Theme and Variations in MuseScore The Fat Priest 2024-09-17 | With the kind agreement of David McCoy @mccoydtromb I took a theme of his frrom a test of Musescore he did (which I now can't find on here) and added some variations. The original is the viola theme in bars 2-10, and his own variation in bar 79 onwards, though I slightly changed bar 85. I also retained his tremolo sections as transition markers. The bits between are my attempts. As this was literally the 28th bit of "composition" I have ever done I was quite happy with it all, but if anyone has any suggestions to improve it please let me know. (I do realise there is a possibility that parts of it may not be playable on real instruments!)
Uber allen Gipfeln The Fat Priest 2024-05-25 | This is the original recording of Goether reading his marvellous poem Wandrers Nachtlied 2, often known as Ueber allen Gipfeln. It was made by the father of the German record industry Gottfried von Spinner (sic) in 1895, and lay in the archives of the Goethe Institute in Munich, undiscovered for many years, till the Fearick brothers came across it in 1984. I have coupled it with the excellent English version done by Flann Fearick, read by me.
In allen Wipfeln The Fat Priest 2024-05-21 | I wrote this in the week following being told that it is "strongly suspected" that I have a form of skin cancer. This piece is pretty much what it is like in my head, though it should be on permanent repeat."Ueber allen GipfelnIst Ruh',In allen WipfelnSpuerest duKaum einen Hauch;Die Voegelein schweigen im Walde.Warte nur, baldeRuhest du auch."Perhaps Goethe's best, perhaps his most admired lyric. I know of no good English translations; some are laughably bad, with talk of "dickie birds are quiet in the woodlands", and "your peace will be punctual". So here is my attempt:"On all mountain tops -Is peace,in all forest tops - Now ceaseStrife and song too;Small birds sleep on the branches.Just wait, chance isRest will soon come to you."
Fan Fare for the Uncommon Man The Fat Priest 2024-04-22 | More help from the squeeky girls at ACE Studio, and the sadly lacking in profundity male voices, who can't really do bass. Still, better than all my shrieking and growling on version 1, eh?This is for Nivvin, whoever he may be today.
Death of the Hero 2 The Fat Priest 2024-04-22 | I decided I wanted to make a song from Death of the Hero. It should be sung by a women's choir with English accents, but voice synthesis doesn't have that option at the moment. This is a compromise, but better to have something than nothing, I feel. Ace Studio again did the AI work, and so we have their Sino-American accents and poorly articulated consonants. Hours of work went into getting the /f/ pronounced in "fall", and I gave up with "crimson" and substituted "bloody". I have also had to drop the pitch to make it more intelligible, and there should be a rallentando in the final bar, but it would have been far too complicated to do that in Ace Studio.By castle towerIn arrow showerMid war's crimson flowerBright bugles call.With victory won,A new world begun,His race is now run -The hero must fall.A ward she once sweptNow all tears are weptThe babies she keptNow all grown so tall.She fought every fight,Wrongs she put right,Since life's early light - Now night must fall.Death of the hero,Death of the hero,Death of the hero,Comes to us all.Words and music by me, Phillip Mannion, 2024.
Death of the Hero The Fat Priest 2024-04-21 | This tune was written for one of various music courses I am doing (online) at the moment. The task here was to write 16 bars (it's more now) which tell a story. This is the story of a hero, who dies.(No olifants were injured in the making of this video.)
Who Knows? The Fat Priest 2024-04-21 | Who knows why the world keeps on turning?Who knows why time has to fly?Who nows why the stars keep on burning?Who knows why the rainbows shine?No one till the end of timeNo one can give reason nor rhymeNo one, not till Judgment DayNo one knows, no one can saySon of Adam, daughter of EveAll you have to do is love and believeI love you fair and I love you squareWith a love that's true and a love that's rareSon of Tracy, daughter of SteveHold on tight, don't ever leaveThis song is honest, this song is trueSent with kisses and with love from me to youYou know everything you mean to meYou know you're my dream come trueI know all the things you bring to meYou know, darling, I love youWritten by me , Phillip Mannion, as a Valentine's Day present for my partner Liz Clark in 2024. Notated by MuseScore and recorded using Reaper with added AI vocals by Ace Studios."The Fearicks were very angry that I had stolen their original Son of Adam and made it into a worldwide hit, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and even The Band a few years later, though with Robbie singing. The Fearicks said their pater familias, Fenian, was furious. Were they in Fulham, or were they further afield? Only time would tell."
