Neil March

Neil March (born 16 July 1963) is a British composer.

Life

Neil March is a British Composer and former Rock musician. He describes his work as Urban Art Music. In particular he makes liberal use of pre-recorded urban sound which he alters and turns into compositional sound sources to be played alongside notated music. He is partly influenced by Spectral Music.

During the 1980s and 90s Neil wrote for and performed with a number of bands and artists including MSQ who recorded for Unicorn Records (1989)and Blue Beat Records (1990), owned by Buster Bloodvessel of Bad Manners, Acid Jazz act Junction 8 and Smooth Jazz artist Kevin East. His own album Urban Art Music was released by Demerara Records in 2014.

In 2005 Neil returned to studying classical composition at Blackheath Conservatoire with Benjamin Rous. He then studied with David Sutton-Anderson, at Birkbeck, University of London in 2006/7. He and Avril Anderson encouraged Neil to pursue a masters (mmus.) degree in composition at Goldsmiths, University of London where, from 2008 - 2010, he studied primarily with Roger Redgate and others including Dmitri Smirnov. He went on to complete a PhD there in 2014.

Neil's music has been performed in many venues including the Royal Festival Hall, the University of Middlesex, University of Cambridge, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Senate House and St. Catherine's British Embassy School in Athens. His String Quartet Devolution was workshopped by the Allegri Quartet in 2012 and he has had his music performed in many countries, especially thanks to his collaborative relationship with dancer, pianist and researcher Marilyn Wyers

Neil's music is driven by a desire to reflect events in urban post-globalization society both through the structure and technical aspects of his work and via the use of recordings of actual urban sounds. He records these on a mobile phone and then uses a laptop to alter the frequencies and properties of sounds, using them both for harmonic or melodic purposes and for sound effects, a process he calls Urban Sound Manipulation (USM). He has also invented compositional devices designed to reflect urban features in an abstract manner such as Soundbite Form, Cycles of Transformation and Polyfluidity. Neil's music sometimes deploys a deconstructive element partly inspired by his interest in the philosopher Jacques Derrida.

Currently his music is published by his self-owned Hornetmuziq Press, a tongue-in-cheek reference to his beloved Watford Football Club.

List of compositions

Discography

See also

Forthcoming

• Two tracks provisionally to be included on Demerara Records Compilation Album

References

External links

• Neil March on Twitter