Did I Hear That?

Can you see/hear parallels between the music and the writing?

As part of Notes in Letters postgraduate creative writing students from Goldsmiths and Holloway Universities have been working with the RPS to explore using music as a source of inspiration for their writing. Each student was given an extract from a mystery piece of music lasting ten minutes and was asked to listen to it once a week for a month. From this listening experience they were then asked to write a short piece of creative writing - prose or a poem - encapsulating the thoughts that came from the task.

Below, you can read the student’s pieces alongside listening to an extract of the music which they were given. Can you see/hear paralells between the music and the writing?

Neil Bradley - Hear Here!

Read ‘Hear Here!’ by Neil Bradley

Extract from ‘Suns Dance’ - Colin Matthews by RoyalPhilharmonicSociety

Becca Ellson - Music As A Stranger As An Old Friend

Read ‘Music As A Stranger As An Old’ by Becca Ellson

Extract from ‘Isle of the Dead’ by Sergei Rachmaninoff by RoyalPhilharmonicSociety

Ali Hale - The Patrol
Read ‘The Patrol’ by Ali Hale

Extract from ‘The confession of Isobel Gowdie’ by James MacMillan by RoyalPhilharmonicSociety

Kate Miller - Reach

Read ‘Reach’ by Kate Miller

Extract from ‘Elegy’ from John Corigliano’s Clarinet Concerto by RoyalPhilharmonicSociety

Ed Morgan - Various Artists