Scores & Chamber Works

A Constitution of Mirrors, for solo piano (2026)

This is a solo piano piece I wrote in the spring of 2026 for a competition run by the University of York, which sadly didn't make the cut. The theme of the competition was “reflection”. Not being especially introspective, I took the theme rather literally and wrote a piece built on various “mirroring” techniques, including rhythmic, melodic and harmonic palindromes and vertically symmetrical chords, although I took liberties with these strictures throughout. This is a MIDI realisation, but I'm hoping to get a human pianist tackle it at some point!

Monster Truck Disappointment, for CoMA ensemble (2026)

Here's a piece I wrote for CoMa Sussex. It's a companion piece to my piano and flute composition, “Songs of the Mad Army”. Where that piece celebrated a joyous, anarchic day at the Sydney Test, this one tells the story of a rather underwhelming monster truck rally in the New South Wales town of Gosford a couple of weeks later, again using fragments of music from the event as its basis. As per all CoMA scores, it's written in Open Score, with the ensemble to decide on the assignment of parts. For this MIDI rendition, I've realised it as violin, 2 flutes, 2 x Bb clarinets, viola, tuba, electric guitar and piano.

Songs of the Mad Army, for flute and piano (2026)

Written for an NMB concert given by flautist Klio Blonz and pianist Jane Beaumont, this is a somewhat oblique celebration of a day at the Sydney Ashes in January 2026. The picaresque structure of the piece, with its constant changes of mood, reflects the shape of the day's play, and might also owe a debt to Takemitsu, on whose guitar work “Rosedale” I was working in parallel. The melodic material borrows from the joyful, anarchic chants of the Barmy Army, England's indefatigable fans. Harmonically, the piece uses a single chorus of Victor Young's “Stella by Starlight”, teased out over five or so minutes, with voicings again somewhat influenced by Takemitsu.

Every Bar Is Torture, for four violas (2025)

This piece was written for an NMB concert given in May 2026 by the wonderful Barefaced Violas. Where I normally start the writing process with an overarching framework, for this one I simply “followed my nose”, constantly manipulating a couple of simple melodic motifs. Thanks to the BV's for their fantastic performance, which is featured on this score video.

Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (Ryuichi Sakamoto), arranged for guitar quartet (2025)

It was a challenge arranging Sakamoto's gorgeously orchestrated film theme for four puny little classical guitars, but I gave it a shot! The Brighton Guitar Quartet began including it in our repertoire in our 2026 season.

Masquerade Waltz (Aram Khachaturian), arranged for guitar quartet

Here's my arrangement/transcription of Khachaturian's famous waltz. The Brighton Guitar Quartet will be rolling this out in concert in autumn 2026, but for now here's a MIDI rendition.

Guitar Quartet No. 2, “The Appropriate Use of Tea Towels”

Although I've written a lot of guitar quartet arrangements over the last few years, this is actually only the second original quartet I've written since the piece I wrote as part of my Master's course at Surrey back in 2022 (the “lunar quartet”, the central movement of which the Brighton Guitar Quartet played in several of our 2023 concerts). This recording features Gregg Isaacson, Paul Dallaway, Tom Ansell and me — thanks to them all for the hard work they put in on the piece and for their fine playing, and to Roger Harmar for the excellent recording.

Jazz-Rock Kidnap Showdown on the Vallance Road, for oboe, bass clarinet and piano (2025)

This is a submission for another New Music Brighton concert to be given by Hannah Shilvock, Catherine Underhill, and Viola Lenzi in September this year. For now, this rendition is a shonky MIDI one; I can't wait to hear it played by real musicians! Here's my programme note, for context:

"This piece started out as an homage to the Miles Davis sideman and bass clarinettist Bennie Maupin, but try as I might, I couldn't stop it turning into a pastiche of 70s UK cop show themes. Oy veh: honour thy mistakes as hidden intentions. So instead, imagine Maupin, on a rare London visit with Miles, bundled into the back of a Ford Cortina at the end of a sawn-off shotgun, driven through the back streets of Bethnal Green to meet a jazz-loving and slightly demanding gangster's girlfriend, with Regan and Carter in hot pursuit. Or something."

