New Music Monday, #41: ‘The Planning Song’

Every Monday throughout 2023 I will be highlighting a different piece of music that I have either written or been closely involved with. And this week, prepare to brainstorm some ideas because it’s…


What’s it called?
The Planning Song.

What’s it from?
My 2019 ragtime musical ‘It’s Not Really the Apocalypse’, which tells the story of four old friends who wake up one morning to discover they are the only people remaining on planet Earth.

What’s it all about?
Our four protagonists are now the only people left on the planet (that they know of), and having more or less come to terms with it they now need to think practically about how to continue. They therefore do what they (as former employees of some-company-or-other) do best: hold a meeting.

Listen out for…
There are quite a lot of niche musical jokes hidden in this one which may make you chuckle in a ‘Radio 3’ sort of way if you pick up on them. Here are a few that spring to mind:
 

  • The key of the music matches whichever plan is being discussed – Plan A is in A minor, then there’s a key change to B minor for Plan B. Plan C is in C minor, then Plan D Flat is in… Well, it’s in C# minor. But only because Db minor isn’t really a sensible key!
  • Whenever somebody comes up with a new plan idea, there’s a ‘ding’ in the piano as though a lightbulb has come on over the character’s head (e.g. 1:05). This ‘ding’ is always an octave, except for Lizzie’s Plan C when the ‘ding’ is a dissonant major 7th (to reflect the fact her plan isn’t fully formed) (4:06). The high-pitched piano tremolo that follows is also a little unstable for this particular plan (4:09).
  • The backing vocals that crop up at various points sound a bit like generic scat lyrics, however listen closely and you’ll hear the characters are actually singing “Ba- Bad idea” (e.g. 1:38-1:59).
  • I’m quite pleased with how the characters spend ages proposing loads of different ideas, only to eventually settle on the very first one they came up with. We’ve all been there, I’m sure!
  • When they do finally agree on a plan, you can tell how un-enthused Gary is by the dissonant notes he adds to each chord (6:09-6:19).

Find out more at…
www.michaelgrantmusician.com/inrta

‘Miniatures’: The Scores Are In!

My my, look what arrived in the post this week – it’s only the full printed scores for my suite of twelve original piano solos, ‘Miniatures’!

Piano sheet music book for 'Miniatures', by Michael A. Grant.
Inside the piano sheet music book for 'Miniatures', by Michael A. Grant.
That’s right, you can now own every single note of the music, beautifully engraved and printed on 52 entire pages of the finest paper money can buy. So if you’ve ever listened to my pieces and thought, “I fancy having a go at that,” well now you can!

Eventually I’ll get round to putting these scores up for sale on my website, but if you want to get your hands on a copy sooner than anyone else then come along to my concert on Friday where they’ll be available to purchase! Click the links below for details and tickets, or watch this video for another sneaky little preview…
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

Concert Teaser: ‘Obfuscation’

Are you going to be a million miles away from Manchester this Friday?

Do you really really hate classical music, and wouldn’t be seen dead attending a solo piano recital?

Well don’t worry – there are still things you can do to help spread the joys of music and make the world premiere of ‘Miniatures’ a reverberating success!
 
  • Tell your friends about it. Tell your neighbours. Tell your worst enemies. Whoever you tell, they’ll have a lovely time if they’re able to attend!
  • Give a ‘like’ and a ‘share’, or even a ‘comment’ to my beautiful and thoroughly well-written social media posts. The more people who do, the more the algorithms will work in our favour to disseminate the information further!
  • Invite everyone to the Facebook event. Because yes, people do still use Facebook!
  • Make yourself a sandwichboard plastered with publicity material and buy a big bell, then wander round your local neighbourhood shouting and ringing maniacally. That’ll get their attention!

As an advance ‘thank you’ for your efforts, here’s another brand new teaser for the concert, this time featuring the wizard that is Jack Mitchell Smith tinkling away at an excerpt from Miniature no. 6, ‘Obfuscation’. ENJOY!

(Oh, and if you want to know what ‘Obfuscation’ actually means, I promise to provide a full dictionary definition during the performance on Friday.)
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

Concert Teaser: ‘Lullaby’

“What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play!”

So said Liza Minelli, and I would strongly advise you to heed her advice this coming Friday – now only a week away! More specifically, come hear my full suite of twelve solo piano pieces, played on the grand piano of Emmanuel Church by the one and only (to the best of my knowledge) Jack Mitchell Smith.

