Dorset composer - Rick Birley
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Rick Birley biography
Compositions [Orchestral works]
Symphony ["little bird"]
Bishops & Clerks
Latin Primer
Maverick
Christmas Exultation
Chamber Symphony in Five Movements
Variations on a Plainsong
Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
English Folksong Suite No.2
Chansons de France
Marat/Sade Suite
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Marat/Sade notes
Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
Spanish Folksongs
Olympian Glories
Piano Concerto
the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
A Dorset Rhapsody
Eight Orchestral Studies
Romney Facets
Lord of the Dance
Sea Song
Greensleeves
Blaydon Races
Compositions [Choral]
Compositions [choral/orch] - SACRED
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Advent Carol Succession
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Advent Carol Succession notes
Songs of Time
Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR
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Fern Hill
Universal Truth
The Jackdaw of Rheims
Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED]
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Three Motets
Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
Gaudete, gaudete!
Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR]
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Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
The Cuckoo
Dance to your Daddy
Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
The Willow Song
In Vernali Tempore
My Love in her Attire
Compositions [Vocal]
Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR
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Edges
Seven Folksong Ballads
Hardy Songs
Compositions [vocal] SACRED
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The Virgin's Song
Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
Austerity
Your Presence [piano/violin]
Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
Latin Primer [Septet]
Latin Primer [violin/piano]
Past Tense
in memoriam G B
Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
March Wind
Preludes [piano]
Carol Preludes [piano]
Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
Piano Sonata
Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
Dance to Your Daddy
Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
Grazioso (guitar solo)
Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
The Phoenix
Compositions [jazz/light]
Funked-up Bach
Basement Jazz
Too Darn Hot
A Dorset Affair
Compositions [Pastiche]
La Ronde
Zartom: Symphony
Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
ARTWORK
Rogues gallery....
Pembrokeshire scenes i
Pembrokeshire scenes ii
Durham 'prints'
Picture Dorchester....
Italy October 2010
Paris
Prague
Miscellaneous
Poems
We English - a historical rhyme
Rick Birley Blog
Miscellaneous
Maverick
Hobie Adventure Island
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Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
Compositions [Miscellaneous]
Music Hall for Westfield
May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert
Index
I cannot lie
I cannot lie, I see him there,
death waits by without a care.
His rasping breath marks out his time
and I wish him dead
I cannot lie, I see his stare,
behind closed eyes his skull laid bare.
His stubbled face plays out the mime
and his life is bled
I cannot lie, I hear his prayer,
from deep within behind that glare.
His starving frame begins the climb
and his mind has fled
I cannot lie, I shape despair
to ease my pain I stroke his hair.
Beneath my hand his paradigm
and now his words unsaid
This time the lesson is for real
his ancient primer finally laid down.
I shut my eyes and try to feel
the syntax of his verb and noun.
I cannot lie, I know not where
to find him now I am his heir.
His very presence now sublime
a ghostly maidenhead.
2.1.12
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