Commission a piece of music

A piece of music can make a very unusual present for a wedding, a birthday, an anniversary or other special occasion. I can write in a variety of styles and for various combinations of instruments. Contact me for more information.

Composing

Most of my recent compositions have been of a religious nature. I aim for the strength and directness of folk music and the meditative and timeless quality of plainsong. I dislike the sentimentality and banality of much contemporary religious music and of the words that go with it. I also do a lot of arranging for the Hartland Chamber Orchestra, of which I am the musical director, and for Brief Encounter, a quartet of musicians that play for weddings etc. I play double bass and bass clarinet with them.  What I write should be within the technical abilities of good amateurs. (As financial pressures increase we may have to rely more and more on amateurs, especially to present works that require large resources.) Making music with others, and listening to others make music, is what I enjoy most. I write works for friends. Although I like to stretch them I do tailor works to their abilities. I also try to give everyone something interesting to play. If the viola player is grateful for what I've written then I know I'm winning.

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Opus List - Compositions

Opus 1: Sing True
Pergamom-REP 1968
One hundred hymns/songs for school assembly. Hymns were chosen, and edited, to be usable by non-Christians as well as Christians. Songs are generally in folk style. Guitar chord and keyboard accompaniment.
Opus 2: Othona Psalms
Othona Community 1976 revised 2002
Words and music for 50 psalms and fifteen canticles, some of the latter from non-Christian sources. Some with antiphons in 3/4 parts. Guitar and keyboard accompaniment. CD of 15 psalms sung by Evelyn Tubb with chamber accompaniment available.  
Opus 3: Simple anthem settings
Stainer and Bell 1984
Songs from Many Faiths 7 anthems for Epiphany. Unison + keyboard/gt. A Cry from the Depths (Psalm 130) SAB (optional T) + organ The Moon’s Alight Arrangement of ‘The Bellman’s Song’ SATB Song of Zechariah SATB or Unison with organ or guitar To Our Aid, Lord (Psalm12) SATB or Unison with organ or guitar Your Kingdom Come Words:L.Hensley (adapted), tune: Piae Cantiones Unison with optional T, B and descant. Organ
Opus 4. Shaker Mass
Published 2001 Scorch
Shaker songs arranged after the pattern of the Mass. SAB + 3 violins This score is available on the SCORCH website.
Opus 5: Incidental music for The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht)
Unpublished 1985
Written for a youth theatre group and performed later as a concert piece at the Hartland Festival
Opus 6: 'Season Songs'
Unpublished 1996
Settings of 9 poems by Ted Hughes for soprano, choir and orchestra. Commissioned by the Beaford Center and performed twice by Evelyn Tubb, the Winkleigh Singers and enlarged Hartland Chamber Orchestra at The Plough, Torrington. Chamber version performed by Katherine Leat and the HCO at the Hartland Festival.
It will be performed again at the 2006 Hartland Festival by Angela Henckel.
Opus 7: Suite: The Wise and Foolish Virgins
Unpublished 1997
Performed by the HCO at the Hartland Festival and in Bude.
Opus 8: Three Pieces for Organ
Unpublished 1997
For St. Michael’s, Bude
Opus 9: In Memoriam: Mother Teresa
Unpublished 1997
For chamber orchestra. Performed in Hartland and Bude.
Opus 10: John Lane’s Maggot and three other movements
Unpublished 1997
For recorder, two violins cello and harpsichord. Performed by the Hartland Chamber Players at the Beaford Center on the occasion of JL’s retirement from the committee. Revised for recorder, flute, violin, clarinet and piano for the Hartland Festival 1998
Opus 11: Clarinet Concerto
Unpublished 1999
Written for Sarah Conibear and the HCO. Premiered at the Appledore Arts Festival and as part of the BBC's 'Music Live' celebrations in May 2000. Repeated a the Hartland festival, 'One Week in Summer', on July 22nd.
Opus 12: Revelations of Divine Love
Unpublished 1999
Setting of words by Julian of Norwich for soprano and orchestra. Competition submission. No performance organized.
Opus 13: The She-Fox of Shinoda
Unpublished 2000
A puppet opera for soprano, treble, baritone, fl./alt.fl., vla, guit. and light perc. Eight performances in the SW in November 2000. Seven in Japan October 2001. Recorded in Harmony Hall, Matsumoto.
Opus 14: Abigail's Suite
Unpublished 2001
Six pieces for guitar, written for Abigail James
Opus 15: 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'
Unpublished 2001
Settings of all 45 of Blake's poems for soprano and small instrumental group and dedicated to Evelyn Tubb. Performed by Angela Henckel (soprano) and Kate Smith (soprano) with fl./alt. fl.; cl./bass cl.; tr.; gtr/banjo; vn; vla; d.b. at the Hartland Festival 2004. Also arranged for voice and piano.
Opus 16: Concertino for Bassoon
Unpublished 2001
An 8-minute work in three movements written for Lucy Griffiths.
Opus 17: Concerto for Flute
Unpublished 2002
An 18-minute work in four movements written for Maggie Strange. The slow second movement is for alto flute.
Opus 18: Concerto for Viola
Unpublished 2003
Written for Tina Bennett, leader of the Hartland Chamber Orchestra. Performed twice.

