Lest We Forget

We promised them glory. We offered them the world. We said they'd be heroes. Did we forget to mention they they might be dead heroes?

Hello internet, it's been a while I know.

A lot has happened since I last posted on here. I have moved back home with my parents, I have moved away from music college to an ordinary university, I rejoined old choirs, I've joined new choirs, I've passed my driving test, I've acquired a car, and I'm altogether a much happier person.

It is that time of the year again, that day that gets me every time. November 11th. Armistice Day. 

This morning I paraded to the cenotaph with my church choir, the local cadet force, members of the british legion, brownies, rainbows, guides, and the majority of my village. We respected the 2 minutes silence, we layed our wreaths, and then we paraded back up the church for a service. It is so moving to see a usually bare church packed with people sharing one common cause. We prayed for things that sometime seem impossible - peace across the world, something that at times seems like an impossible idea…

There will be no peace:
till attitudes change; 
till self-interest is seen as part of common interest; 
till old wrongs, old scores, old mistakes 
are deleted from the account; 
till the aim becomes co-operation and mutual benefit 
rather than revenge or seizing maximum personal or group gain; 
till justice and equality before the law 
become the basis of government; 
till basic freedoms exist; 
till leaders - political, religious, educational - and the police and media 
wholeheartedly embrace the concepts of justice, equality, freedom, tolerance, and reconciliation as a basis for renewal; 
till parents teach their children new ways to think about people.
There will be no peace: 
till enemies become fellow human beings. 

David Roberts 
22 July 1999

A teacher in the book "The History Boys" by Alan Bennett suggests that carving names on stone is a way not to remember but to forget. Perhaps to forget the grief, the heartache and pain, the loss and desolation. A guilt free way to shove terrible events to the back of your mind. I disagree. The act of carving names into stone for all to see means that now, almost 100 years on, we can still know the names of the people who died fighting for us in WW1, we can still personally pray for those people, and thank them for doing what they did so that we could have better lives today. Why would you want to forget that?

My Grandparents were all involved in World War II. My Granddad's were both soldiers, one of my Granny's was an ambulance driver, the other was a nurse. Today I remembered them, and thanked them, with all the other people who served our country,for giving their lives, for giving their tomorrows for our today, and i prayed that they rest in peace.

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
to children ardent for some desperate glory,
the old lie; Dulce et Decorum set
Pro Patria Mori"
Wilfred Owen
translates to "It is Sweet and Glorious to die for ones country".

'Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I did not die.'

Mary Elizabeth Frye

"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the Sun and in the morning, we will remember them." 

Robert Laurence Binyon

"When you go home, tell them of us and say,

for your tomorrow we gave our today."

Lest We Forget.

Things to be glad for

1. I don't know if I could get arrested for saying this, but I didn't go to the cinema to watch the recent release of Les Miserables, instead I watched it on the internet, and I am very glad that I did this. My reasoning is simple, having watched it in my bedroom, I became suddenly very aware that I knew all the words, pretty much to the whole film, and I have one of THE LOUDEST VOICES when I sing. If I had gone to the cinema to watch this, there would be a room full of very annoyed people by the end.

2. I've started to learn my scales THANK GOD, starting to think I might actually pass my technical woo.

3. I joined Traditional Music Ensemble, and it's a lot of fun!

4. Today I changed my bed, and my sheets are so soft, and clean, and floral smelling, and it's made me very happy.

5. I ordered chinese last night, but I've recently lost quite a substantial amount of weight (my complete accident I might add), and so there was more than half of it left by the time I finished eating yesterday, and so I reheated it today and ate some more of it - 2 meals for the price of one!

6. I finally cracked on with some of my academic work today, and there's now a chance I might finish it in time. 

7. Scented candles. They make everything seem better.

So, this list of things to be glad for should ease the negativity of the following rant.

WHAT IS WITH THIS WEATHER?

It's been snowing on and off for nearly 48 hours now. The roads are dangerous, the pavements are dangerous, everything is slippery, and it takes me twice as long to get anywhere. And sorry to state the obvious, but its also really fucking cold.