The Singing Ringing Tree - black and white, English voice-over The Fat Priest 2024-02-24 | This is how I remember this programme from the 1960s, rather than the very colourful original as on the DVD. Unfortunately I couldn't keep it all in sync, and as it took hours to get to this point anyway I then lost interest in any further attempts at fixing it. It doesn't detract too much from the fun of watching it again after all these years.
You Know The Fat Priest 2024-02-15 | About a decade after I had thought the Fearick brothers were going back to Ireland I had a little jazz quartet. We were playing at Ronnie Scott's and needed one more thing for our set. I had always liked the Fearicks' tune, and - never afraid of plagiarism - I knicked it and arranged it for trumpet (Humphrey Littleton), Joanna (me - it was a very confusing time), bass and drums, though I don't remember who they were. I know the drummer was also my builder at the time. Mickey, Michael, something like that. I wasn't afraid of plagiarism, but I was afraid of the Fearicks. They were small, but heavily armed and they didn't like me. So I made up the name of the composer, and he went on to be a big star, even though he didn't exist. I always regretted that.
The Fearick Brothers - Son of Adam The Fat Priest 2024-02-15 | In the summer of 1946 I was employed by the BBC to make field recordings of the Irish communities of London, especially the itinerant members of those communities. On St. Valentine's Day the following year, in the Spike in Camberwell, I met the remarkable identical twins Fintan and Fergus Fearick of Tuam, Co. Galway. They sang and played a number of traditional things for me, but also this one, which is almost certainly - they said - by their father Fergal. At different times they called it by different names. This time it was "Son of Adam", on other occasions it was "In a Mexican Cafe", "The Old Man's Favourite" - although that may have been descriptive rather than nominative - and "You Know". Fintan sang and Fergus played his harmonica.The last time I saw them, a couple of years later, they were heading back to Ireland. To Limerick, they said, to become poets in residence. But here they are on the cover of a record, doing what they called "dancing", photographed in London in the 1970s. Fintan has his back to us. (Their eyes were very different, at least.) Sometimes they sang a slightly ribald version that started "Sunny Adam, Doctor Eve/Always wore her heart on her sleeve." This time, though, they sang it straight, and it's all the better for that."Son of Adam, daughter of EveYou'd better get ready, the train's going to leave.You don't want to be the one left behind,You don't want to be the last of mankind.Son of Ciaron, daughter of NiamhAll you have to do is love and believe.Love each other with a love that's rare,Believe in each other like you just don't care."
Who Knows Why Blues The Fat Priest 2024-02-11 | A short blues tour de force I wrote in 1921 for that killer blues trombonist Kid Ory. He recorded it, as you can see, for Vocalion but you just can't get it in the shops these days.
Mr. Mannions Compliments to Dr. Harris The Fat Priest 2024-02-11 | A bagatelle for three recorders, made in MuseScore, for the highly estimable Paul Harris. Issued at one time by Naxos, on NaxDisx 007. Still on the shelves in the Bond Street HMV, I hear.
Bagatelle for two flutes The Fat Priest 2024-02-11 | A small piece for two flutes, and their friend Joanna, made in MuseScore. Anything jarring is simply a mistake I don't have the skills to fix. For my excellent clarinet teacher Becka Watt.
King Richard His Delight The Fat Priest 2024-01-26 | An arrangement I made using MuseScore 4 of Paul Harris's composition King Richard His Delight, uploaded here with his permission. The choir should have sounded more martial than it does, possibly shouting "Oy!" or something like that, but that's beyond MuseScore's capabilities at the moment!
