“...there is magic there...”
Albert Hammond
“...beautiful...”
Katherine Jenkins
“...Schubert/Mozart, with a slightly modern twist...”
Daniel Carr - Composer Forum
Posts:
Proud Member of:
Hi there! Thanks for visiting my website. I am a composer / producer living and working in London. I have provided music for a wide variety of tv and film - and I also provide sound design (+ MD) for use in media and advertising. I have worked in many genres but this website is mainly dedicated to the work I have done for orchestra and classical ensemble. Below is the first act of a ballet I am working on called The Black Rose:
The Black Rose: Act I scenes i-iii - May 2012 Act I - scenes i-iii |
My music has been used in over 50 countries on over 100 channels worldwide via music libraries that include Universal, Carlin, Warner Chappell and Long Lunch. I have released 6 albums under the pseudonym The Legendary Danny K but more recently have concentrated on my first love: orchestral composition which this site aims to give an overview of.
I was born in 1976 and spent my first years in Cornwall while my father helped set up the Sawmills Studios on the river Fowey. A couple of years later we moved to London where I have lived (on and off) ever since. My dad, Phil, has spent his career in the music business - firstly in the 70's band Sailor, and then in the 80's with Culture Club. Because of this I had an awesome childhood including lots of travel and meeting some incredibly interesting and famous musicians.
I went to St James Independent School for Boys and was very lucky to go to a school that took music, and the performance of music, very seriously with concerts that included Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor, Purcell's Te Deum, Bach's Mass in B minor, Handel's Messiah - and even some Gilbert and Sullivan at our end of year concerts. It ignited a huge passion for classical music within me and due to St James's anomalous lack of a music A-level, I attended Richmond-upon-Thames college where I was taught music theory by George Selman. George was an amazing teacher and liked nothing more than ripping up the curriculum and starting from fresh. Sadly George passed away just before we were to sit our final exam - but his influence and approach has remained wiith me ever since.
After college I studied composition at Exeter University under Philip Grange (himself a student of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies) though at the time I was more about Mo'wax than Mahler. I left university and put together 2 trip hop albums (Melatonin and Freetrader) and released them under the pseudonym The Legendary Danny K. The release of these albums also coincided with the launch of mp3.com - a digital platform that allowed anyone that could encode an mp3 the ability to upload their material into a global chart. Royalties were paid everytime the track was played or downloaded and a number of tracks from these albums were successful and though largely ignored by the industry, allowed TLDK to be something of a global brand selling downloadable digital content in over 100 countries worldwide.
I would go on to release 5 other albums under this pseudonym - We are one, Space Breaks, The Drop, Nightshift and Big Plans and in 2002 signed a licensing deal with Carlin Music ® for sync use in TV, film and radio. Ever since I have been passionate about using the web as a platform for independent music delivery and the new tools available for promoting (and monetizing) an independent catalogue around the world.
In 2006 I started to write purely orchestral music again and, at this current point in time, this is what I spend most of my time working on. I have put this new website together to showcase this work which I have (mostly) put together on my apple laptop running Logic 9 - and lots of help from good friends I have made in the industry, and most of all my beautiful girlfriend Lizzie who patiently puts up with all the turkeys that never see the light of day ;)
Please do get in touch if there is anything you hear that you wish to comment on - I am very much a gun for hire and would love to hear particularly about any film projects (big or small).
Arabesque 28th Oct 2012
|
Arabesque |
I've always been a fan of Lawrence of Arabia (both the man and the film) and the wonderful music by Maurice Jarre. This is a small piece that looks to recreate some of that atmosphere...
The Black Rose (Act I) 28th May 2012
The Black Rose is the name of a ballet I am writing and (in the main) comprises of music I have put together over the last 18 months or so. With the arrival of my son George earlier this year I knew I wanted to create some type of lasting legacy that I could dedicate to him and his beautiful mum Lizzie.
Throughout our lives I think we all search for our own black rose - and although we all have aspirations - life can be what happens to us on the way. I had no idea how much peace and happiness our own black rose, George, would bring us and so I wanted to put together something that might appeal to his young mind in a couple of years. Below is the first act which (for a change) comes courtesy of Soundcloud:
Hiccup Waltz 14th Mar 2012
|
Hiccup Waltz |
So...my beautiful boy is here and mum is back home safe. Things slowly get back to some type of normal with me finding an evening to put this simple waltz together.
Nocturne (for a late baby!) 21st Feb 2012
|
II. Nocturne (for a late baby!) |
With some unexpected time on my hands I have put together a lullaby for our late arrival. Its in an unusual time sig (10/4) but was something I had wanted to try since hearing Radiohead's "Everything in its right place" off my favourite album of theirs Kid A.
