Sunday 16 December 2012

In order to fulfil a promise I made to young master Mike Hicks in which I said I would clarify which old Enid pieces were quoted on To wake the King, I hereby set out in plain (ish) English a list of those very pieces. 
The Prelude has just a hint of the Chorale from Sanctus in it. This chorale was written by Willie and based on an English folk tune The Lowlands of Holland. 
Ecchoing Green uses a different harmonisation of the same melody in the slow section.
On Merlin's Ground directly quotes the guitar riff from In the Region.
The Track of The Moon on The Water carries a reference to The Dreamer
On Secret Green harks back to Aerie Faerie Nonsense and Ondine (believe it or not)
Lady Morgana's Orrery has a hidden reference to an old and unrecorded track called The Star that was dropped from In the Region.
Camlann has the Dies Irae prominently displayed, just like Judgement from In the Region.
And of course Nimue has a quote from Fand.
There you are, that's them. I expect you got most of them, but not Secret Green and Lady M.

Love
F x

Monday 10 December 2012

So now it is out there. For good or ill, Far and Forgot has been released into the wild. I'm suffering a kind of post-natal reaction I think. I've lived with this project, day and night for such a long time that now it is finished, I am quite tearful and anxious. Oh Well, such is is.

Some people out there may be wondering who on Earth is Sir Giles Holybrook, and you would be right to wonder. His REAL name is Holybrook Wynch, illegitimate son of Fishkin Wynch the composer and a lady tobacconist who kept shop in some small Berkshire town. One day, the good lady was busy in her shop and her horror can be imagined when, with an apocalyptic crash, the floor gave way and she was plunged into the abyss below. It wasn't solid ground that broke her fall, but the waters of the Holybrook that flowed beneath her shop, for you see, the shop was artfully constructed upon a bridge over the Holybrook. Fortune smiled that day. She fell upright and her full length Indian cheesecloth tie-dyed earth mother skirt (remember those?) opened out to keep her afloat as she was swept into the darkness beneath the bridge.To her credit, she maintained her poise and was carried out into the open stream, where she was quickly rescued. She was unharmed, but rather shocked, as well she might be for she was pregnant at the time. In due course the baby was born and the lady tobacconist decided that Holybrook would be a suitable name. That Sir Giles appreciated the name is doubtful. 
Holybrook Wynch went on to pursue a largely unsuccessful career as a composer. Following the trend set by his estranged father, he composed music entirely for bassoons. Only one of his many compositions saw the light of day. "Monotone for 30 basoons" was performed once in Kazakhstan, to be hailed by a critic as "Bewilderingly dull". He wrote any number of bassoon concertos and one opera, based on the life of Simon Wilkinson, the assistant manager at his local PriceRite supermarket. I came across Sir Giles busking in an Inverness subway whilst I was on a visit to Mr Willie Gilmour. I remarked that a contra-bassoon was an unusual busking instument. He suggested I f***k off and the rest is history.

There are various methods by which one may achieve ignominy and shame.Murdering a large and respected family in cold blood and afterwards depositing their bodies in the local water company's reservoirs will gain you much unpopularity in the neighbourhood of your crime, but if you desire to drain to the dregs the fullest cup of scorn that a fellow human creature can pour out for you, let an atheist hear you say that you have faith in some sort of higher power. One's best plan in the circumstances is to smile and nod and slowly, yet deliberately, back away. Whatever you do, don't try to enter into any sort of discussion. Atheists know everything and your naivety and lack of intelligence will only leave you floundering beneath the mighty force of their arguments. 

So I do hope you enjoy Far and Forgot, even if you are and Atheist. Oh, and as a final word to those elevated ones, I don't believe in the  god that you don't believe in either.

Lots of Love

F xxx