Our story
“Have you got the William Tell Overture arranged for trumpet, horn, cello and piano?”
Asked the 12-year-old John Blood at the local music shop
“I’m afraid you’ll have to arrange it yourself.”
A lifelong journey in composition was born after the shop keeper’s response
Becomes Composition
Curlew Music, many years later, has thus grown out of that search for the unusual, for arrangements unavailable elsewhere and for interesting new compositions. New pieces and arrangements, in a range of graded levels, will be added by John to the already extensive catalogue, always with practical, pleasurable music making to the fore.
Brilliance
John’s first symphony was broadcast by the BBC, with the composer conducting, whilst he was still a school boy in Nottingham. In 1970 he went on to study composition for four years (including a post-graduate year) with Norman Fulton and Roy Teed at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the coveted Eric Coates Prize for composition. He also studied piano (LRAM) and the cello.
Serious Scores
After leaving the Academy he continued composing supplementing his income with various jobs ranging from spotting suspicious applications at the Passport Office, furniture-moving, sending expensive books to the landed gentry from Hatchards and even working as a film extra. He also worked as copyist on several Lloyd Webber musicals and the first production of Les Miserables.
He was involved with the inception in 1979 of the British Music Society which led to the composition and performance of many works for their early concert series including Sonatina, Nor’wester Caprice, Dark scenes of winter and From a Railway Carriage.
After help from Eric Crozier and Lady Bliss in 1979 in securing a grant from the Performing Rights Society he was able to write the ballet Little Boy Lost and the concerto for trumpet, oboe and strings, Boreas which was subsequently performed by the Repertoire Orchestra conducted by Ruth Gipps.
Music for St Ives (Brass quintet) was commissioned in 1981 for the St Ives Festival in Cornwall and he has received commissions from many other groups including Brio Brass, the Viente Ensemble, the St Neots Festival and the Hawkshead Summer Music Festival. Bacchanale for 16 horns was commissioned for the 1985 Stratford-Upon-Avon Festival.
He has written lots of music for children, including Manton Heights for the inaugural concert of the Bedford Modern School Wind Band, and later The Christmas Express, as well as incidental music for the much loved Tellastory children’s series. Titles ranged from the Babar stories read by John Nettleton (RSC) to Olgar da Polga by Michael Bond and were even used by PG Tips to promote their famous brew!
Esterházy Sinfonietta was commissioned by the London-based Esterházy Orchestra for their inaugural concert in the Banqueting House, Whitehall conducted by the composer and it was later recorded and broadcast by the BBC in 1987, with Vernon Handley and the Ulster Orchestra.
The country’s leading virtuoso pianola performer, Michael Broadway, commissioned The Witches of Hawkshead – Tarantella Diabolica which he has played in many concert venues including the Steinway Hall, London and at the 2001 Biennale in Venice.
Stamp-album was chosen as a set book for the 2006 Glasgow Music Festival and, along with his Vegetable Fiesta, as a set work performed during the 2012 Contemporary Keyboard Weekend at the Conservatoire Frédéric Chopin, Paris.
Written in 2010, Dungeness, a big four movement piece for cello and piano, was performed by Nicolas Robinson (cello) and the composer as part of Art in Romney Marsh 2010 and with such success that they were invited back to perform it again in 2011.
The Dreamer from City People, written for the clarinetist Geraldine Allen, has been included in the ABRSM syllabus since 2018. The Fisherman’s Bend: Hornpipe from Knautical Knots, also for clarinet, is a Grade 2 piece in the ASBRM 2022-2026 syllabus.
Lyrical Reflections
The recent covid pandemic left its mark on everyone and the loss of both his parents in 2020 is felt in the two very personal sonatas written during this time: Vermilion Sonata for cello and piano and Cobalt Sonata for violin and piano.
He worked for many years as an editor for Novello & Co. Ltd and lives in the East End of London with David, his partner of over forty years. He played for many years in the London Gay Symphony Orchestra and loves playing the cello or piano in various chamber music groups. He is a happy Tchaikovskyite.