The first time I see snow every Winter, I get very over excited, like a kid at Christmas, and I really don't know why, because once I get outside I realise I actually really hate it. It disrupts life for everybody - for some people it stops them from getting to and from important places, or trains stop running, and buses stop running, and cars shouldn't be on roads, and for the rest - they use it as an excuse for a day off. Yesterday we received a text from college saying one of the buildings was shut, then five minutes later we were told it was now open, and then there were s many messages about what was going on with the canteen that no one knew what was happening. AND THEN, I had to attend a very pointless Performance Class that our accompanist couldn't make, so I had to listen to unaccompanied violin sonatas for and hour and a half. So now I am sat in bed, eating day old chinese, staring at my half finished work, watching Christmas films, and wondering what is life? And to make matters worse, I turn twenty in just under a fortnight. I think I'm having a mid life crisis.

Another slight annoyance is that my Dad's birthday was this week, and I obviously couldn't be there as I live in Wales and he doesn't, and I am very busy, so I sent him a hilarious card from Moonpig, and then asked my Mum to get him something nice from me. So my little brother rings me on Sunday night, and he tells me that they bought my Dad ear hair trimmers from me. EAR HAIR TRIMMERS. There is no chance at all that this is what I would have got my Dad for his birthday. NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER. 'Something nice'... chyeah.

There's only one thing that can cheer me up right now...

brb, hibernation.

New years resolution...

Happy New Year Everybody!
I don't know what you all did last night, but I had a very interesting night with my favourite people in the world...

A game of truth or dare that got very extreme. This morning I am very very hungover, to the point where I wouldn't mind dying for a few hours... And I'm going to the pub later...

So I returned to little Lincolnshire to spend Christmas and new Year with my family, and I'll be returning to Cardiff tomorrow. It's been a while since I've ventured this far North, and a few things have changed.

1) I inexplicably don't have a job anymore - I literally don't actually know why I'm suddenly unemployed, but it's making enjoying myself pretty difficult, and it's made everything else exceedingly mundane. I find myself trying to find a reason (any reason!) to leave the house, and that normally results in going to the pub, and that has resulted in ending up with absolutely no money whatsoever... I lose.

2) I am now very, very good, at The Sims Bustin' Out. I've had a lot of free time...

3) I got to know a few more people from my area, people I've seen around but never spoke to, and it's been really good.

4) My hamster and my dogs are really really good friends.

I've done very very little work this holiday, I've actually been abysmal, and I've spent far too much time impersonating Beyonce, alone in my bedroom. Things will have to change once I return. But for today, I think I'll just stay in bed, and mope about the fact that I've not done any work, nurse my hangover, drink coffee, and eat bacon.

I'm interested to hear what people's New Years Resolutions are? Mine include not biting my fingernails (lol), writing in here more often, buying less clothes, and putting £1 in a piggy bank everyday of the year in an attempt to save some money.

Enjoy your hangovers, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Peace Out xo

A Death in the Family.

Let me start by making apologies (never good!), its been over a week since i opened my mind to the internet, and I promise it's not because I couldn't think of anything interesting to say, it's just that once again I have been ridiculously busy. This week is orchestral week, and so I have rehearsals pretty much 24/7, and I am walking round college feeling like a complete zombie spending far too much money on cups of tea, and looking like I haven't slept for a month. All good fun.


The first thing I want to share from this past week is this extract from a New Zealand school newsletter...

responses to this were mixed. Some people found it very motivational and claimed they were going to cut it out and stick it on their fridge, whilst others claimed that it was far too harsh, and too old-school authoritarian ('Stop being a cry baby, get out of your dream world and develop a wishbone').

It is thought that the words quoted date back to 1959, which would somewhat explain why some people have found its advice dated, and the full text ends in a much more controversial fashion:

"You're supposed to be mature enough to accept some of the responsibility your parents have carried for years. They have nursed, protected, helped, appealed, begged, excused, tolerated an denied themselves needed comforts so that you could have every benefit. This they have done gladly for you are their dearest treasures. But now, you have no right to expect them to bow to your every whim and fancy just because selfish ego instead of common sense dominates your personality, thinking and request. In Heaven's name, grow up and go home!"

...Yes, rather...

In any case, this newspaper clipping has taken the internet by storm after going viral on facebook. I would be very interested to hear what other people my age have to say about it, as I personally am undecided as to whether it is motivational or completely soul destroying.

I currently exceedingly excited about imminent release of a certain film...

Oh yes, my favourite musical of all time and one of my favourite books of all time has indeed been made into a film to be released on Christmas day! Here is the trailer... IT LOOKS AWESOME, I KNOW.

OkayOkay, so last week Children in Need happened. I don't need to go into detail as it's pretty much the same every year, except this year I was actually a part of it. In Cardiff Motorpoint arena, an orchestra of 55 and a choir of 1000 school children assembled to raise money for a good cause. And we got free t shirts...