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Othona Psalms

These were written for the Othona Community and its two centers at Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, and Burton Bradstock, Dorset. As the community brings together members of different denominations, and none, a version of the psalms that could be quickly and easily learnt was required.

So the Othona Psalms are metrical, and some rhyme. Great care has been taken to ensure that the putting of them into verse has not been at the expense of their original meaning, though occasionally, for other reasons, a change or two to the meaning has been made.

There is a happy modal simplicity about the tunes and their varied tempi; and the quite unassuming language, that you use in the verse, fits so admirably. Are all these texts recent? It really beats me how you find ways of putting all this Hebrew into clear language.
Donald Swann

I have read through them carefully and think that you have done an excellent job. Needless to say, I prefer the Hebrew version to any translation, but I also feel that the Psalms should speak to many communities and should meet the needs of our generation. Rabbi Albert H Friedlander

...never less than serviceable and at times excellent, as in the lyrical adaptation of
Psalm 4.
Church Times

I think this is an extraordinary achievement. It's very hard to bring off a real rewriting in real English ... but I think the percentage of direct hits is impressive.
Archbishop Rowan Williams

The 60 psalms are available in three versions, one for keyboard, one for guitar and the third a single-line version with antiphons (chorus) in 3 or 4 parts. They are available as PDF files. These may be downloaded and printed on the following conditions:

1. Copies are not sold;
2. The text and music are not altered without permission;
3. Each page contains the copyright attribution.

The following psalms are included in the collection:
1,2,4,5,8,12,14(53),15, 16,19,22,23,24,26,29,33,39,42,46,51,62,67,72,73,77,84,85(8-13), 90,91,92,93,94(8-23), 95(1-7),96,98,100,103,104,107,113,118,121,122,123.124.126,127,
130.131.133.136,137(1-6),138,139,145,146,147,148,150.

The soprano Evelyn Tubb recorded a number of these psalms with an instrumental group. I have transferred these from tape to CD and they are available for £5.50 plus £1 postage.

Please make cheques payable to C. Hodgetts and send to Quincecote, Cheristow, Hartland, Devon, EX39 6DA.

Othona Psalms: keyboard version PDF file

Othona Psalm: guitar version PDF file

A selection ofcanticles from Christian and other religious sources.

Hymns

These will be added soon

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The She-Fox of Shinoda

Hartland Chamber Opera was formed to present the puppet opera, The She-Fox of Shinoda, a joint venture with Saruhachi-za, a bunya puppet troupe from Sado Island, Japan. The opera was presented in eight venues in the South West in November 2000: Hartland, Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, Bridgewater, Exeter, Falmouth.

The production went to Japan in October 2001. The tour began on the island of Sado. We stayed, rehearsed and gave the first performance at Saruhachi-za's centre in a small mountain hamlet. This is a converted school, constructed of wood and set among fir trees with views of the plains and the peaks. Both the dress rehearsal and first performance were filmed by a national TV company.

