Introduction

All compositions have a starting point, this one - A Sentimental Journey - has been bubbling in the background for almost 5 years. Over the past 5 years or so, in fact from the moment I applied to Asterick as artist in residence [link], I have attempting to find a way of collaborating with Patrick Wildgust, curator of Shandy Hall Museum in Coxwold. This museum is the one time home and now museum of Laurence Strerne [link]. The problem was not 'what to do', but 'what to do that had meaning'.

After a performance of my music in York Minster [link] Patrick and I sat at the back of the hall discussing my current research into the meaning and nature of wholeness and interdisciplinarity within music collaboration. The next day I emailed PW the following:

Dear Patrick,
Eureka! I think I see-hear it... remember the conversation we had in the Minster about a collaboration between music and Sterne - one that is inbetween the 2 rather than a mingling - well I have it! See attached letter.
It describes that inbetween place I struggled to understand, and yet upon reflection it is so simple: a book embedded in music, music embedded in a book, co-existing, fused and inseparable - the multidimensional sonic DNA of a place and its people from within the reality of a book.

[click for letter]

At the point of writing the above letter I had not started Cape Jeremy Affair, but had always wanted to use it in some theatre type project. Using CJA report was a perfect opportunity to "test" my proposed approach and to show PW and the funders an example of this extraordinary approach. However, as with these things, CJA became more than a 'test' piece and I now consider it one my most successful compositions.

The Cape Jeremy Affair web page
The Cape Jeremy Affair research blog

A Sentimental Journey (ASJ) will have a lot in common with its "test" twin. There will be slight differences in approach, material and general aesthetics (as what is inbetween this book and its music is very different from that which is inbetween CJA report and its music).

However there is another big difference that this research will interrogate: that the composition of ASJ will include the visual element as part of the compositional process - similar to the process for '5 Antarctic Solitude' films [link].
The reason for this was inspired by a surprising comment mentioned by several academic friends: that CJA is an opera. I have never intended to compose nor studied opera so this was a surprise - however the more I inquire the more their observation makes sense.