
Getting out into the wilds and cultivating the broadest possible perspective on life is all part of the creative process behind his works.
...With links to detailed programme notes and MP3 files for each for downloading and playing, and purchase of CDs and scores. This is your primary exploration place.
On this site are full details and downloadable / playable excerpts of major new classical music compositions that demonstrate clearly that true originality can still thrive in an accessible, modal idiom.
"Is this another of those awful discordant
composers?"
- While this Composer never shuns dissonance for the sake of
shunning it (in any misplaced conservatism or populism), neither does
he use it anywhere for the sake of using it (in some misplaced striving
to sound 'modernistic' or 'with it' or to be cheaply 'theatrical' in
the way that so many fashionable contemporary composers do). In Philip
Goddard's works, the presence of every dissonance (or indeed consonance) has to
be 'earned'.
That is, for it to appear at all, it must occur as an essential part of
what is an overall 'thing' or process of beauty and harmony even in the
course of its difficulties and conflicts.
A striking example of this is the Composer's 7th Symphony (Ancient Cry for Freedom), which must contain something like the highest proportion of dissonance in his whole oeuvre - yet the overall effect is of an immense beauty, harmony and dignity - the masses of inner clashes in the sound simply creating an 'electric' intensity in the experience. Similarly, what is surely the Composer's most conflict-riven musical utterance - the 3rd movement of the 6th Symphony (K2 - A Song of Striving and Endeavour) - is memorably melodious despite its no-holds-barred intensity, its many clashes and the three great waves of tumultuous 'battle' between humans and the tremendous might of the natural forces that threaten to overwhelm them.
You can find here symphonies, symphonic poems and other orchestral works, and works for choir, organ, saxophones (with piano), tuba, clarinet, flute... All have a particular quality in common - a certain intensity and vividness of colour resulting from the Composer's particular use of his open and flexible modal idiom and his particular outlook as a self actualized and indeed enlightened person who vividly perceives not only the light but also the shadows cast by the light, and weaves the interaction of these, together with an exceptionally deep attunement with nature, into uniquely 'natural' and compelling works, such as Music From the Mountain Waters and The Unknown.
What's this?The above musical motif, which appears on the masthead of all the main pages on this site - superimposed on an image of part of the summit ridge of An Teallach in the north-west Scottish Highlands - is actually the opening motif of The Unknown. It has there a strangely haunting timbre (on the organ), and it sounds quite a bit higher than it looks on the staff. It is like a clarion call - a call to attention - for one to listen intently to what is about to follow, its reverberations receding mysteriously into a pregnant pause before the 'journey' of the work starts unfolding in earnest - and so also it is a very fitting initial 'call to attention' for this website, as it were, to initiate your own unfolding experience as you explore the works.
That motif doesn't actually play upon loading this or any other page, however, because automatically playing music on web pages is a very contentious issue and can be inconvenient if not downright vexatious for many website visitors who want to load pages quickly, and who want to choose what they do and don't listen to.
This
music
will
lovingly
challenge and stimulate the listener and open new horizons of
awareness. Those looking for 'easy listening' or bland 'New Age'
music will not find it here - though there is never any telling what
the Composer might come out with next...
...And in the meantime, if you like anything you hear of this music you
can actually obtain an audio CD containing it or/and a CD-ROM of all
the works in their entirety in MP3
format. Yes, the recordings are of simulated performances, but they are
very much above-average in their realism for MIDI renderings of musical
works, making for authentic musical experiences despite the inevitable
shortcomings, like mono-reduced choir sections which can sing only
'Ahh' - and similarly mono-reduced string sections.
A small selection, giving lists of classical music sites and other music resources:
(This listing will be occasionally added to...)
Musichits - The international music-search-engine
Impulse Classical Music Website The UK's premier website promoting composers and performers with over 1000 links.
Classical Composers Database A tremendous resource of links - possibly the best I've found yet
Music & Vision magazine The world's first daily classical music magazine