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Reflections on New Music - give it a chance!


As a Music publisher we obviously publish new music! - the very word 'New' which might also mean that the composer has not been heard of before, seems to put a barrier up in many peoples minds.

Of course, every piece of music that exists was new once, and some pieces would have created a great stir when they were released as they may not have sounded like anything that had ever gone before, the picture above shows some of the new music that has been commissioned from me recently.

Dissonant and awful maybe the opinion of some before even looking at the music, and yes there may be sone of that, but the styles of composers writing new music vary as widely as the styles of the composers who have gone before, there is plenty of dissonance in the music of Bach - hardly new!

Without new music - music making becomes stale, and the industry behind it, composers, engravers, music publishers, music shops, they would all cease to have a reason for existing.

In our catalogue just as in all others, there are composers writing in different styles, and we are giving them the chance to get their music out into the world when maybe the bigger publishers wouldn't offer the chance, however, we have faith in every piece we publish so you can rest assured it will be good music.

Accessible, appealing and affordable are the watchwords of the music we put out, and we always offer samples in advance for perusal.

It is a sobering thought, that recently I asked a group of choral directors if they had any music by James Whitbourne in their library, only one out of around 50 said they had, and even more sobering, many of the rest had never heard of him, yet I would say that he has been one of the most original voices in English choral music of the last 50 years, a listen on Youtube to the short piece, ' a prayer of Desmond Tutu' will probably convince a choir director that further exploration of his music is worthwhile.

So, please, if you don't already, give new music a chance - there are many treasures to be found that your singers and audiences will love and deserve to know.

Our catalogue can be downloaded from every page of our website or from this link







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