There is no one word that satisfactorily encompasses the various ancillary roles required of the modern composer. Engraving, transcribing, editing, proof-reading, copying, arranging, programming - the list goes on. Hence, the slightly unwieldy 'notation services'!
My interest in scores really pre-dates my interest in classical music, and provided my introduction to that whole world. A lover of maps as a child, I was drawn to these beautiful documents - the maps of music - in my early teens, fascinated by how they encoded sound.
As a result, I am passionate about notation, and fastidiously attentive to detail in all the scores I work on. I have a particular interest in working with contemporary music notation, working directly for composers and as a freelance engraver for Schott Music and Swedish Musical Heritage. I have also recently started working as a copyist for film sessions, providing parts for films including the latest Matrix instalment at Abbey Road, alongside projects at all the other major London studios. To view a PDF with some examples of my work, please click here - these are all excerpts from works typeset in Sibelius or Dorico from manuscript sources.
I am always happy to take on smaller jobs such as providing transpositions of songs or simply editing an existing score to give it that final polish. I am a fast worker, and strive to provide accurate, competitive quotes for all jobs.
(from my recent work Under the Giant Fern of Night for children's choir and harp)
I also have experience in transcribing music from audio. Most recently I have done this for the Dutch pianist Joep Beving, who sells the scores to his atmospheric, introspective music on his website. If you are a performer who plays mainly by ear and would like an accurate transcription of your music, do get in touch!
I take as much care over the preparation of instrumental parts as I do with scores themselves. A carefully presented set of parts can mean the difference between a successful, straightforward performance / recording or a stressful one. I always ensure that materials are easy on the eye and have suitable page turns and cues. Although it is becoming more common simply to distribute PDFs rather than hard copies, I also have an A3 printer, enabling me to print sizes such as B4 if required. If you need a copyist for your upcoming project, or simply a helping hand in the final stage of score / part preparation, let me know.
2016 / 02 / 12
(from Julian Anderson's recent cello concerto Litanies, © Schott Music)
A large part of the compositional process is orchestration, the fleshing out of material from 'short score' into music for larger forces. A reduction is effectively the opposite, taking music for many players and arranging it so it can be satisfactorily performed by fewer - as demonstrated below, which shows my reduction of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for an event at Abbey Road celebrating the album's 50th anniversary in 2017.
I am available for any such arranging tasks, from reducing large orchestral scores to orchestrating pop music for session musicians. I am also interested in creative transcription for the classical guitar.