To whet your appetite even further, I have another new teaser for you today featuring the most soothing of all the Miniatures, ‘Lullaby’. Don’t wake the baby!
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

Concert Teaser: ‘Affettuoso’

The big day draws ever closer, and the teaser videos show no sign of abating! Today it’s an itty bitty clip from ‘Affettuoso’, which I’m told is at least one person’s favourite piece out of the twelve. But will it be yours? Come along next Friday to find out!
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

Concert Teaser: ‘Vision of Triumph’

They say that procrastination is the thief of time… Well don’t let that nasty procrastination nick off with any more of your precious seconds – hesitate no longer, and book your tickets now for ‘Miniatures – Live in Concert’!

As an added incentive, here’s another li’l clip of our Jack playing piece no. 2, ‘Vision of Triumph’ : )
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

Concert Teaser: ‘Compost Frog’

Waddya know, there are only 10 days left until the live concert premiere of my suite of ‘Miniatures’ for solo piano! And this can mean only one thing: Time to ramp up my publicity efforts to warp factor 9! So I’ve made a little teaser video for you to enjoy. Watch it, digest it, then head to https://miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk/ to book tickets for you and all your friends. : )
 

Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite new piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk
 

New Music Monday, #40: ‘Cascades’

Every Monday throughout 2023 I will be highlighting a different piece of music that I have either written or been closely involved with. And this week, prepare to be swept up in an avalanche of notes because it’s…


What’s it called?
Cascades.

What’s it from?
‘Miniatures’, my 2023 album of classical piano compositions.

What’s it all about?
Another purely abstract piece, this one’s really not ‘about’ anything in a literal sense. My concept for it, though, was to try something similar to Bach’s famous C major Prelude, where the keyboard plays a perfectly regular repetitive figure but which changes a few notes each time in order to move harmonically from chord to chord. Thus the music rocks up and down between the left and right hands, each of which is given 3 notes of the chord, and over the duration of the piece we are taken on a journey through all sorts of different harmonic permutations in a hypnotic whirlwind of pianistic colour.

Listen out for…
The alternation between major and minor chords, such as you can hear in the opening 8 bars (0:00-0:07) and which recurs over the course of the piece. Each time this happens, in the sheet music I have marked the major chord as ‘confident’ and the minor chord as ‘less’, so it’s as though the music starts off bold and positive but is continually having little crises of confidence. I also playfully reprise this idea in the very last chord, which is a jarring clash of both major and minor at the same time (1:59).

Another section I rather like is 0:37-0:47, where I start with a simple C major chord then change 1 note every couple of bars to warp it into a mysterious harmony consisting of C, F, B, E, A and D (all equally spaced a 4th apart*). Like this:
 
Sample sheet music from 'Cascades', by Michael A. Grant.
* Technically they’re not all a perfect 4th apart, but in a diatonic sense they’re equally spaced.

Find out more at…
www.michaelgrantmusician.com/miniatures

Early Bird Ends Tonight! Get Your Tickets Now!

Well well, doesn’t time fly? Yes it does. Do you know what else flies? That’s right – early birds (when they’re not busy frying worms, that is). All of which is my convoluted way of saying, you only have until midnight tonight to book your tickets for the live premiere of my piano suite ‘Miniatures’ at the extra special discounted price of £5! You’ll save yourself a full £2.50 off each ticket, and in this economy that money could be used to buy… well… nothing really. But it’d still be nice to have, don’t you think?
 
Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite newa piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk With text '1 Day Left' superimposed in red.
 

Only 2 Days Left To Get Your Early Bird Tickets…

Today I’ve enlisted an owl to help with my publicity campaign by saying “Twit-Twooo”… That’s right, because there are only twooooo days left to get cheap tickets for my upcoming concert, and you’ll surely feel a twit if you don’t take advantage of this superb offer!

Head over to Eventbrite to book now with the ‘early bird’ discount – leave it any longer and you run the risk of become a ‘late bird’! Which, come to think of it, is probably a more fitting description for an owl, considering their nocturnal nature. What a confusing world we live in, eh?
 
Concert poster: 'Miniatures' 12 exquisite newa piano solos by local composer Michael A. Grant Performed by Jack Mitchell Smith Featuring commentary from the composer Friday 13th October 8:00 pm Emmanuel Church 6 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, M20 6TR £7.50, or £5 if booked before 1/10 To learn more and book tickets, visit miniaturesconcert.eventbrite.co.uk With text '2 Days Left' superimposed in red.