The second, overcrowded, performance was in the magical setting of the Buddhist Taikeiji Temple, Kanai, Sado. Then to the mainland and the least satisfactory performance of the tour at the Mirage Hall, Uozu, Toyama. This was followed by probably our best performance - I say probably because some participants have other favourites - at Harmony Hall, Matsumoto. The performance was recorded and a limited number of 2-CD sets are available (£10).

I thought it worked quite wonderfully. I was immeasurably moved at the end, not by the story, but by the respect shown between puppets and puppeteers, singers and musicians. I had tears in my eyes and that doesn't happen very often. Thank you!
(Angela Jeffs, author and columnist for the Japan Times.)

It was a marvelous performance which both stirred my imagination and moved my heart. A truly happy encounter.
(Aiko Chikaba, a director with NHK television.)

The text for the play Shinoda-zuma (The She-Fox of Shinoda) belongs to the genre of sekkyo-bushi (lit. ‘sermon-ballad’) a very old form originating in the 9th or 10th centuries and first used with puppets in the 17th century. Historically, this makes it older than joruri ballads, on which bunraku puppets are based. Shinoda-zuma is one of the ‘famous five’ stories of this genre. Another is Sansho-dayu, made into a wonderful film by the director Kenji Mizoguchi.

The story concerns a nobleman, Yasuna, who, having killed the man who murdered his father, is living in exile in Shinoda forest. He has saved a vixen and she, out of gratitude, has become a beautiful woman, Kuzu-no-ha. 

They marry and now have a five-year-old son, Doji. One day Kuzu-no-ha is working at her loom when, reminded of her former life by the sight of wild chrysanthemums, she reverts to her fox form. The boy wakes, sees her, and is terrified.

Now that her true nature has been revealed she can no longer remain with her family but must return to the wild. She writes an explanatory farewell letter to her husband and attaches it to Doji’s sash. Then she writes a poem on the paper wall and, her son being asleep, disappears. Yasuna returns to find Doji in a state. Reading the poem and the letter he determines to get his wife back. Doji insists on going with him.

Meanwhile Kuzu-no-ha has returned to  the  forest as a vixen and, in a humorous interlude, outwits a hunter who is caught in his own trap.

Yasuna and Doji search the wood for Kuzu-no-ha but cannot find her. Yasuna decides to kill the child and himself. As he draws his sword the fox appears, weeping. She cannot return to her former life. She prophesies that Doji will become a great soul - the adult Doji is, in fact, an actual historical figure - and urges Yasuna to bring him up well.  What happens next you will have to see the opera to discover.

Saruhachi-za came to the UK in 1998 with the Kodo drummers and performed on the South Bank and at the Edinburgh Festival. Takeshi Nishihashi, the troupe's director felt that they had not communicated with a Western audience as well as they might, and so the idea of a puppet opera, with words in English and Western music, was hatched. So far as we can ascertain, no opera for puppets has been composed since Haydn wrote five for the marionette theatre at Esterhazy, none of which is extant.
Taking part in the tour were Angela Henckel, soprano, Katherine Leat, treble, Andrew Moore, baritone, Maggie Strange, flute, Abigail James, guitar, Tina Bennett, viola, and myself percussion.

Takeshi Nishihashi, the puppeteer, was born 1948. He undertook Theatre Studies at Waseda University. In 1970 he became a bunraku puppeteer under Minosuke Yoshida, taking the stage name Minoshi Yoshida. He appeared regularly at Tokyo’s National Theatre and Osaka’s Asahi-za, as well as in regional cities all over Japan. He made two trips to Europe, touring from Sweden to Italy and appearing at the Edinburgh Festival.
In 1979 he moved to Sado Island where he became a member of the bunya puppet troupe Osaki-za. They have appeared in Germany.
In 1995 he set up his own troupe, Saruhachi-za. Its aims are to: transmit the bunya tradition, revive old works, and explore ways of widening the tradition in collaboration with storytellers, musicians, and artists of other genres.
In 1998 they were invited by the Kodo Cultural Foundation to accompany the Kodo drummers on a UK tour, performing on the South Bank and at the Edinburgh Festival.  

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Francis of Assisi