 ...highly unattractive, I am aware. We played every childs dream of a concert, everything from High School Musical to the muppets, and there were even two 'celebrities' (I had no idea who one of them was, and the other was John Owen Jones off of Phantom).
I am not a big fan of children. I will babysit, for money, and I will watch my own brother from time to time, and I can deal with them in small numbers for a short amount of time. Then imagine the horror of spending all day with 1000 of them. AGH! It took a good hour to get them all on the stage, and then another hour to get them to shut up, all the while we didn't play a single note, however once they were all in place and knew what they were doing, they were surprisingly well behaved, and it was a surprisingly good experience. Welsh kids can all sing anyway, they're Welsh.
The only thing about this that was annoying was that in all the time we were waiting around, and accident occured in which my viola got a hole in it... Actual nightmare, all I can say is thank god for emergency stringed instrument repair services, it returns to my loving care tomorrow.


I purchased a ticket this week for Foals tour next year. I will be headed to Birmingham next March to see them for the third time, and I am already so so excited. This excitement was stoked y a performance of two new tracks on last weeks Jools Holland, the first being Inhalor, a track which I have previously written about on here, and the second being a track entitles 'My Number'. In relation to the direction of the album, as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out. The track had a similar vibe to Inhalor, similar, but not the same. See what you think.

I had a very interesting weekend in Bedford this weekend just passed. I spent it with the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir broadcasting live on radio 4 and visiting a prison. Listen here to the broadcast, bits of it are beautiful, other bits are hilarious, but on the whole its a very touching service. Also please bear in mind that it was 8am, we'd already been rehearsing for an hour, and the majority of us had had less than 5 hours sleep...
After doing this broadcast we paid a visit to Bedford prison. It was a terrifying prospect, there wasn't one person who wasn't at least a little bit worried about going inside a prison containing rapists, murderers and god knows what else, but once we were in there it was actually a really moving experience. We sang to them, and a few of them cried, then they sang to us (I know right?!), and then we had a chance to speak to some of them. All of the prisoners we met were the ones that were trying to change, and claimed to have 'found God'. The suspicious side of me is tempted to suggest that maybe they were just after parole, but I think that that would be unfair to suggest after meeting them. Some of the prisoners, since being imprisoned, had learnt to play instruments, and if you listen to the above boradcast you'll hear a recording of a song that two of them wrote. Coincidentally, one of them has one of the deepest voices I have ever heard, deeper than even that of my seriously baritone friends. On the whole, I discovered visiting a prison can actually be a very beautiful thing.


I bring hamster related news. That being that unfortunately my hamster passed away last week... All i can say is it's a good job I didn't get a kitten! Seriously though, the general consensus is that it was not my fault, he was just from a bad bunch.
Here is some memorial related music

R.I.P Bobby, I promise when I have time, I'll move you off the windowsill and bury you somewhere scenic.

FINALLY. To conclude this weeks post, I want you all to watch this! It was recorded 10 months ago, but I can often be very slow off the mark and therefore it has only just come to my attention.

This is the beautiful man who wrote, performed and recorded it, Jack Penate, writer of the classic 'torn on the platform'. He then released it for free, interesting, no? And recorded the video himself, in one take, in his own house. Hence why you can hear sirens going past at the start.

My favoutie comment is 'It's like Jack Penate banged The XX and they had a really (inappropriately) sexy kid.'

Thanks for that, Thomas Butler.

Peace out xo

I'm so happy, think I could cry

Then the moment is lost to the sky

In the silence something is heard

Brings us back down crashing to earth.

Heaven is a place

No one lied

It's rushing through your veins

Flooding your eyes.

She's so worried the end is in sight

She could stay there for the rest of her life

A peculiar pain within her arose

As the perfect frame couldn't be froze.

Heaven is a place

No one lied

It's rushing through your veins

Flooding your eyes

It's hidden in your brain

The sweetest surprise.

We'll be gone soon.

Heaven is a place

No one lied

It's rushing through your veins

Flooding your eyes

It's hidden in your brain

The sweetest surprise

The mystery remains

Until we die.

Sweet Dreams.

Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

that mark our place, and in the sky

the larks, still bravely singing, fly

scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

loved and were loved, and now we lie

in Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from falling hands we throw

the torch: be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

we shall not sleep, though poppies grow

in Flanders fields.

- John McCrae

Goooooood evening!