A Curious Lobster, for classical guitar quartet (2025)

This is a piece I wrote for one of my teacher Gregg Isaacson's non-BGQ quartets. It's intended to be an intermediate-level piece, although I have to say that some of the chord voicings and campanella effects in guitar 3, and some of the 12th–17th fret lines in guitar 1 might be a tad challenging! It turns out it's actually rather tricky to write convincing music that's easy to play. Who knew?! NB: it's a MIDI rendition at this point.

Lascia Ch'io Pianga (G.F. Handel), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2025)

This is my arrangement for four guitars of Handel's beautiful aria "Lascia Ch'io Pianga" from his opera "Rinaldo". The audio is only a MIDI rendition at this stage, but should give some sense of the piece. I hope to play it with some human guitar players at some point later this year!

Maraṇasati (Morendo Sempre), for cello and vibraphone (2025)

Although I've used elements of graphical scoring in some of my previous pieces (most extensively in "Three Poems by Li Bai"), this is my first attempt at a fully graphic score, with fairly minimal strict musical instruction. This score video features a brilliant interpretation by cellist Bela Emerson and percussionist Adam Bushell. From the programme note:

"Death, and its proximity, have been a major feature of my recent experience. This piece is at least in part a response. It takes its form from the Buddhist “death meditation” Maraṇasati, in which the meditator considers the nine stages of corpse decomposition, contemplating the inevitability of death. What strictly musical cues there are derive from the Lutheran chorale “Every Mortal Soul Soon Must Perish” – a Christian response to death to complement the piece's Buddhist framework. Minimal direct musical instructions are given; rather, the score is intended to inspire the performers to respond to the piece's overarching themes and intentions."

Vexopédie No. 1 (An Ostracised Beetle), for solo piano (2025)

This is my contribution to a concert given by Late Music in York in June 2025, commemorating the centenary of Erik Satie's death. The piece is something of a conceit, mashing up Satie's best-known piece, the first Gymnopédie, with perhaps his most notorious, Vexations, and takes several cues from Satie's eccentric scoring techniques (including somewhat surrealist performance directions!). Thanks to the amazing Duncan Honeybourne, who performs the piece here.

The Level at Midnight, for classical guitar sextet (2023/4)

I wrote this piece at the tail end of 2023 for Jon Rattenbury's Brighton Guitar Group to perform at a New Music Brighton concert in the summer of 2024. This version features me playing all the parts. Many thanks to Jon for his scoring suggestions.

A Prayer, Offered Lightly, for piano (2024)

This short piece for piano is a gift to my three children, Joe, Frank and Lily, in recognition of the recent and tragically early loss of their mother, and in admiration of their courage and the amazing support they've shown each other. This version is a MIDI rendering; I'm hoping the piece may be played in a New Music Brighton Concert in 2025. Many thanks to Peter Copley for his feedback and hugely helpful musical and notational suggestions.

Streams of Pleasure Ever Flowing (G.F. Handel), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2024)

This is my arrangement of Handel's beautiful Air and Duet from his oratorio "Theadora" (1755–59). The transcription draws heavily on several piano reductions, in particular one by Alex Demutskiy, and is transposed from the original key of G to D. This is a MIDI rendition but I'm hoping the Brighton Guitar Quartet will roll it out in our 2025 concert season.

The Aleph (A Lullaby for Albert Frank Nikky Ferrier-Hopkins), for two classical guitars (2024)

Here's a short piece I wrote to celebrate the birth of my first grandchild, Albert. I premiered the piece in performance with Shaun Bullard at the Guitars by the Sea festival in Brighton in October 2024. This version is a MIDI rendition for now, but I'm hoping to record it with Shaun at some point. The downloadable score incorporates fingering and technical suggestions from my fantastic teacher Gregg Isaacson.

You Only Live Twice (John Barry), arranged for classical guitar quartet (2024)

This is my latest arrangement for the Brighton Guitar Quartet, a re-working of my favourite Bond theme song, from 1967. This version is a MIDI rendition, but I hope to record it with the group in concert in 2025.

