A month of New Zealand music

Posted on May 1, 2012 by ryanyouens

New Zealand Music Month is here again. Make sure you get out and enjoy some New Zealand Music – well, more than usual, I hope!

You may remember for last year’s Music Month I wrote 31 microscores in 31 days. It was a huge success and loads of fun. Check out this post to read about the project or listen to the microscores.

This year I don’t quite have a project like that ready to go, but here are some events that my music is involved with this Music Month:

3rd May: William Green performs This Day this Thursday

As part of Auckland Central Library’s FREE Thursday lunchtime concert series, William is playing my piece, This Day, as part of his “NZ piano music of the 2000s” concert.

Thursday 3rd May, 12:10pm until 1pm. Whare Wānanga, Level 2, Central City Library, 44-46 Lorne Street – don’t be late, my piece opens the concert. Click here for the lunchtime concert series brochure.

9th May: Auckland Philharmonia Tiraki read-through

The Auckland Philharmonia reads through the first drafts of my piece, Tiraki, written for the orchestra and the Auckland Town Hall organ. You may like to check out my post on the project or my photos from a recent tour of the organ.

18th – 20th May: Making music for V48 Hours

I will be working again with Sideways Productions, making music for their production. You may like to see my post from last year’s film.

31st May: Hook Line and Sing-along

Every year the NZ Music Commission runs a competition for school students to write a song for Music Month. The song is sung by schools across New Zealand at 12pm on the last day of Music Month. The idea is to get as many people singing together as possible – for fun and to focus on the fundamental pleasures of life, music, and the importance of music education.

This year the song is 21 Degrees by Bruce Taiapa. I typeset the lead sheet and created an arrangement for a variety of instruments so instrumentalists can play along with the track as well.

Download everything you need here.

Have a good month.

2011 through the eyes of a blog

Posted on December 30, 2011 by ryanyouens

And just like that, another year is gone! Here is a look at my posts for the year.

The blogging year started in March with my favourite book arriving, “Behind Bars”, which I preordered in 2010. It is definitely the most used book on my shelf! I then talked about two approaching projects:

In April I introduced my new work, “blimp”, and reviewed two projects – a song I helped a friend create and my work at the BOP music school:

May was a busy month, so in June I talked about what I had been up to – writing 31 microscores and the premiere of “blimp”:

In July I posted the video I worked on with Sideways Productions:

48 hours to say “Goodbye Gilbert”

In August and September I covered my involvement in the KBB Music Festival and some composition tutorials that I held in Kerikeri:

October was the kick off of the Rugby World Cup here in New Zealand, I talked about my involvement in the opening ceremony and also made a post about what exactly I do when “preparing music” and why you would need someone like me to do it:

December means Christmas and I posted some Christmas carols that I prepared for my students. I also composed a new “holiday” piece for my Christmas post:

Happy New Year everyone, bring on 2012!

Christmas carols for violin and viola

Posted on December 1, 2011 by ryanyouens

Christmas is getting close and no doubt you are in the mood to play some Christmas music or your students are asking for some!

Recently I collated and edited 17 Christmas carols for my students to play through this season. The carols, in order, are:

Angels we have heard on high
Joy to the world!
O little town of Bethlehem
We wish you a merry Christmas
It came upon the midnight clear
O come, O come Emmanuel
O come, all ye faithful
Jingle Bells
O Holy Night
Away in a manger
God rest you merry, gentlemen
Silent Night
While shepherds watched
Hark! the herald angels sing
Once in Royal David’s City
We three kings
The First Nowell

There is a version for violin and one for viola and can be read without trouble by younger students as well as providing a lot of enjoyment for more advanced players. They are set clearly on each page along with dynamics and bowing where required.

Download Christmas carols for violin here.
Download Christmas carols for viola here.

You are welcome to download either copy (PDF document) and enjoy playing or passing on to a student or friend.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

A recipe for Soul Food

Posted on April 9, 2011 by ryanyouens

A friend of mine, Anna Donald, has a project for 2011 – she is a young mum and to keep living an exciting life, she is trying something new each week and blogging about it here: Mi Cosa Nueva.

On Facebook she asked for ideas and I suggested she write some words to a song and I would set it to music. Within the hour Anna had written the lyrics, she continues:

“I flicked it on to Ryan, and he replied immediately, saying he’d ‘whip it up’. A couple of days later I was stunned to hear that he had not only written the music, he’d also recorded the backing track with piano, guitar, drums and bass. He suggested that I come over and learn it and record it with him. By this stage I was so excited that I nearly wet my pants.”

Anna came over and recorded the singing while Wendy, my wife, got clucky looking after her baby, Rosalie, upstairs.

I then produced everything and I’ll let Anna continue:

“Ryan turned up to my husband’s 30th a few days later with the complete package of CD, chords and sheet music, all professionally bound with some photos of me recording the song. My husband, for whom the song is written, is quite smitten with the song and has been humming it around the house ever since. (‘Da da da da soul food…’)”

Have a listen:

Soul Food by ryanyouens

I had heaps of fun, Anna loved it, what better way to spend a few hours!! Read her full post here.

2010 through the eyes of a blog

Posted on December 31, 2010 by ryanyouens

It is December 31 and I just wondered “what exactly has happened this year?”