I said when I started this that I wouldn't post often.... thus far this has definitely been proven true, but this last week has been absolutely manic for me - I don't even know where to begin.

I'm going to start by stating the obvious. It's remembrance Sunday. This is the one day of the year that has always struck a nerve with me, not least because of all the beautiful music and poetry that have resulted from its existence, but also because we do not give enough thought to the thousands and thousands of men over history who have died so that we could have better lives. Later on I will share some of my favourite excerpts of music and poetry with you, but above is possibly the best known remembrance poem; In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.

On Monday morning I acquired a new pet...

This is my new hamster, Bobby. I got him for free from Cardiff market - he was a part of a very bad litter, all his siblings had died except one who was riddled with tumours. Bobby himself couldn't open his eyes at the time, and the market seller thought he was blind, and also said that he had a stiff back. However since he has been home his eyes have opened fine, and I am almost 100% sure he's not blind - maybe just a little short sighted. As for the bad back, he doesn't run in his wheel, but thats the only sign that he's different to an average hamster, and that could just be because he doesn't want to. I will say this though, HE IS ABSOLUTELY MENTAL. he won't ever stop moving, he leaps off any surface he's on, no matter how high, and I've lost track of how many times he's been lost down the back of the sofa. And so this his how he got his name, Bobby, after Robert Schumann, who himself went mental after contracting syphillis. (I'm a musician, it was always going to be related to music somehow) So that's the story of how I acquired a partially blind and exceedingly retarded hamster.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent preparing for a rather spectacular concert in celebration of the 50th birthday of James Bond. Now I'm not going to claim to be a big James Bond fan, as it would be a complete lie - I've never seen a single film, BUT I have alway loved the soundtracks. THIS track right here, is one of my favourite things to listen to ever, and so actually playing it as part of a huge orchestra that included Mike Lovatt, a trumpeter who has actually played on some of the James Bond soundtracks, was incredible - Give this a read, Wednesday was a very special day.

Another factor that made Wednesday special was the first visit of my Dad this term. He came to watch the James Bond concert (which coincidentally he loved), and then he bought me my Christmas present... I know that sounds terrible, but it's really not. I used to have a 160GB iPod classic that was basically attached to my body, almost a body part. I took it everywhere with me, and I was always listening to it. It was full of music, completely full - 20,000 tracks of magic. However, unfortunately about six months ago it got damp, and ever since then it would not switch on. I swear when it would no longer work, I felt like a part of me had died. I literally did not know what to do,  and it was only made worse by the fact that I didn't even have back up copies of the music on it (not a mistake I will ever make again!), but then I discovered a wonderful apple recycling scheme. If you make an appointment in any apple store, and you take your old broken iPod, no matter whether its under warranty or not, they will replace it for you at a discounted price. Hence why I got an early Christmas present of a new iPod classic, 160GB, and only £95. I think it's magical. Now however I have the daunting task of trying to refill it, for the most part this is easy, but there were a few rare gems and remixes on there that I doubt I will ever find again, which is pretty much gutting. It's not just music that I lost - it was memories, the rare tracks, the unknown bands, and the remixes that were accompanied by a story or a memory of a person who showed me it. The only possible help I've got is my last.fm account, but I've listened to so much music over the years that it would be ridiculous to try and put everything listed on there on it.
The biggest task related to this, is getting my CD library on to it... this will literally take about a week...

Another big event this week was the release of Foals first single off their third album. YEAHYEAHYEAHHH! Check it out here. There are very different vibes coming from the first two Foals album - Total Life Forever feels very different to Antidotes, but the first single from TLF - Spanish Sahara, was a great characterisation of the rest of the album, so does that mean that the vibes from this single are a representation of the whole album? On the other hand, another single released form TLF - Miami, was very different to the rest of the album, so who knows. Either way, what I get from this is that their new ish direction is more heavy on the guitar side of things. I adored Spanish Sahara as a single, but I also loved Cassius off Antidotes, and they're both very different tracks, and this is very different again, but so far I like it. I've pre-ordered the album, and I can't wait to get my ears around the rest of it.

Yesterday I went to Wales v Argentina. I love rugby, I love the atmosphere, I love the game, I love the fans, I love the songs; I love rugby. However, yesterdays game was a complete shambles. Neither team played especially well, but Wales played especially bad. I don't know if they were still feeling smug about winning the six nations (i certainly hope that if this is true then they all woke up this morning feeling very different!), or perhaps, what  I suspect most likely, is that the loss of Warren Gatland has left them feeling very much uncertain. I suspect that players were picked on reputation as opposed to current form - Priestland has quite the reputation but I would say his current form is pretty poor. Whatever the case, they played so badly. The ref didn't really help either, but he got quite the boo at the end of the match. 