Picotudes #1–5, for classical guitar (2024)

I'm currently writing a series of classical guitar mini-studies, or "picotudes". Each piece is a response to, or in some way an adaptation of the studies in Reginald Smith Brindle's 1980 collection of guitar studies, "Guitarcosmos Volume 1". I've written five so far, and will add more here as I complete each batch of five. The audio on these — so far! — is a MIDI rendition.

Johnson & Johnson (or, Blues in E), for piano (2024)

This is my first piece formally written for piano, which was premiered at a New Music Brighton concert by Karen Kingsley in October 2024 and later played by her in a recital at Portsmouth Cathedral. It's something of a conceit, bringing together melodic materials from "The Witches' Dance" and "Hellhound on my Trail", supernaturally-themed pieces by two very different Robert Johnsons — the English Renaissance lutenist and the great Mississippi bluesman. Many thanks to Peter Copley for his detailed and invaluable feedback. The version below is a MIDI rendition. You can hear Karen perform the piece here, or see her here. Thanks to Roger Harmar and Paul G Terry for the audio and video respectively.

The Pillars of Hercules (Lost Soho No. 1), for two electric guitars (2024)

I wrote this piece to perform with my good friend Paul Dallaway at a New Music Brighton concert in April 2024. It's intended as a collision of Reginald Smith Brindle and King Crimson. Or something. The audio on this recording is MIDI; you can hear me and Paul perform the piece here; thanks to Roger Harmar for the audio and of course to Paul for his fantastic playing.

The Honeycomb Conjecture, for classical guitar quintet and electric bass guitar (2024)

A piece originally intended for a New Music Brighton concert given by the Brighton Guitar Group, but now hopefully to be performed at some point in 2025 by an expanded line-up of the Brighton Guitar Quartet. This recording features MIDI renditions of the guitar parts.

Three Poems by Li Bai, for mezzo-soprano, viola, guitar, vibraphone and recorded atmospheres (2022)

My most ambitious composition to date, a 30-minute, 5-movement chamber piece based on poems by the Tang-era Chinese poet Li Bai, sung on this recording in classical Mandarin by my fellow Master's student Yi Zhang, with the brilliant Ellie Blackshaw on viola.

Three Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, for voice and guitar (2022)

This is a piece I wrote as part of my Master's at Surrey, a short three-movement piece for classical guitar and mezzo-soprano based on sonnets by the great Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. On this recording, my fellow student Yi Zhang sang the vocal part beautifully, with me accompanying on guitar.

Casualties of the Dharma, for brass quintet (2023)

I wrote this piece for a New Music Brighton concert given by Brass Fusion; sadly it wasn't picked for the show (in retrospect it's metrically quite a challenge without a conductor). The piece was workshopped with the great Gavin Bryars at a residential workshop in the French Pyrenees in the summer of 2023.

Guitar Quartet No. 1 (2022)

This is another piece written as part of my Master's programme at Surrey, a classical guitar quartet, recorded on this version by me on all parts. The Brighton Guitar Quartet played the piece's inner movement, "The Age of the One Moon", as part of our 2025 repertoire; you can hear us play the piece at St Laurence Church in Falmer here.

Sheep May Safely Graze (JS Bach), arranged for guitar quartet (2023)

My arrangement of the famous aria for soprano, two flutes and continuo, from Bach's "Hunting Cantata" (BWV 208). This recording is a live performance by the Brighton Guitar Quartet in Falmer in 2024. My thanks to Steve Gordon for help with the initial orchestration, to Gregg Isaacson for guidance on the performance instructions, and of course to my BGQ bandmates for playing so beautifully.

Doom Scrolling, for four-piece rock band (2022)

A slightly odd one, I agree. But to explore some of the rhythmic and harmonic concepts in the second semester of my Master's programme, I thought prog-metal might be the way to go. Of course.

She Erases a Constellation, for flute and guitar (2021)

My first real attempt at "formal" composition, written in the first semester of my Master's degree. It's a MIDI rendering at this point, I'm afraid; I'm hoping to get around to recording it properly in 2025.

On the Empty Pianos, Puppeteer Spiders, for string quartet and recorded atmospheres (2022)

Another piece from the second semester of my Master's programme, a single-movement piece for string quartet and atmospheres, somewhat (loosely) riffing on Lutosławski's "chain" compositions. The strings on this recording are MIDI.