Someone once said that if you could describe a piece of art it was not worth doing it. So there will be no descriptions of the pieces. (I wish the musician to explore and make up their own mind without being influenced in interpretation by excessive notes, articulation or dynamic marks.)  

However this statement in brackets has been shown to not work in the modern world.  My thanks go to Dr Liz Johnson and Dr Peter Johnson for their kind help.  Liz Johnson is a composer and teacher of composition in Birmingham, and well worth checking out.

I recently had a kind of epiphany with the help of the above, and am now busy (laboriously)putting right my earlier stance and I will be going through every piece on the website and beyond articulating them.  So if you have been disapointed in the past or just plain confused, all should shortly be made clear.

Some of the pieces are experimental and not completely formed, but I lost energy with them.   If you like any of these and wish me to expand on any of them let me know at

My ideas on why I write are not necessarily consistent so this account is what I think currently.

I write because I have a compulsion to do so.The idea for a piece will not let me sleep and I have to write it down to get some peace. I tend to mull over an idea and watch television or go to the pub and have the idea ticking over in the back of my mind. Quite often I need a distraction around me so that I can concentrate. This is usually now a noisy pub (that’s my excuse anyway) but in the past I have written at concerts and once at an opera. I find that I can then flow much better without my mind getting in the way i.e. starting to doubt.

I find that writing fast after a time spent thinking about form or melodic shape or the harmonic strictures allows the idea to flow. I still prefer writing on paper as this allows instant correction and the ability to jump around the composition as it gets longer. I know that you can do this on computer programmes but it feels less instant if you have to go through a mouse or keyboard.

One of the things that I like doing is to take the listener on a journey, and to entertain the listener with the twists of thought on that journey. I do not like music that tries to be clever for the sake of being clever, or is written for the benefit of the writer.

I am trying to write music that is unselfconscious. I do write for certain instruments but this is for convenience and most of the music could be arranged for most any combinations of instruments.

I am also still exploring 19th and early 20th century styles in music. I think that there is still mileage in exploring the circle of 5ths structures and in creating new circles and ways of getting around the keys.

Rant

Modern classical music is interesting but in some cases seems to have lost the point. In England there is a tradition of hangers on to an older style, like Vaughan Williams and his take on the romantic symphony. Or Viol Consorts and lutes still being used 100 years after they had been abandoned by the rest of Europe. I fall into this tradition. I like a tune. Music that is an effect is interesting but does not need to be explored more than a few times.

I have recently been struggling with the question of putting my music out for free.  My brother Matthew has resolved the issue for me, by pointing out that in todays world  most composers do not earn money.  He also helped me to see that ultimately all I really want is for my work to played and enjoyed by other people.  So I am committing all of the pieces that I have withheld recently onto the site for everyone.

Hope that you enjoy looking at my music.

 Please let me know.  It is always difficult to write in a vacuum.

Jim Tribble