Sunday Jam #34 : Music inspired by Gormenghast; Fanfare, dance, pavan and march. 

Yes, that really sticks in my mind. They spend all year on their work, the Earl picks one (and probably doesn't care much for it) and the rest are burned. All futile!

@@midi_in and they age so quickly too. They live normal lifespans, but spend so much of it as really old for some reason.

I don't tend to make time for reading these days but the TV series is very special and I can watch that over and over. The casting is brilliant and all-star. It's all here on RU-vid - I grabbed those screenshots from YT because it was easier that way. And better quality - my digital copy is ripped from a VHS which was recorded from the telly!

Thank you very much. One trick I use with some parts - guitar as well as these acoustic instruments is to record the part twice, as tight as possible, and then pan one left and one right. It's a natural chorus effect that really gives more fullness. Obviously I use a bit of reverb and ambience too, but judiciously. To start with it took me a long while to get a natural sound with instruments. I went through a lot of USB mics before getting my first audio interface and a real mic. The brass gives real trouble because of the sound pressure. With USB mics and some mic-USB converters you can't avoid clipping or distortion. I watch a producer called Glen someone, whose catchphrase is "leave it the f*** alone!!!" and it's true - the less you do, the better it sounds.

Actually, with the brass, I use a little mic which is designed to clip onto the bell - it has an XLR on the other end. Out of all the mics I've tried, that one gives the best sound. Unfortunately, clipping it to the bell means that it picks up clunks through the instrument when you use the valves! (possibly designed for sax or something which has quieter keys!) So I use that, but clip it to my music stand just in front of me. For recorder, it's the SM57 and I've gradually got better at knowing the 'sweet spot' for the distance and angle.

I appreciate the comment but I don't think I'm any kind of composer. I'm not so happy with this and nearly didn't publish it. There's only so much you can do in a few hours and this was too ambitious. It needed more time on the writing and more time getting better takes on the playing. I enjoy setting aside Sundays (originally Sunday morning) for this but I've either got to limit what I aim for or spend more weeks on one thing. Not sure. As for the TV series, every single character was cast perfectly. My favourite character and alter ego, Irma, was played by a woman who has delighted me in so many different roles, also notably Caroline in Killing Eve. Gormenghast is pretty special to me for all sorts of reasons :-)

Considering you took only a single week it was awesome, Pea. I’m sure Richard Rodney Bennet took more than a week to come up with that theme tune. The brass was exceptional. Take your time and it’ll come. Mebbe try the comedy and tragedy of Falstaff from Henry 4 parts 1 and 2 and Henry 5. Use the beeb’s version with Hiddleston as Hal. Well worth a re-watch for pure pleasure. Or give us Clarice and Cora’s madness. You are ever an inspiration.

@@hoppers13 It would have been a lot better if I'd spent a week. This was less than a day. The original idea of Sunday Jam was to get up with no idea what would happen and see what I could do in a morning, and that was more fun.It's a bit of a community, there are others that do similar. But you get beyond wanting to do a few bars of some groove. It started to take the whole of Sunday (half of that being making the bloody video) and I"ve been doing stuff beforehand just to manage to do what I want to do. In this case I started writing dots late on Saturday night. I'm going to have to start thinking about it earlier and put more of the week into it.

@@hoppers13 and thank you for the suggestions. I LOVE the idea of 'the madness of ladies Clarice and Cora'!