Monthly Archives: November 2022

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November 2022

A song about Tasmania? ‘Half-Heard’, words by CJ Koch, music by Neil Buckland

2022-11-28T16:55:56+10:00November 28th, 2022|classical music|

My latest release is ‘Half-Heard’, a song that is (I think) about Tasmania. To decide for yourself whether that’s true or not, read on – but first watch and listen to the song: https://youtu.be/XDyFCpyhGFM   A song about Tasmania? Australian author Christopher (C. J.) Koch (1922 – 2013) is best known for novels such as The Year of Living Dangerously, but his first published work was in fact a small poem called ‘Half-Heard’. For a brief time in the mid 1990’s Chris and I were next-door neighbours in Launceston, Tasmania. During our discussions of music and writing he introduced me to his poetry, and when I expressed admiration for 'Half-Heard' he encouraged me to set it to music. Life intervened, however, and I had to [...]

new release: Siciliano for harp

2022-11-15T05:43:00+10:00November 7th, 2022|classical music|

The latest release of my music is a recording of the first performance of Siciliano for harp, beautifully played by Tijana Kozarčić in the rich acoustics and visual surroundings of the Auburn Uniting Church, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia: https://youtu.be/jDe0jAKS6q4 Many thanks to Peter Lamshed of Salvage Films (www.salvagefilms.com), who took the videos, and to Alan Chuck and Auburn Uniting Church for the use of the church. Late in the afternoon, at the very end of our recording sessions, Peter asked Tijana to play it through one more time so he could experiment with different camera angles. This is the result, "take 2", a perfect performance in one take, a slightly different interpretation of the music and some great close shots and views from the hand-held [...]