DAVE DEXTER MUSIC
ORCHESTRAL, CLASSICAL AND CHORAL COMPOSITION
the squirrel that watched the stars (2022, string quartet/music box/celesta/guitar)
My score for the audiobook of Tom Kerss' and Anni Betts' "The Squirrel that Watched the Stars", a beautifully illustrated children's story about a curious squirrel's wonder at the night sky. Prominently featuring string quartet (again recorded by Leos Strings) along with classical guitar, music box and celesta. Available on iTunes, Bandcamp and pretty much everywhere else.
HIRAETH (2021, STRING ORCHESTRA)
My soaring tone poem "Hiraeth" - recorded by the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Stanislav Vavřínek - was recently released through Navona Records' "SPARKS VOL II", an album of contemporary works for string orchestra. You can hear two minutes of Hiraeth in the video above, and order it here.
The score is available for purchase here.
RELICS (2021, string quartet)
"Relics", a fast and loose dive into the world of fauxbourdon, was recorded by Leos Strings in March 2021. In this case, the upper voice establishes melody, the middle voices follows in parallel 4ths and the lower voice harmonises the upper voice in 6ths. But with a string quartet, so there's an added cello to add beef and lots of points where I broke rank and did something else. Dramatic, flowing, and anachronistic. You can see score and session excerpts in the video above.