How Gentle is the Rain The Fat Priest 2024-01-24 | Selected for performance in their 16th WriteFest in 2022 by Progress Theatre in Reading this was the second short play I had written. (The first, rewritten extensively after an initail rejection, went on to be selected in 2023. Watch this space in 12 months or so, I hope, for a video of that.) How Gentle is the Rain concerns sexual violence in war, and so when performed it was accompanied by a "trigger warning". The audience, when I saw it, was actually enticed to see it by the warning.There was some disagreement between the all-female team and me about some of the words. Around 7 minutes they cut out a section they didn't want to say, as they felt it was not something a woman would say. Other women I have talked to about it disagree with them. Similarly at around 17 minutes the words were changed from "I am not clean" to "I don't feel clean" which is wrong on several levels.They also chose not to use the final image as I wrote it, which has the cast create a visual echo of crucifixes in war graves . I think the play is the worse for these decisions, especially the latter. But two ideas added by the team were excellent. First, having three women as the chorus rather than one, and then the section when Katya ansers to the question of her age and there is a whole barrage of ages given. The film doesn't capture the effect of that, how powerful it was in performance. I congratulate them for those changes.The dialogue sounds less clunky when I read it, let's put it that way! But it was fantastic to see it performed and I am grateful to Progress Theatre and the team who put it on for that opportunity. It was the first piece of my writing which ever garnered any recognition beyond friends and family, though others came close.It was based on a short story of the same name - listen to "Lovers' Concerto" by The Toys - written many years ago at a workshop led by Michelle Lizieri, now Michelle Anderson of La Porte Peinte. Thanks, as ever, to her for all those hours and all the support.
The Diane Day Song The Fat Priest 2024-01-13 | Diane Day needed a cheery start to the year. Instead we sent her this.
The Aztec Bird The Fat Priest 2024-01-13 | This is a collaboration between me and a friend, who wrote the excellent poem based on the silly video of the model Aztec Bird (whatever that is) which I made for my grandaughter, Sophie, on Boxing Day, 2023. The poet doesn't want her name used on YouTube, and though I think she deserves a lot of credit I must respect her wishes. Mustn't I, Rebecca Johnson, 18 New Mill Cresecent, Atherton, M42 7FG, date of birth 24/4/1959, NI No. YG744932B, NHS No 764 849 1537, homepage https://BeckaJo.co.uk/Hello.html?
The Persuasions - People Get Ready The Fat Priest 2023-11-01 | An excerpt from a 1970s PBS broadcast.This is my second attempt with this - a thousand people had watched the first over a year or so before I realised I had not posted the full song. My apologies to them. Now I have added the final two minutes. If you liked the cut version - dig the fuck this!
Ewan MacColl - The Highland Muster Roll The Fat Priest 2023-10-24 | Unusually for MacColl this is a cleaned-up version of this song. "Many a buttock bare" being a replacement for "Many a bare arse". But it was recorded a long time ago and the record company probably had to err on the side of "public decency".
Ewan MacColl - The Piper o Dundee The Fat Priest 2023-10-24 | Dundee being Claverhouse, not the city, and he was drumming up (sic) support for Bonnie Dundee.
Silly Wizard - Donald McGillavry The Fat Priest 2023-10-24 | Here is a link to a live performance.youtube.com/watch?v=appBtXoxfb8
Ewan MacColl - Katharine Jaffray The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | From an Argo series of poems and songs, possibly called Words and Music, or even Poetry and Songs - I can't remember. This was one of only two songs on the whole dozen or so albums which MacColl didn't also put out on more widely available records, I think.
Tony Davis - Ennery My Son The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | A comic version of Lord Randal. It's a pity Tony Davis didn't, apparently, take himself more seriously as a ballad singer but the two ballad recordings by him which I am aware of are worth having.
Tony Davis - Heres to Cheshire The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | Less of a ballad singer than his fellow Spinner Hughie Jones, both in quality and quantity, nevertheless Tony Davis did leave behind at least two good recordings. This is a modern re-working by a Cheshire farmer called Leslie Howarth, which may explain there being no "'Cheep', she said, 'I'm weel awa'"-happy ending to this version.
Hughie Jones - The Outlandish Knight The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | Hughie Jones is a great ballad singer. It's a pity he didn't record more.
Hughie Jones - Sweet Williams Ghost The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | Hughie Jones is a great ballad singer. It's a pity he didn't record more.
Hughie Jones - John of Hazelgreen The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | Hughie Jones is a great ballad singer. It's a pity he didn't record more.
Hughie Jones - Barbara Allen The Fat Priest 2023-10-23 | Hughie Jones is a great ballad singer. It's a pity he didn't record more.
The Three Healths - Barbara Dickson, Archie Fisher and John MacKinnon The Fat Priest 2022-04-20 | ...
