David Solomons

singer, one-man choir, guitarist and composer

02 Jan 2012, News
An octatonic string quartet and a simple song
A few of my recent uploads are also nicely illustrated in videos (with live performances) on youtube, so do check out these two: Zephaniah (Sing o daughter of Zion for also and guitar) and my string quartet
01 Oct 2011, Article
Fine Knacks for Ladies
30 Jul 2011, News
Ragtime about a curious dog
Bricklick Benji Rag (for guitar and piano) was written to accompany the following video about a dog who loves to lick stones and bricks. The score and parts are available here on load.cd
14 Jul 2011, News
Octoboogy - with live octopus
My octatonic boogie woogie Octoboogy has been dusted down and re-instrumented, so the solo parts are now played by flute and jazz guitar. That sounds much better than the old trumpet version and will, I hope, be performed live some time...Score and parts available on Load.CD. By way of a bonus, it now has a real octopus accompanying it, at least in this video:
05 Jul 2011, Article
The pipes are calling
This piece was originally written for bagpipes, but it works well for an ensemble of sax, flutes, basses and percussion (the basses can be contrabasses or bass guitars) This version was created with Sonar X1, but for live performances, the score is available on musicaneo.com
20 Jun 2011, Article
Virgo and Taurus
Virgo and Taurus an emotional extravaganza for cello and guitar composed by D W Solomons in 1975 performed by the late Chris Benson and David W Solomons also in 1975 (sight-reading from the original pencil manuscript!) The score and parts can be obtained from dwsolo.musicaneo.com The story behind this piece is lost in the mists of time, even my cellist in this performance didn't know the full story! It concerned another cellist and a weekend of emotional turmoil. The music was ...
13 Jun 2011, Article
Nora Lee
This traditional song (on which Elvis based his "Love me Tender") has now been arranged for quintet of solo voices (or five part choir). There are two versions - one for male voices (AATBB) and one for mixed group (SATBarB). You can hear me singing the male voices version in the multitrack version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GirWoX2mXzM
08 Jun 2011, Article
The Poem is the Song
My latest publications for clarinet and guitar and for flute and guitar have the mysterious title "The Poem is the Song". Of the five movements in this suite, four relate to 20th century poems, which I originally set for voice and classical guitar back in the innocent days when I didn't know much about copyright on poetry, but the poems have such strong rhythms and emotions that the melodies they evoked in me were sufficient even for non-verbal expression. I therefore decided to give the melodies to wind ...
03 Jun 2011, Article
Sometimes the unexpected takes off
I was amazed and gratified to find unexpectedly large downloads (and a goodly number of thumbs-up) for My Chinese New Year celebration on YouTube (over 54,000 downloads to date since I uploaded it in 2008).  Here is the YouTube address of the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfvshWnr30Q It is in an oriental style insofar as it is in a major pentatonic scale and - of course - uses fireworks, as befits such celebrations. When I originally composed the piece, which is different in so many ways from ...
02 Jun 2011, News
Iris Clarinet Quartet
This brilliant Japanese clarinet quartet has performed some of my music already and I am greatly looking forward to more performances by them. You can hear them play my "Tants Fraylachs" and "Five times table" on http://www.dwsolo.com/serif/japanesequartet.html As you can hear, their ability to interpret the Klezmer feel of Tants Fraylachs is brilliant and the jolly glissandi of Five times table are beautiful and humorous. Their own blog-site (in Japanese) is at http://iris-clarinet.com/
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