'Compline (LIVE)'

A live recording & video of one of my oldest and most popular pieces, performed in Düsseldorf for Piano Day 2023

A few days ago I announced my Autumn Tour, which will take me across the UK throughout November later this year. Very exciting. All the dates & info are here if you’d like to come along.

To celebrate, I’ve also released a new single, a live recording of ‘Compline’, which is accompanied by a lovely video of the performance when I was very privileged to perform at The Pool in Düsseldorf, Germany for a special Piano Day event in 2023.

The Pool’s original purpose was as an underground swimming pool, but it now operates as an art & exhibition space, and was designed by famed architect Paul Schneider, the father of Kraftwerk founder-member Florian Schneider.

It was a very cool show, with the warm, ambient, reverberant space creating a wonderful atmosphere whilst surrounded by an attentive audience, and I've been itching to release the encore from the concert, 'Compline'. It's one of my oldest and most popular pieces, which I usually end a live show with. 

The title, ‘Compline’, is often something I get asked about. Compline is an ancient Christian tradition which derives its name from a Latin word meaning 'completion' (completorium). It is above all a service of quietness and reflection before rest at the end of the day, and is most effective when the ending is indeed an ending, without additions, conversations or noise.

Whilst I personally don't share in its religious connotations or meaning, I think it's a rather lovely way to approach a natural sense of ending and completion, and to the idea of bringing calmness and quietness to our busy, complicated worlds, as the felted overtones of the plaintive, hopeful and folk-like melody provide space for the mind both to wander, and wonder.

The nature of the piece and the way it is composed is that it is different each time. You wouldn’t want to call it improvised, though - more flexible, free and open to the whims of how I feel on a certain day, which I think reflects successfully what the purpose of Compline is.

However, when it comes to trying to notate this, it can be tricky to convey what might seem a slightly “woolly” form of musical information and intention, whilst showing that a sense of openness ad flexibility is an important aspect to the piece.

Here’s how I’ve notated it…

I’ve always loved scores that draw the eye and your attention, and especially for the way that we can begin to grasp what a composer is trying to achieve with sound, whilst conveying this through a symbol-based form of communication.

Of course, the barlines are conspicuous by their absence - as is a time signature - although you can clearly see where the phrases have a natural end; like small musical sentences placed together, as if moving from one thought to another, and in this regard, this is the purpose: encompassing that sense of reflection at the end of a day; thinking over all that has occurred…all that was good, all that was less good; reflected in the gentle rise and fall of the melodic shape.

For the more religious amongst us, perhaps even the repetitive, chant-like nature of the melodic content allows that sense of communing, and placing words, rhythm and structure around these divine interactions.

People often ask if it has roots in folk music, to which I say not deliberately, as such, however the melody is firmly-rooted around the Gb major pentatonic scale, which will always bring an element of folk-based influence to proceedings.

I did seek to limit myself to the use of this scale, as an example of the compositional limitation I have been speaking about on here in recent times. A five-note scale omitting the 4th and 7th degrees of a major scale - which feature the smaller semitonal relationships within a major scale which helps create such an overtly “happy” and bright sound - the pentatonic scale allows for this greater sense of openness and airiness, by virtue of the removal of the closer, tighter, more closed semitonal intervals, which function harmonically to bring about definitive endings and cadences such as the dominant seventh, which in a piece like this, would have completely the wrong effect.

The gradual use of structure, form and very gentle development around a range of musical elements such as pitch and register, melody, harmony, intensity - as opposed to strict rhythm - and texture means that, for me, this piece contains so much of interest to both the listener and the player/interpreter, despite its apparent simplicity, and this is, I think, why I love this piece so much.

It also offers so much from a timbral perspective, in that it relies on the reverberant and continuous use of the sustain pedal, creating a “washy”, open sound, as notes cascade into each other (perhaps referencing the way that large churches, chapels and cathedrals “collect” notes together in their warm, rich, acoustic spaces).

What is especially fun about this, is how it is not just different each time because of how it is played, but also the environment and location, and importantly, the type of piano. In this video, you see me playing a felted Schimmel upright. In others, it can be a huge Steinway Concert Grand Model D, on which playing that final chord at the quietest possible dynamic represents one of the hardest challenges as a pianist. Again, something of a paradox - not an expansive, flowing, traditionally technically-challenging phrase requiring great dexterity, but one requiring the deftest, warmest and lightest tough to achieve the perfect sense of finality we are looking for from this moment.

You can only do it by being “all-in” - playing the quietest possible notes or chords requires all of you, with the technical skill being how warm and full you can make that chord sound, whilst attempting to play the quietest you have ever played.

Coming at the end of a performance, it represents the happiest and most joyful moment I have whilst performing my own music. I often hold the final chord until the absolute end of the resonance and decay of the chord; the rush to applause is not necessary in this moment. Perhaps a little gratuitous, but also referencing the intention behind the piece, and what I am attempting to do as a composer and an artist; whilst giving an opportunity to collectively gather our thoughts and bring things to a natural conclusion - for the ending is an ending.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the above, whether to do with my performance, but especially if you have further questions around the musical and compositional aspects and elements. I love to dig into this with people, and it would be so lovely to hear your thoughts.

Remember - the notes on the page are a guide on the path; not an absolute truth.

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