I am a people watcher by nature, I absolutely love to watch people, and I think rugby stadiums such as the Millenium Stadium are the prime place for it. From the man behind me who obviously has played some of his best games of rugby from the stands - the men who reckon that they know better than everyone else, and if they shout loudly enough, regardless of how far away they are, they will be heard, and the players will obviously do what he has suggested - to the small child who climbed on her seat and got her leg stuck, to the little boy who's chosen phrase for that 80 minutes was 'Score a try!' I don't know what he thought they were doing, but I'm pretty sure the main aim is to score trys, to my little brother who doesn't have a clue what's going on, to my mum who just likes to watch the substitutes do their stretches then gets a book out, to my dad who won't speak at all, he just watches in silence. People go to matches for so many different reasons, and react in so many different ways, it's really, really interesting. 

'Calon lan yn llawn daioni,

Techach yw na'r lili dios,

Dim on calon lan all ganu

Canu'r dydd a chanu'r nos.'

So that was my week, my busy, busy week. And this next week doesn't seem set to be much better. I have to have my short performance assessment ready by Friday, because after that I literally won't have any chance to work on it. I am also beginning rehearsals for the pitband for a production of Spring Awakening, rehearsing and performing in a huge Children In Need event on Friday - an orchestra with a choir of 1000 children in Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, and then I am in Bedford for the weekend rehearsing and taking part in two radio 4 broadcasts. these can be heard live on Sunday, the first at 8.10am from a women's prison in a special programme for Prisons Week, and the second at 4pm in an evensong broadcast from St Paul's Church. And then after that, rehearsal begin for symphony orchestra - Verdi's Requiem. BUSY. 

I obviously cannot write a post of this length and not talk much about Remembrance Sunday. I  was always very involved in Remembrance Day activities in school and when I was in church choir. There has been some truly beautiful words and music written in honour, respect and remembrance of some very brave people. Peter Aston wrote a beautiful anthem 'And So They Gave Their Bodies', and there is no better time indeed to enjoy Faure's Requiem. Today however, I found something new. A poem that I have always found very touching and highly appropriate on this day is:

'Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there. I did not die.'

And so today I was looking for musical settings of this, and there are many of them.

Here's one

Here's Another

Here's a very different one...

But then I found something completely different on spotify, and I recommend if you've got an hour to spare, you stop what you're doing and you listen to this album. Just listen. It actually literally moved me to tears. The album is called The Snow Queen, and it is a collection of songs, narratives and poems set to music by Paul K Joyce.  Track 8 is the track relevant to this, but the whole album is so incredibly beautiful, and it just made me so emotional.

I'm going to conclude this blog with some beautiful Remembrance Sunday related things, and I am going to go and watch Songs Of Praise, because I bet it was cracking...

Requiem for a Soldier

'You never lived to see

What you gave to me

One Shining dream of hope and love

life and liberty.

With a host of brave unknown soldiers

For your company, you will liver forever

here in out memory.

In fields of sacrifice

Heroe's paid the price

YOung men who dies for old men's wars

Gone to paradise.

We are all one great band of brothers

and one day you'll see we can live together

when all the world is free.

I wish you'd lived to see

all you gave to me

Your shining dream of hope and love,

life and liberty.

We are all one great band of brothers

and one day you'll see - we can all live together

when the world is free.

The Crosses

I stood there before the crosses

glowing white in row on row.

Every one a young life cut short

as the names upon them show.

The dates they died below the names

tell of wars now past and gone.

Passchendaele, the Somme, and Mons,

of battles fought and won.

History remembers as it should 

these men who fought and died,

whilst for their families left behind

a dull sorrow tinged with pride.

The faces of boys now held in Sepia

who died in days long gone

yet living on in memories

and hearts, still holding on.

Yet despite the hurt and grief here

what with horror makes me fill

is that when I look behind me

there are more new crosses growing still.

- Bill Mitton

My friend you would not tell with such high zest

to children ardent for some desperate glory

The Old Lie; DULCE ET DECORUM EST 

PRO PATRIA MORI.

- an extract from Dulce Et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen.

We promised them glory.

We offered them the world.

We said they'd be heroes.

Did we forget to mention that might be dead heroes?

They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon.

When you go home, tell of us and say,

For their tomorrow we gave our today.

Lest We Forget.

Hi!

Welcome to my first blog. Ever.

Let me introduce myself. At the time of writing this, I am a 19 year old music student in my second year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. I play the viola, and because of this fact, 50% of my weekdays are spent playing viola, or nerding about music, and the other 50% are spent sleeping, drinking highly caffeinated drinks, smoking, and listening to music. Thats just the way things have to be if I want to succeed. I play in numerous orchestras, I sing in multiple choirs, I've played piano since I was 3, violin since I was 8, viola since I was 13, and I've sung since I could talk.

This is what I look like currently, although my hair tends to change colour as frequently as the wind changes direction:

My weekends are often very lazy. Sometimes I go out and get drunk. Very drunk. Bust mostly I stay in, write stories or poems, write music, read, watch good films, or watch disney films, go to concerts, or go shopping (i'm a girl, of course I love clothes, bags and shoes, and of course I'm terrible with money). I would say I'm a fairly chilled person when I'm not being anal about intonation, rhythm, and technique.

I am currently unattached to any member of the opposite gender. I find boys very stressful, and I have had a series of terrible relationships that have not ended at all well, so my trust for boys is practically non existent. It's actually nice to not have to worry about that side of things at the moment - it leaves me more time to concentrate on music, and I've got a really great network of really good friends, so who needs men?!

Taking into account the fact that I am to be a professional musician, my taste in music ranges from the great to the down right weird! I obviously have my favourite orchestral composers - Bruch, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaicovsky, Rachmaninov (allllll the romance!), then I have my favourite choral composers - Tallis, Wood, Greene, Gibbons, Bruckner, Purcell, Stainer, Faure, Haydn, Monteverdi, Stanford, Pallestrina, Wesley, Byrd, Mendelssohn, Pergolesi, Parry, Ireland, Bach, Durufle, Darke, Dyson, Morley.... Basically I'm a sucker for choirs, and I love anything with a good suspension in it! Then there are my favourite piano composers - Debussy, Beethoven, Bach, Rachmaninov, Lizst - for pianos its the emotion behind the notes that has to be there for me, the huge dynamic contrasts and the lush harmonies. Theres also my favourite violinists to consider - I have a love affair in my head between myself and Joshua Bell, then theres Nicola Benedetti, and Sarah Chang - all three of these people have found something else altogether within their instruments, they take the sound into a whole other universe. And then my favourite singers - the kings singers, alfie boe, tenebrae, the sixteen - nothing can beat a really, really good choir.
Then theres musical theatre. I love musical theatre, all of it, and that is all there is to be said. If you're not so sure about it, I suggest a track entitled 'Taylor the latte boy' sung by Kristen Chenoweth, or Daniel Radcliffe performing in How to Succeed in Business WIthout Really Trying.
So thats classical music covered, but I'm not so narrow minded that I don't enjoy my fair share of the modern. Obviously the top 40 is always good for a laugh on a night out, but theres barely anything behind the majority of it other than a lust for fame and money - I would take 'Gangnam Style' as a prime example of this - theres hardly any musical genius behind it, or hardly any musical qualities at all!      I love the kind of music where the lyrics really hit you, and I love hearing a voice with a quality thats never been heard before. Frank Turner has a way of making me feel so emotional, Mumford and Sons are just beautiful, beautiful people, and Foals are my favourite thing ever. I'm a standard indie teen really - the maccabees, arctic monkeys, bombay bicycle club, two door cinema club, air traffic, augustana, you me at six, all time low, bloc party, band of horses, bob dylan, bon iver, bright eyes, cage the elephant, city and colour, cold war kids, the courteeners,  crystal castles, damien rice... you get the idea.
Then we get to the unexpected - everyone has their few musical secrets, just odd songs that can raise your mood when your down, and put a little smile on your face. For me, anything written for disney is good, because it makes me feel like a little kid all over again. I made a spotify playlist entitled Shazam which encompasses all my smiley songs - theres all sorts of music on there from 2Pac, to Barry White, to Craig David - there are no words to explain it or justify it, it just is.

So that about sums me up. I aim to post on here as regularly as I can, little gems of information that I don't expect many people to read really.

Whoever you are, no mater how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting - over and over announcing your placein the family of things.  

Mary Oliver - Wild Geese

I'll leave you with this, a song to brighten your mood on a sleepy Sunday, try not to think about the fact that Monday is just around the corner...:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