earlier technical exercise which was recorded live live at Goldsmiths with Jamie playing the double bass, which can be found on Soundcloud here: https://on.soundcloud.com/4eVLG9fgKFny8MzPGw

The story of Happisburgh (pronounced Haisboro) through time, told through sound. Most of this coastal village in Norfolk, UK has fallen into the sea through coastal erosion, so bells are extensively used in the composition to warn of climate change. Composed at Goldmiths as a final year Sound as Art project, pictures and text were added to make this video in 2025.

This piece was influenced by Kenny Wheeler, in particular his composition ‘Mark Time’ to which I allude in the title. It also features a 12/8 time signature reflecting that of “Mark Time”. It modulates every three bars in the Head, in reference to the ‘Modulating Modality’ in the title. The piece is in a Modal Free Jazz style. Influences include “Flamenco Sketches” by Miles Davis, and “Peace Piece” both of which have frequent modulation. It was a technical exercise in the Final year of the Goldsmiths' BMus. Form and Structure: The piece is a long form, through composed 21 bar form with an intro of two bars. It transitions through a variety of modes and has seven sections, each of three bars, which all make use of a different mode. Intro - Chorus - Solos - Chorus Out Harmonic Derivation: The piece transitions through the modes from Phrygian in a random order. • Bars 1-3: G# Phrygian. • Bars 4-6: C# Phrygian. • Bars 7-9: A Aeolian. • Bars 10-12: G# Phrygian. • Bars 13-15: D Dorian • Bars 16-18: E-flat Aeolian. • Bars 19-21: C Lydian. Phrase Structure: A(3-5), B(6-8), C(9-11), D(12-14), E(15-17), F(18-20), G(21-23). Melodic Style: The melody is in the mid register and is characterised by step-wise motion with the odd intermittent leap. The Phrygian mode in G# from bars 3 - 5 and 12 - 14 and in the Intro allude to Flamenco music, a further reference to Miles Davis’ “Flamenco Sketches”. Scalic runs in the key of C Lydian are featured in the last three bars. Finally, there is rhythmic repetition, for example the rhythm of bar 19 replicates that of bar 5 and also bar 11 replicates that of bar 23. A live version with Jamie playing bass is on Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/rlD9ThDYNdv4mvGhX1

The composition, 3/4 Minor Parkeriana was inspired by Charlie Parker, saxophonist of the Bebop era. He was one of the most revered and influential instrumentalists of jazz, highly creative in terms of melody, rhythm and harmony. He is famous for his rapid improvisations, playful rhythms and his alterations on selected dominant chords and his modified versions of the standard 12-bar Blues, which is I-I-ii-V-I-iv-vii-III-IV-IV-iv-iv-I-I-vi-vi-ii-ii-V-V-I-VI-ii-V. Pieces which particularly influenced this composition are “Chi-Chi” and “Blues For Alice”. It was done as a technical exercise at Goldsmiths for the BMus. Form and Structure: “3/4 Minor Parkeriana” is a short-form 12-bar Chorus structure which features the Parker Blues chord progression, chromatically descending minor 7th chords which are modified by using a Circle of Fifths bars 6-8. Further influences from Charlie Parker include Half-Diminished Chords, which are featured in bars 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12-13 and 16 and which also reappear in the Solos and Coda. Improvised solos, which feature in bars 17-28, follow the same chord progression as in the Head. Structure: Intro - Chorus 1 - Chorus 2 - Solos - D.S. Chorus 1, D.S. Chorus 2, Coda. Phrase Structure: A(5-8), B(9-12), C(13-16). Harmonic Derivation: Written in the key of C Minor, The chord progression is the Parker Blues featuring descending ii-Vs, present from bars 5-25. Melodic Style: “Parkeriana” is in the middle register with a range of an octave from F4 to F5. It is mainly scalic with a few occasional leaps. The repeated use of a motif of triplets in minor seconds and dotted rhythms augment the sense of swing. A mMaj7 chord is also a recurring feature of the piece in addition to descending sequences on seventh chords, highlighting the Circle of Fifths. Live version with Jamie playing bass on SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/nV7mlFOmkDEgndSqdX

This is a straightforward 24-bar Blues tune, the latter having evolved from a combination of Spirituals and Early Southern Country Music. The term ’12 bar Blues ‘ refers to a flexible, cyclic 12-bar structure consisting of three four-bar phrases with the chord pattern as follows: I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-V-I-I. Frequently, IV is used in the place of I in bar 2, and this is the case in my composition. 12-bar blues progressions appeared in ragtime compositions as early as the turn of the 20th Century. They combined 12-bar Blues with 16-bar Ragtime themes and were popularised by ‘classic’ Blues singers Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith from the 1920s. Composed as a technical exercise at Goldsmiths for year 3 BMus. The title, “D(A) Bluez” is a play on words, the word “D(A)” inferring “The”, as in American Slang/street speech, but also referring to the key of D Major and its fifth degree of scale or Dominant, A. Form and Structure: “D(A) Bluez” is a large form 24-bar chorus structure plus a four-bar intro and a four-bar outro. The overall form is: Intro - Chorus - Solos - Chorus - Outro. Harmonic Derivation: The piece is written in the key of D Major and features minor 7th chords, half-diminished chords and a turnaround. Phrase Structure: A(5-8), A(9-12), A(13-16), A’(17-20), B(21-24), C(25-28). Melodic Style: The intro references the style of Casey Bill Weldon, particularly in tunes like “WPA Blues”. Blue notes (sharpened 4ths or flattened 5ths) are a recurring feature in the composition, as in Grant Green’s “Cantaloupe Woman”. The melody is in the middle register with a limited range of one octave (D4-D5). There is a repeated motif of descending scalic semiquavers on the Blues Scale on D throughout the Head. Live version recorded at Goldsmiths with Jamie on bass is on SoundCloud here: https://on.soundcloud.com/vtkDPVsD1owLiDpkZp

This is how Trumpington, near Cambridge, sounded in the past, how it sounds now and how it might sound in future. Composed by Jamie from a combination of field recordings, his own music and FX in the second year of his undergraduate BMus at Goldsmiths. Pictures and text were added to make it into a video for this website in 2025.