I. Allegro in C 11th Feb 2012
|
I. Allegro in C |
I decided to take a stab at sonata form with this one. I realised that it was a form I never used yet it was undoubtedly the form that got me into listening to orchestral music. I sort of did it - its missing a coda as the recapitulation ends the piece (which I think would lose me points). I didn't get as much time to mix / master this one as I am due to have a baby any day now (!!) but, as ever, thought I would post it up for general consumption.
1st Mate Wriggleys Pirate Jig 1st Feb 2012
|
1st Mate Wriggleys Pirate Jig |
I was called by an old friend Roger Watson to do some foley and possibly a theme tune for an audio recording of a book called "The Tides of Avarice" by John Dahlgren. By kind permission he has allowed me to post the theme tune here - so I hope you enjoy because I certainly did! Arghhhhh......
Birthday Suite 31st Dec 2011
|
The Black Rose |
|
Rhapsody |
|
Scherzo (Boxer) |
A new suite for the new year and the birth of my first child. Naturally I have been consumed with excitement with the expectation and, although I have not had as much time for composition as I would like, these ideas have come together over the course of what has been a remarkable year for many different people.
The Black Rose is a piece I wrote after hearing my baby's heartbeat during one of our scans. You may notice the pulse that goes the whole way through the track: delicate but determined. The riots had been going on whilst I wrote it and you may also hear what are meant to be sirens on the violins - there was definitely an edgy energy that night. Other than that there is no real program behind the piece but it has definitely been a challenge to write taking me over 6 months to get what you hear now.
Rhapsody came about after I wanted to rework ideas from the Waltz de Prinsengracht that I posted earlier this year. Its made up of an assortment of ideas that I have yodelled into my iPhone over the past year (usually when I am shopping). Great for getting strange looks
The last part Scherzo (Boxer) is a piece I wrote a year ago but thought it was too short - however music tends to be the length it needs to be and I thought it had echoes of the last movement of Beethoven's 5th Piano Sonata (op10.1) - one that I occasionally try and murder from time to time ;).
Sonnet (in 9) 22nd Nov 2011
|
Sonnet (in 9) |
Sonnet (in 9) is a piece I have written for piano and small orchestra that is in 9/4 and made up of 9 9-bar sections - a musical challenge I set myself one evening and this is what I had the next morning; all except for the final section which took me a couple of weeks to settle on.
Its the first thing I have written whilst Lizzie has been pregnant (at least in whole) so I will play it to my son or daughter when they are old enough and hope they like it too!
Amsterdam Suite 1st Aug 2011
|
Waltz de Prinsengracht |
|
Waltz de Kaizersgracht |
|
Herengracht Rhapsody |
Earlier this year myself and Lizzie had a wonderful 10 day trip to Paris and then Amsterdam (work and pleasure respectively). The 2 cities just ooze inspiration and when we hit Amsterdam I fired up the laptop and started work on some French influenced rhapsodic waltzes. This is the result so far and although I have been tinkering with them now for 6 months I think its time for them to see the light of day.
Amsterdam has to be one of my very favourite cities, especially so as we lived there for a year in 2006. We rented an apartment just round the corner from where we lived and I sat on the back porch with my headphones on. I think this is the first thing I have ever composed outside! Quite brisk still in March!
Postcards: IV. Corridors 24th Jul 2010
|
Corridors |
We got to New York after over 3 weeks in Barbados and checked in to the Chelsea Hotel which I had booked after remembering going to visit Keziah Jones back in 1992 and harbouring an ambition to stay there ever since. We had an amazing room right on the top floor of what, at one point, was the tallest building in New York. You couldn't help but feel the magic in the corridors, the tales of excess, the art, the ideas...
The idea for this piece came about when we were in Time Square. It is quite rare for me as the whole idea came in one and I put the initial sketches down on my computer on the flight back to London. I am trying to find out if this validates it as, possibly, the worlds first transatlantic concerto! As I wrote it I had in mind the last movement of Brahms Fourth Symphony with its passacaglia structure. Whether I achieved this I am not so sure but it certainly helped with the compositional process.
3 Symphonic Sketches 1st Apr 2010
|
The City as Body |
|
Epsilon |
|
Allegro Marcato |
3 new ones - the first one inspired by my hometown London and in the first movement, The City as Body, a vision of the city in narrative form from the opening chapter of Peter Ackroyd's biography London (which I highly recommend). I tried to capture the pulse of the city and the sense of drama, especially in the way the city represents a life (or a soul) of its own.
Epsilon, a scherzo, is inspired by a work by Bartok I played at college and looks to utilise contrasts of colour between the louder and quieter passages: the chaos of the city in contrast with the quiter back streets. If you notice one or two similarities with a certain passage from Stravinsy's Rite of Spring then I am afraid I would have to plead guilty as charged!
The final part, Allegro Marcato gives prominence to the clarinet and has a loose narative of commerce within the city. I had plans to extend these sketches into a symphony and in a way this piece is made up of abandoned pieces to that end. I also considered adding them to the Postcards Suite - but now remain certain they are a piece on their own and a piece about London.
