DORSET COMPOSER - RICK BIRLEY
  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • 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
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert

These are a few miscellaneous pictures - I discover undisplayed artwork from time to time and scan or photograph these (the quality is OK-ish) to post here.





Eastbourne College

Picture
This coloured drawing is of Eastbourne College, from an old photograph I discovered. This side of the tower is where Posy lived, part of our little gang. We had a fantastic playground in this campus and frequently played 'kick the can', 'hide 'n seek he', 'Coventry', the 'Waving Game', and the like. When it was wet on a Saturday we retired to Posy's house to play Murder in the Dark, followed by the ITV World of Sport ALL-IN WRESTLING! The sun always shone on its appointed day - SUNday - and the snow always fell in winter so that we could extend our playground to the slopes of the Downs near Paradise Woods. There were two main runs here: the short steep one or the less steep but much longer one.

This was truly my Paradise, where I spent my eternal childhood - eternal that is until boarding school....







"The Way through to Beyond" - oil pastels, pens & pencils, tippex

Picture
The Way Through to Beyond
My mother was on hand to drive me across to Calne to draw this picture of a ruined doorway and house interior, which I needed to do as a study for a much larger painting I had to do for my A level art exam. She patienty waited whilst I sketched all the images of demolition I could find - demolition being the topic I chose from the list on the exam paper. I gave all the finished artwork in and never received any of it back again, but had taken a photograph of a doorway study from which I've worked up this sketch.









Blackhall Rocks - Co. Durham [oil pastel 2008]

My wife & I visited our daughter Anna during her first year at Durham University - where she is already in her final year.... how time whizzes by! - and we experienced the coldest spell for many a year. There was widespread hoarfrost caking all the vegetation in crystal icing, and the air temperature was always several degrees below. There was enough wind to make the already cold temperature bitingly uncomfortable and I empathised with those who were struggling to keep warm. I have always been able to take basic house warmth for granted - how on earth do rough sleepers survive, and those too poor to heat their own homes? During our visit here we ventured to the coast where the imagination was enormously exercised by the knowledge that in the mining days men worked in pits that extended many miles under the sea. The impoverished would gather bits of coal from this very beach and all along the coast to supplement their meagre domestic fuel supply; the 'sand' is a dirty yellow/grey.

The bleak beauty of this coastline struck me as we wandered along deserted clifftop paths. The occasional two-carriage train ran parallel to the sea, carrying folk to and fro Newcastle and Sunderland and I better appreciated the reasons for the intensity of the almost tribal support local people had for one or other of these football clubs. A bitter rivalry indeed! But the weekend footie must have provided a very necessary layer to the harshness of everyday life, and provided a distraction and for some - a very lucky few - an alternative profession.

When my daughter Sam married Mike Carhart-Harris whose roots are in Chester-le-Street we had a coachload of his relatives from this region travelling south to their ceremony in Kingston Maurward House [just outside Dorchester]. At the wedding I arranged that old music hall favourite Blaydon Races as a surprise item which went down very well - and was much appreciated by the northerners in particular. The sound-file is posted on the 'Compositions [Orchestral]' page - just click the link.
 
Picture








Moored up in Bristol [oil pastel 2007]


Picture










"In the Woods"

Picture
'In the Woods' [oil pastel]
These trees are in the woodland above Montacute House. There was a quality of light I tried to capture, with a lowish sun streaming through the trunks and branches.





​Two Ravens [edited photo]
Picture
Two Ravens - masters of the air: an edited photograph





Durham Cathedral tower, from the cloisters [felt tip]
Picture
Durham Cathedral - felt tip




​Douglas the cat - Leek. 1983 (sepia pen & ink)
Picture
Douglas the cat [in Leek] - sepia pen & ink






​Sam & Sally in Southampton Park (drawing)
Picture
Sam with Sally in Southampton Park - drawing




Bristol barge [drawing]
Picture
Barge in Bristol - drawing





Two old men on bench by the Hardy statue - Top o' Town [felt tip]
Picture
Two old men on bench [Dorchester Top o' Town] - felt tip




​Marisco Tavern, Lundy Island [sepia 'dot' drawing, from the early 1970s]
Picture
Marisco Tavern - sepia pen & ink




​Greenhouses 'round the back' - Marlborough College in the 1970s [drawing]
Picture
Greenhouses 'round the back' - Marlborough College in the 1970's



Four drawings from Malawi (1978)

​(i) Surgery queue (my brother is the doctor by the car)
Picture
Surgery queue in Malawi [my brother is the doctor]



​(ii) on Mulanje mountain range
Picture
Walking with my mother, brother and younger sister on Mulanje, Malawi, near the 'Knife Edge'



(iii) Likabulu Lodge, Zomba mountain plateau 
Picture
Likabulu Lodge, Zomba [Malawi]




​(iv) Mulanje
PictureMulanje mountain range, Malawi.





The back garden of 159 University Rd, Southampton [drawing with wash]
Picture159 University Road, Southampton - back garden.















​


Bath - the canal, 1970s [watercolour]
PictureBath - canal lock gate






















Lyme Regis seafront cafe [felt tips]
Picture
Lunch in Lyme - felt tips





​Isle of Wight [line/copic markers]
Picture
Isle of Wight - line/copic markers





River at Westminster [acrylics]
Picture
The River at Westminster - Acrylics





Bridge at Lalinde [sepia acrylic]
Picture
Bridge over the Dordogne at Lalinde - acrylic [sepia]



Bridge to Lalinde [original coloured acrylic]
Picture
Bridge over the Dordogne - acrylic [original]





The Great Leap Forward.... [papercut]

This frivolous mock political poster makes use of an image of a Chinese family going about their business on bicycles early one morning in April 2011. I made the Mao image from one of the numerous photos available online. The characters came off an image depicting the red flag being placed heroically over vanquished capitalists.... I hope they do indeed spell 'great leap forward'! 
Picture



Two composite designs inspired by motorbike trip to Donegal (with Richard Hall) in the '90s. The Tricolor design includes Mt Errigan which is covered with quartz (not snow!); and the harbour of Killybegs. The "NO SURRRENDER" design features Londonderry. Both paintings are gouache on mounting card. 
Picture


​
Picture
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  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • 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
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert