News
| September 2024 |
| Chris has been very busy this year doing a lot of transcriptions from recordings for customers, has continued taking Stan Ayeroff's YouTube recordings down onto manuscript (although I still have a lot of those to do yet!) and doing a few arrangements for customers. Apart from that, he has finally finished arranging the entire 6 English Suites and the 6 French Suites of Bach for 2 guitars, all of which will be published in the coming months, in separate books, by Les Productions D'Oz. They have also just published one of Chris' last two unpublished Suites of Grieg, the Four Album Leaves Op. 28, arranged for 2 guitars, with the final volume the Poetic Tone Pictures Op. 3 to follow shortly. |
| Bergmann Publishing Company is soon due to publish an early solo work, Francesca, which means that apart from works written that eventually became part of another work, and then published in that form (you can find them on the Compositions page) that ALL of Chris' original guitar works will then be published! |
| Chris continues to do nearly all of my teaching on Skype, which started that way during the original Covid outbreak, simply because it is so much more convenient for pupils, who don't have to use any fuel getting to him, and also as lesson times can be much more conveniently changed when necessary. |
| March 2024 |
| Chris has [continued to be] very busy doing many transcriptions of all different sorts of styles including a lot of Bach, Scarlatti, and even some of the performances of the legendary Jorge Morel, including his Gershwin Medley and some of his Beatles arrangements. Apart from that, he has been doing several of his own arrangements for two guitars, and is halfway through the 6 English Suites and 6 French Suites of Bach (the first three of each suite are complete so far). |
| Moreover, two more suites of Greig's music are due to be published this year by D'Oz, and Bergmann has already published one of Chris' earliest compositions 'With Susan (Op. 32)' (at a time when he did use Opus Numbers!) and are publishing two more later on this year. Other than that, Chris really does intend to carry on transcribing Stan Ayeroff's fabulous performances of his popular music that he did on YouTube some years back, which has had had to be postponed until now! |
| October 2023 |
| Chris has been very busy doing a large number of transcriptions from recordings in the last few months, as you will see when you visit that section. He has also been investigating the piano music of John Ireland, several pieces of which he has arranged for 2 guitars, and they work really well! There will perhaps be one or two more as time allows. The limitations of time are also affecting his list of Stan Ayeroff's pieces that still need transcribing! |
| Also, his reviews site at www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk has now reached 8700 hits with nearly 5000 individual people searching it! There are still quite a large number of reviews waiting to be written! |
| April 2023 |
| Work on Stan Ayeroff's pieces has resumed and a couple more pieces are completed, although there is still a very long way to go! |
| The 11 Felix Arndt pieces are now available from Les Production D'Oz in one volume, along with two pieces by Faure, in one book for two guitars - The Impromptu No3 Op. 34 and the Barcarolle No1 Op. 26. |
| Chris' work on his www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk webpage continues endlessly, the numbers rising to over 530 reviews there of all manner of pieces for classical guitar, whether sheet music, CDs, downloads or even a few vinyl, and have now 6400 visits from 3500 separate people. |
| On the concert front, the wonderful singer from Anchorage Tamara McCoy, and my dear friend Valerie Hartzell, are getting together in (probably) October this year to do a concert where they are going to give premiere performances of my Thomas Hardy Suite , my La Chanson de L'Avoirdupois (words by my old friend Chris Fogg) and my comic Big Nose Song -Can Can based on the melody by Offenbach. |
| As you might notice, this year Chris has been particularly busy transcribing and correcting Gordon Giltrap's pieces. As he has taken the publication back for a lot of these, he wanted two of his complete albums to be available in notation and tab, hence the large number of his pieces Chris has been working on. |
| The Felix Arndt pieces (all 11 of them) look like coming out in print later this year with Les Production D'Oz, who really like them. Also, Bergmann Editions are bringing out a small number original works next, but they haven't quite decided which one first. |
| Meanwhile www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk has now had almost 4000 views with over 2000 separate people, and Chris is in constant demand, receiving CDs and books to review with more arriving all the time. |
| Stan Ayeroff's pieces have taken a back seat recently, but they are not forgotten and work will continue on them as soon as Chris has some spare time! |
| Having arranged Felix Arndt's Nola for 2 guitars some months ago, and not knowing any of his pther works, Chris went on the hunt for other pieces by him. He ended up with another 10 piano pieces all of which have been arranged for 2 guitars, the full list of which you can find on my arrangements page. They fit superbly well onto guitars and have a very music hall-type sound to them which is quite unique amongst guitar pieces, so they will, hopefully, find their own niche in guitar duos if and when they get into print! |
| Meanwhile, Chris has been carrying on with transcribing Stan Ayeroff's YouTube performances of his arrangements of popular pieces. There are (to his knowledge) 56 in total, 20 of which are now done, so... not halfway yet, but watch this space! |
| Chris' latest publication is his set of 3 Fairy Tales for solo guitar called Long Ago and Far Away, available at Bergmann Edition. |
| Chris' website for reviews www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk has now had a total of 3029 visits 1748 of which are unique individuals, which after a little over 12 months I consider a real success. I am constantly receiving more books and CDs to review, so the site will keep getting bigger and bigger, and I hope as a result more and more popular and useful to players and listeners. |
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Chris has recently been very busy with some arrangements for two guitars, most of which are from Debussy's 24 Preludes. Book 1 1. Danseuses de Delphes 6. Des Pas Sur La Neige 8. La Fille Aux Cheveux de Lin 9. La Serenade Interrompue 12. Minstrels Book 2 2. Feuilles Mortes 5. Bruyeres 6. General Lavine - Eccentric 7. La Terrasse des audiences au Clair de Lune 9. Hommage a S.Pickwick Esq.P.P.M.P.C. 10. Canope 11. Les Tierces Alternees The odd one out is 'Nola: A Silhouette for Piano' by Felix Arndt. |
| Chris’s review site www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk is coming on leaps and bounds. There are now 230 reviews on site, of all manner of classical guitar sheet music, CDs and even vinyl! |
| Bergmann Editions have now released 2 of the 5 promised original works of Chris’, the Dance Round the Maypole for guitar orchestra, and Blues for Emily for solo guitar, with Fantasy on Star of the County Down for Flute, Viola and Guitar following shortly and dedicated to the wonderful TrioConBrio, of Andrea Forderreuter (Guitar), Christina Singer (Flute) and Lydia Bach (Viola), who have played his other works for this combination before. |
| Whilst going through some very old files in his house, Chris discovered several works that he had completely forgotten about, including three for solo classical guitar. On re-playing them, he found that he really liked them and so has decided to add them at the top of his oeuvre for classical compositions, because they were all written before his original first composition listed on his site here. So ‘With Susan’, ‘Francesca’ and ‘Little Suite’ become his earliest classical guitar compositions from this time on. |
| He has also been very busy doing various transcriptions from recordings, and so five works for various combinations of instruments by Panteleimon Michaeloudis, and various other works by Gordon Giltrap and others have now been added to the list. |
| During lockdown, Chris has been VERY busy, doing numerous transcriptions from recordings including a bunch of items by American guitarist Stan Ayeroff, who has been playing some of his own arrangements of popular works over the internet, but pieces that he has never written down, and also several works by Gordon Giltrap. See the transcriptions page for the complete list! |
| Then Chris has set up www.allclassicalguitar.co.uk which is a site for reviewing sheet music and recordings of music involving classical guitar. There are already more than 60 reviews there, with many more to follow. He decided to start this site after the Classical Guitar magazine stopped publishing. Chris then found that there are almost no publications in the English language that do in fact do such reviews, nor are then any on the web, so he proceeded to try and rectify that. The intention is to involve as many publishers as want to be involved, and then get the word spread around that such a site is available to read and in doing so make as many players as possible aware of the new material. |
Les Productions D’Oz have just published Chris’ two guitar arrangement of Dolly: Suite Op56 by Faure. Also Bergmann Editions have taken up for publication the last five of Chris’s original works for guitar not previously in print, namely:-
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| This strange period of having huge quantities of time to fill is proving very fruitful for Chris, who's been catching up on those half-finished pieces. This one is called 'Blues for Emily' written at the request of one of his pupils who loves playing the blues! |
| A bit more composition news now: Firstly, Chris' new song, "La Chanson de L'Avoirdupois", is being published by Lathkill and will be available soon; and secondly, another new work has been completed, "Fantasy on Star of the County Down" for flute, viola and guitar, and will be performed by German ensemble, TrioConBrio. |
| During this lockdown, Chris has been as busy as ever and has added to his composition, arrangement AND transcription libraries! There is a solo guitar arrangement of Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years" and a transcription of Gordon Giltrap's "Forever Gold" (notation and tablature). The new composition, "La Chanson de L'Avoirdupois" for contralto and classical guitar, comes from a set of novels written by Chris' lifelong friend and musical collaborator, Chris Fogg. Ornaments of Grace is a 10-volume work and is based in Manchester. The song is performed by one of the characters and Mr. Fogg felt it should have music to it, even if that can't be included in the novel. The first five volumes are currently available on Amazon. |
| In addition to "The Thomas Hardy Settings", Valerie Hartzell and Tamara McCoy will perform "La Chanson de L'Avoirdupois" on their forthcoming tour of Chris' music. As with everything else, this will take place... eventually! |
| As you will undoubtedly know, many events are being cancelled or postponed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This does, unfortunately, include the 4 concerts posted last month. It will hopefully be possible to reschedule all of them when the situation allows - the new dates will most likely some time next year. Watch this space. |
| Haus Trekel in Germany have published 4 of Chris' guitar ensemble pieces:
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| Chris' "Thomas Hardy Settings" have been published by Lathkill Music under the new title "A Thomas Hardy Suite for Female Voice and Guitar". The complete work will be performed soon by Valerie Hartzell and Tamara McCoy. |
| Another recent publication is of Chris' arrangement of "The Cowkeeper's Tune" by Grieg, now available from Les Productions D'Oz. |
Manchester Acoustic Guitar Society, of which Chris is a founder, has organised several concerts over the next few months. Please contact Chris for tickets:
All concerts will be held at St. Mary The Virgin, 13 Vicarage Road, Urmston, Manchester M41 5TP. |
| Les Productions D'Oz will shortly be publishing Chris' arrangements of The CowKeeper's Tune by Grieg. Come back soon for details. |
| Chris is now only available to contact by email or his mobile phone. |
| Chris has added several new arrangements to his list of popular songs for solo guitar, making a total of 138! |
| The 10th and final volume of Chris' two-guitar arrangements for Grieg's Lyric Pieces (Op. 71) is finally in print. This means that for the first time ever, all 66 pieces in the 10 books (originally for piano) are playable on two guitars and available to buy from Les Productions D'Oz. |
| The four volumes of guitar orchestra pieces are still being prepared by Haus Trekel, and the printing date will be announced here when the job is complete. |
| Three more transcriptions of music by Stu Blagden have been done and are now added to the Transcriptions list. |
| Meanwhile, work is still progressing on Chris' 3rd song album, with a 7th track now on the verge of being completed. |
| Chris is now officially a recorded composer because TrioConBrio, the flute viola and guitar trio from Germany,= (Andrea Forderreuther - Guitar, Lydia Bach - Viola, and Christina Singer - flute) have issued a new CD called 'Musik aus der Muhle', catalogue number SACD 9266, Bauer Studios. |
| As promised, the 9th volume of Chris' arrangements of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for two guitars is now available to buy. Take a look in the arrangements shop for details. |
| German publisher, Trekel, are about to publish four of Chris' works for Guitar Orchestra: Celtic Elegy; Dance - Rondo; In Memoriam Paco De Lucia; and finally Tryptych (Three Adventures on One Theme), an epic piece that Chris originally wrote for Acoustic Moods and a staple of their concerts, which he subsequently arranged for multiple guitars. |
| After much delay my second song album is here! Another Place , Another Time has taken eight years to finish( thankfully not all at once, it usually amounted to a few hours a month in real terms). It has 12 tracks, and I am biased but I am very proud of it and you can buy it at my shop here on this site. Incidentally I am 6 tracks into the 3rd album, which by the look of it won't be the last( as I originally anticipated), because now I expect there to be at least another one after that! |
| Volume 9 of my two-guitar arrangements of Grieg's Lyric Pieces is also out and published by D'Oz of Canada. Only one more volume to go! |
| TrioConBrio, the German Flute Viola and Guitar trio , under the auspices of guitarist Andrea Forderreuter have recorded my Aubade, Pastorale and Dance for their next CD |
| Valerie Hartzell, has recorded A Moment Alone and Variations on 'She Moved Through the Fair' for inclusion on a forthcoming CD of English and Latin American guitar music. |
| For those of you who remember "The Woodentops", Chris has arranged the theme tune for two guitars. The piece is Cowkeeper's Tune and was composed by Edvard Grieg. |
| The 8th volume of Chris' arrangements of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for two guitars has gone to the publishers this week. Seven are in print and available to date and two more will follow later on this year. |
| The booklet and artwork for my second album, now completed has been slightly delayed but will be out early in the new year. Meanwhile, I have already begun on Album 3 with four tracks already started. |
| A new addition to Chris' eclectic repertoire of original works is a setting of seven of Thomas Hardy's poems to music for contralto and guitar. Valerie Hartzell commented to Chris that she had a concert coming up next year, that there was hardly anything written for contralto and guitar and asked if he had ever written anything for that combination. There were some sketches for voice and guitar that came after Chris had read some of Thomas Hardy's poems, noticing that they scanned almost like songs at times. What better motivation to finish the job? |
| Finally (for now) busy old Chris has written a skit on Offenbach's Can Can, which started out as a joke for his little girl, Felicity, until he realised that it might actually be quite funny and work as a piece similar to the manner of Fascinating Aida and their funny songs. It ended up as The Big Nose Song (Can Can). |
| Recording and mixing of 'Another Place, Another Time' is finally complete, with just the CD artwork and booklet left to finalise. The album will be available as a short CD run and on CD Baby. |
| US born guitarist, Valerie Hartzell, is at this moment back in the USA about to give the world premier of Chris' Variations on 'She Moved Through The Fair'. Furthermore, the Cambridge Guitar Orchestra's performance of 'Dance - Rondo' this month will be under Valerie's guidance. |
| Also in Cambridge, this September at the Cambridge Guitar Weekend there will be the premier of 'Dance Round the Maypole' for Guitar Orchestra. |
| Several works are new to the transcriptions page as Chris has been very busy writing out all sorts of interesting pieces from recordings. Go and check the page out! |
| On November 24th 2017 at the John Alker Hall in Flixton, Manchester there will be a huge, but strictly one-off performance of selections from my two stage musicals, Marilyn and Stag. It will be a concert performance with no staging or acting, but a full band will be used and various combinations of singers to cope with the music's many complexities. This will be a charity gig in aid of Brentwood School, where Chris' daughter Felicity goes. This music has not been heard live since the shows were last staged in 1981, and 1978 respectively, so it promises to be a hugely unforgettable night! |
| The 2nd album of Chris' songs, entitled 'Another Place, Another Time' is now a few very small tweaks away from being finished, and sounding great! |
| Trekel have now published the two volumes that were in the pending file awhile ago, namely the 'Sonatina for Tuned Percussion and Guitar' and 'Quintet for 2 guitars Flute, Viola and Cello'. |
| Further news about Chris' arrangements of Grieg's Lyric Pieces: Book 5 is out, and book 6 is with the publisher (D'Oz) and will be ready to come out in the next few weeks. |
| Valerie Hartzell has been playing 'A Moment Alone' all year and also has been playing 'Jessica' too. The next piece to be premiered will be 'Variations on She Moved Through the Fair' which is hopefully getting played early summer in the USA , followed by performances here in the UK. |
| Also The Cambridge Guitar Orchestra are premiering my Dance - Rondo in June this year. |
| The American guitarist, Valerie Hartzell, now living in Bedfordshire has been playing one of Chris' solo guitar works, 'A Moment Alone', in Alaska, Texas, Houston, and the UK regularly since the start of the year. She has also recorded it for inclusion in her forthcoming CD and is coming to Manchester on Sept 30th to play it in Chris' home town of Urmston. Furthermore, the score is now published by Lathkill Music. |
| Chris has recently completed the mammoth task of arranging all 66 of Grieg's Lyric Pieces (10 volumes worth) for two guitars. The first 4 books are now out, published by the Canadian firm Les Productions D'Oz, with the other 6 books to follow soon. |
| Further additions to Chris' arrangements for 2 guitars are Lennox Berkeley's 'Six Preludes' (originally for piano), Aram Khachaturian's Pictures of Childhood (a set of 10 pieces) and several works by Gabriel Faure, namely 'Romance without Words' Op. 17 No. 3 (completing the three piece Op. 17 set) and Nos. 3, 6, 7 and 8 from '8 Pieces Breves' Op. 84, thus completing the set. |
| The 2nd song album is in mix-down mode now, still lacking a title, so we are actively trying to close the whole album project off with some great mixes. |
| Following the death of Norbert Dams, the owner of Daminus Editions, who published many of Chris' pieces, Editions Trekel took over the entire catalogue. Trekel have also honoured the contract Chris had with Daminus to have more pieces published and have been bringing out these missing publications under their own banner. Currently available: Suite for guitar Sonata for guitar solo Intermezzo and a Fireside Scene, amalgamated into 'Two Early Works' Coming Soon: Sonatina for Guitar and Tuned Percussion Quintet for Flute Viola cello and 2 guitars |
| TrioConBrio - the guitar, flute and viola trio - will premiere my Aubade on 17th January 2016 at Theaterhaus Stuttgart. This piece was written for TrioConBrio to precede the Pastorale and Dance and uses the same thematic material, thus creating a trilogy. |
| A Moment Alone (2007) was given its world premiere in December last year by Valerie Hartzell, who will be recording the piece in USA in February for inclusion in her next CD. Valerie also intends to tour the piece around America next year and will be including it in a number of radio broadcasts. |
| Furthermore, From Darkness into Light is also going to be premiered by Valerie this year in her concerts and will be included in her following CD after the current one is completed. |
| Watch the video of Duoviceversa performing the fourth and final movement of Chris' Partita for Flute and Guitar here. This performance comes from Ottawa in 2014. |
| Following their performance of Pastorale and Dance for flute, viola and guitar at the Kirchentag in Stuttgart on June 6th, TrioConBrio requested that Chris write a new piece that could precede it. The new work, Aubade, links directly to the Pastorale and shares some of its melodic material, although in a varied manner. It is expected that soon the TrioConBrio will premiere the piece in its new 3 movement guise. |
| Chris has added two new compositions to his portfolio, Dance - Rondo and Celtic Elegy, both for four guitars. Also, his list of arrangements for two guitars grows ever longer with the addition of more of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Op. 38, 43, 47 and 54. |
| Chris' new guitar ensemble piece, In Memoriam Paco De Lucia, has been premiered by the Dillington Guitar Summer School Players (those who commissioned the work and to whom it is dedicated) and a further performance, this time by the Cambridge Guitar Orchestra, will be given later this year. |
| Following their performance of Jessica for 2 guitars last summer, Duo Flamas have recently given two performances of Chris's Sonatina for 2 Guitars in Belgium. The World Premiere performance was given on the afternoon of 1st February in Roborst with a second performance two weeks later in Brussels. |