Wednesday 13 May 2026, 10:40am
Unusual. I am creating a musical in my excellent, custom (50K) built Surround home studio. I work in Cubase Surround and am looking for a creative collabarator with time for minimum one day a week. Living within commuting distance to my studio. This is real. You have to have time.
Me: I am a retired a multi-instrumentalist (brass winds gtrs), mainly Rhodes (I have a MK 8 and a real Hammond) these days. I have played classical, brass bands, jazz, blues, rock etc. I live in my studio. I can read, I am fluent on the piano. I started with Cubase in 1993, left it and returned last October. I am a competent user.
I am intensively creative. I can create a song in few minutes and impro in any key for hours. I can take any creative idea or narrative literary concept and make it dance on my fingertips. I have a good knowledge of composition and harmony. My DAW is very powerful with 11TB of software.
Project: Pro Level. Absolutely NO money in it at the moment. You will get many musical benefits. I can train you up in Cubase to a high level. I can also help you see music in very different deeper ways, even if you are very advanced.
Libretto:
This is a musical entitled: The Tale of the Broken Bell. It's a piece of High Art that also functions on a basic child's entertainment level. At all times a primary goal is simply to entertain, but there is more...
Ostensively, on a superficial reading, it is a fairy tale about the Village of the Broken Bell, where everyone is under a sleeping spell, their true souls are hidden from them, they have artificial souls replacing them - because the town bell is broken. No one can really see each other.
On this bell there is an inscription. It is a riddle and he/she who can solve this riddle repairs the bell and, brings the village awake.
Though the audience enter the building thinking fairies are not real, and they, of course, are really "real". However, as the action progress, the fairies challenge this. They simply do not believe the audience is real and tell them so.
As the action progresses, they gradually demonstrate that most of the worries and thoughts of human beings are no more than fairy tales too, and the adult audience gradually perceive that the fairies on the stage are just as real, because they too, as humans, are merely players (Shakespear), we are also given only a short period on the Earth, Are we using it wisely? What of the soul?
When we understand the soul like a child, only then do we understand, but here, I emphasise there is a twist as this is not a religious soul – this is real soul.
Our two main protaganists are a fairy princess, called Skylark, and a rough and ready gang leader called Prince. Prince lives in the bell tower (think Danny Zuko/Grease).
Skylark is a young fairy princess from the West Country, whom we first meet drunk on fairy wine. She has an immense magical power - "rebeautification". By the wave of a hand, she can take a scene of misery and dramatically recast it in light. On the stage she wears a balleric dress, which has lights that reflect her moods. This is more than just a theatrical device, as we also find that she can take a mental frame of reference and rearrange it in such a way as everyone sees things differently, more profoundly.
Here is an example of re-beutification:
Part of the riddle on the Bell is the question "What is the oldest song in the world?, why is it circular?"
The answer is the morning chorus - it is a circle of song which has existed, as a circular event, continiously, whilst the sun circles the earth.
Prince takes on the mission of solving the riddle. He takes his gang all over the world. He meets people from lots of cultures all of which help him with a partial key. The action unfolds and culminates with a wedding between Prince and Skylark. The audience understands the soul in such a way that any child of any culture can understand it, with depth but no dogma or creed. I don’t describe this here. Everyone will be changed.
You: You will be an experienced musician, hopefully with experience of Cubase and MIDI orchestration. We will compose mostly in MIDI using Cinematics and Orchestra. You will have (or be willing to set up) Cubase and a studio. You will be willing to spend at least one day in my two man studio, in Chiswell Green St Albans, per week. Tech skills in a studio desirable (but can be taught).
Obviously, no one can decide to collaborate on the strength of a post. If this intruesd and you can potentially commit (come and see first) we can meet and discuss angles. You will learn a great deal about music, more than you can imagine. It will take commitment from you and determined work. This is real.
I do not want to do this soley online. Human to Human contact is mission critical. Some online work can be done, based on the weekly human-human meetings.