So through the eyes of this blog, let’s have a look. We’ll start with January and the tail end of our South America trip, along with the workshopping and recording of my music in Brazil.

January 4th Leg Four – Argentina to Paraguay to Brazil
January 11th Leg Five – Rio de Janeiro to Paraty to Auckland
January 12th A day with Sphaera

After spending too many hours hunting down good repertoire for my school orchestras, in February I explored the efforts of conducting. I also set up my newsletter with MailChimp.

February 20th Conducting – 90% perspiration, 10% exhilaration
February 26th Automating the monthly issue

It was a plentiful month of posts in March, many on great discoveries I recently made but also highlighted a new piece, Picture for Emily, for my niece.

March 14th Sibelius First – if you’re so inclined
March 15th Moana Ataahua programme launched
March 16th Picture for Emily – aiming for the small market
March 16th Scoring Avatar
March 18th My indispensables
March 19th If Lake Taupo was a piece of music, what would it sound like?

In April it was all about preparing Moana Ataahua for its massive premiere at the ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival.

April 24th Moana Ataahua set to ERUPT in May (article from SOUNZ)
April 28th Moana Ataahua, the rehearsals begin

I explored digital music stands in May, how they compare and how I wanted one. Do I still want one now? That is another post!

May 15th Digital music stands, hook me up – Music Pad, Music Reader, eStand

I summed up the Moana Ataahua premiere in June and did a very popular post on music apps for your iOS devices.

June 1st Moana Ataahua, the premiere
June 2nd iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional

It was great to see plenty of music getting performed through July.

July 12th Wild Daisies premiere
July 18th Breathe In, Breathe Out – a concert of overtures and finales
July 27th SoundCloud, move your music
July 29th Three pieces performed by Brazil’s Sphaera Ensemble

The Auckland schools orchestra festival happened in August, so did some pondering on music theory.

August 27th Sounds great! I want it, I want it now
August 30th KBB Music Festival 2010, thumbs up
August 31st Music theory, do we need it or not?

Spent a fantastic few days in Wellington in September recording Rakaia with the NZSO. Also, Rhian Sheehan’s amazing score for The Cult, which I helped out with, won best score!

September 9th More iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad apps for the music professional
September 20th The Cult wins at Qantas Film and Television Awards
September 23rd NZSO/SOUNZ Readings 2010

In November I did a three part post looking at music printing, engravers, copyists and how things are changing. I also hooked up Sibelius users with some great resources!

November 29th So, you’re a Sibelius user?
November 30th Music printing, a journey for engravers (part 1 of 3)
November 30th Music copying and confusion (part 2 of 3)
November 30th Changing times for music preparers (part 3 of 3)

As you would expect, I got festive in December but also looked at a new feature for sounz.org.nz.

December 7th A Christmas wish list for composer-musicians
December 24th SOUNZ moves forward, again
December 24th Merry Christmas and very best wishes for the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!

The Cult wins at Qantas Film and Television Awards

Posted on September 20, 2010 by ryanyouens

Big congratulations to Rhian Sheehan, who won Best Original Music in General Television at this year’s Qantas Film and Television Awards for his score on The Cult.

Rhian asked me to do a series of string arrangements for his score based on his main theme. These were then recorded by members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington and used throughout the thirteen episodes.

The Cult also won awards in acting, design, editing and cinematography for the Great Southern Television production.

Arrangements for The Cult score, by Rhian Sheehan

Posted on June 17, 2009 by ryanyouens

The arrangements recently completed for composer Rhian Sheehan were for an up and coming TV series to start screening in September. Thanks to NZ Herald, here are some further details:

(picture courtesy of www.greatsoutherntv.com)

Great Southern Film and Television – the production company behind Who Wants to be a Millionaireand Singing Bee – will turn their hand to television drama for the first time as they begin filming The Cult. Described as “Prison Break meets Lost“, the 13-part series is the story of four 20-somethings trapped in the secret community of Two Gardens. The acclaimed cast will feature former McLeod’s Daughter Lisa Chappell, Law & Order’s Latham Gaines, East Endersactor Andrew Grainger and Shortland Street’s Renato Bartolomei, alongside award-winning Kiwi actors Kate Elliot and Scott Wills. The series received $6.45 million in NZoA funding and will be written by Kathryn Burnett, Nick Ward and Peter Cox – the same people behind The Strip, Street Legal and The Insider’s Guide to Happiness.

Where to from here…

Posted on August 27, 2007 by ryanyouens

Okay so I’m at the stage where a number of projects have now concluded … so what’s next? Well I had a good “getaway” on the weekend – definitely not a holiday though. We went on a two day tramp in the Hunua Ranges and now … I am VERY sore. lol Anyway was good to get out of the city for a bit.

So now I have numerous projects to get back to which I have been dying to get some time for over the last month or so. These include various compositions – some piano pieces, an orchestral work plus revisions to Rakaia and Guardians of the North. Also needing to finish a string arrangement for Rhian Sheehan which will hopefully be leading to some more work, and have another scene coming through to orchestrate from Scott Hunt.

So I’m looking forward to spending some good quality time on these projects over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for ongoing details.

Ryan Youens

music composer, copyist, arranger

Tag Archives: arranger