DORSET COMPOSER - RICK BIRLEY
HOME [and contact form]
Rick Birley biography
Compositions [Orchestral works]
Peterloo
Symphony ["little bird"]
Bishops & Clerks
>
The Flow
These Distracted Times
The Rechabite
Sunset Island
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
>
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
Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
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
>
Advent Carol Succession
>
Advent Carol Succession notes
Songs of Time
Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR
>
Fern Hill
Universal Truth
Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
The Jackdaw of Rheims
Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED]
>
Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
Gaudete, gaudete!
Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR]
>
The Birds’ Mass
Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
The Cuckoo
Dance to your Daddy
Three Motets
Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
The Willow Song
My Love in her Attire
In Vernali Tempore
Compositions [Vocal]
Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR
>
Edges
Seven Folksong Ballads
Hardy Songs
Compositions [vocal] SACRED
>
The Virgin's Song
Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
Toccata: "On the Edge"
Butterfly in the Breeze
Austerity
Your Presence [piano/violin]
Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
Minimalism
"Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
Latin Primer [Septet]
Latin Primer [violin/piano]
Past Tense
in memoriam G B
String Quartet No.1
String Quartet No.2
Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
March Wind
Papillons
Seven Preludes for Piano
Carol Preludes [piano]
Preludes [piano]
>
3 Preludes for Piano
Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
Piano Sonata
Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
Dance to Your Daddy
Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
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
Gallery - Room 1
Gallery - Room 2
Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
Rogues gallery....
Pembrokeshire scenes i
Pembrokeshire scenes ii
Durham 'prints'
Picture Dorchester....
Italy October 2010
Paris
Prague
Miscellaneous
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
Miscellaneous
Maverick
Hobie Adventure Island
>
Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
Compositions [Miscellaneous]
Music Hall for Westfield
60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert
Index
My father's face
[i] 27.v.15
Such stillness, such straining silence,
such gentle sun rising through the mists
of my awoken soul,
ascending with the lark
to the warm-remembered dreams
of supernatural child,
held in time's embrace,
reflected in the wild laughter
of my father's face.
I hear his voice, and suddenly rejoice
as there across the table in that chair
his eyes meet mine.
And in the blinking of his whiskered eye
his impish smile imparts the gift
of his enduring love.
And my heart sings with the lark,
up there, above.
[ii] 27.v.15
My dad rose early with the sun
and descended daily to the rocks
below the house.
Without least element of fun
he dives straight in! And flocks
of oystercatchers take flight
below the house,
wondering, surely wondering
at the sight.
For brief while beneath the waves
my dad is gone.
But reappears! - and from the caves
burst forth rock doves in wild alarm.
In urgent flight they disappear.
And in my mind I still can hear
my dad returning from his swim.
I am not now the half of him....
[iii] 27.v.15
I never knew the child
my father oncetime was.
I never saw his boyhood face,
nor heard the treble of his voice.
Yet in the stillness of this place,
this hallowed house,
this ghost-filled holy space,
why, here I am that child,
the son I oncetime was.
I feel once more the freshness of my face,
and hear again my little childhood voice
raised in laughter,
innocent and free.
The child my father oncetime was
is me. The groaning age
is only what dull strangers see!
[iv] 28.v.15
There came a day, a slate-grey day,
when light grew light
without the morning sun.
No larks rose, no songs begun,
no flight to heaven as only a skylark may.
No oystercatchers probing in the bay,
and no choughs
grubbing in the clay.
No swifts slicing through the dampened air
with scything wings. No 'daws
riding high the clifftop drafts
with skillful flair.
No noisy rooks, nor black crows' raucous caws.
The day stood still and waited.
Thus came this day, ill-fated.
On the rocks again, my dad,
those rocks below the house.
Now vacantly insane, quite mad,
he dived once more and vanished
from my sight
into that dark that is forever night.
Such stillness, such eternal silence
in my house above those rocks,
those rocks below the house
from which my father leapt.
Yet in this aching stillness,
my senses sharpened by the night,
I feel and touch his presense
still.
In this house above the rocks
where I such anguished tears have wept
I see him in the blindness of my sight
as I, my father's lonely child,
have lonely vigil kept.
Once more he blinks his whiskered eye,
once more his impish grin imparts
the gift of his empowering love,
and my heart sings, again,
my soul rides high
with morning lark,
so high up there in dazzling blue above.
[Cae Rhedyn - end of May 2015]
HOME [and contact form]
Rick Birley biography
Compositions [Orchestral works]
Peterloo
Symphony ["little bird"]
Bishops & Clerks
>
The Flow
These Distracted Times
The Rechabite
Sunset Island
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
>
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
Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
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
>
Advent Carol Succession
>
Advent Carol Succession notes
Songs of Time
Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR
>
Fern Hill
Universal Truth
Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
The Jackdaw of Rheims
Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED]
>
Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
Gaudete, gaudete!
Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR]
>
The Birds’ Mass
Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
The Cuckoo
Dance to your Daddy
Three Motets
Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
The Willow Song
My Love in her Attire
In Vernali Tempore
Compositions [Vocal]
Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR
>
Edges
Seven Folksong Ballads
Hardy Songs
Compositions [vocal] SACRED
>
The Virgin's Song
Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
Toccata: "On the Edge"
Butterfly in the Breeze
Austerity
Your Presence [piano/violin]
Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
Minimalism
"Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
Latin Primer [Septet]
Latin Primer [violin/piano]
Past Tense
in memoriam G B
String Quartet No.1
String Quartet No.2
Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
March Wind
Papillons
Seven Preludes for Piano
Carol Preludes [piano]
Preludes [piano]
>
3 Preludes for Piano
Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
Piano Sonata
Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
Dance to Your Daddy
Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
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
Gallery - Room 1
Gallery - Room 2
Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
Rogues gallery....
Pembrokeshire scenes i
Pembrokeshire scenes ii
Durham 'prints'
Picture Dorchester....
Italy October 2010
Paris
Prague
Miscellaneous
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
Miscellaneous
Maverick
Hobie Adventure Island
>
Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
Compositions [Miscellaneous]
Music Hall for Westfield
60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert