Music 
(© Iain Murray 2007 - last update 20th November 2007)
MY MUSICAL TASTES
I particularly enjoy electronic classical music, especially the works of:
-
Wendy Carlos, an American who was one of the pioneers of synthesised
classical music with "Switched on Bach" in 1968. Best work is probably
the music from Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" - there's an album
of Carlos music in addition to the regular film soundtrack album which
has other stuff on it too, and more recently a CD with the best bits on
it. Has also composed some very nice music of her own, including "Digital
Moonscapes" and music for the Disney film "Tron". My personal favourites
are her version of Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" and her most
recent album "Tales of Heaven and Hell". She has an official
online Wendy Carlos information source. For her latest releases and
remastered re-releases of older material, check out East Side Digital.
-
Isao Tomita, a Japanese chap who has done many excellent albums
of classical music performed on synthesisers - he has an official Tomita
Home Page.
I also like the works of:
-
Mike Oldfield, an English chap most famous for "Tubular Bells"
(often noted in America as the "theme from 'The Exorcist'", despite
the fact that it appears in the film for only a few seconds), though he's
done a lot of great stuff since, including "Islands", "Amarok"
and "Tubular Bells II" (which is better than the "original"). Of
his more recent offerings, "The Songs of Distant Earth" is quite
superb, as is "Voyager", although I'm less keen on "Tubular Bells
III" and "Guitars", and "The Millennium Bell" is excellent. The
Bell is a good starting point for Mike Oldfield information on the
WWW, as is the Tubular Web, and there
are some sound clips and MID files of his music in the Oldfield
sound archive. There is an official
Mike Oldfield page promoting "Voyager".
-
Enya, an Irish woman with an odd name (hence her more common nickname),
who has done some beautifully haunting music with a Gaelic flavour, such
as "Shepherd Moons" and "The Memory of Trees". Most Enya
material on the web now seems to have gone due to copyright clampdown.
-
Peter Skellern, an English singer/songwriter with a great voice
and a repertoire of great songs
-
the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, who play the music of the 20s and 30s
Timekode and the Love Child Orchestra have used some of my
synthetic voices in their recordings.
MIDI
I also enjoy pottering about with MIDI files on my PC - there are loads
of great MIDI files out there on the Internet too! I've found loads of
excellent classical files in the Classical
MIDI Archives.
I've tried sequencing a few tunes myself using the excellent Noteworthy
Composer, so here they are as downloadable MIDI files:
-
My first attempt was George Botsford's Black
and White Rag - famous in the U.K. as the theme to T.V.'s "Pot Black".
-
I enjoyed that so much, I got carried away and did the Maestoso
from Saint-Säens's 3rd Symphony "Organ".
-
... then I transcribed the Maestoso orchestral score for solo
organ.
-
Because I like the film and the music, I did the "Dambusters"
March.
-
Because I like the T.V. series and the music, I did the "Thunderbirds"
March.
-
Because I like organ music, I did the Grand Choeur by
Alexandre Guilmant and the the Grand
Choeur by William R. Spence.
Go to Iain Murray's home page or send
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