Richard Harvey's The Unknown Soldier

Film composer Richard Harvey has released a single, The Unknown Soldier, to co-incide with the 100th anniversary of the Armistice [available from Amazon]. Written for wordless solo soprano, trumpet, choir and orchestra, the piece is an imaginative re-working of The Last Post and Abide with me, combined together in a set of variations which bring both military and religious connotations into view. On the single, Richard Harvey conducts Amy Howarth (soprano), Billy Cooper (trumpet), the Latvian Radio Choir and the Hungarian Film Orchestra.



Last month, Harvey released a full CD of his music as well, Scenarios, a striking collection of piano miniatures played by John Lenahan, on Altus Records. As a composer Harvey moves between the classical world and his work for film and TV, and in Scenarios these intertwine somewhat as Harvey writes shorter classically inspired pieces which have the melodic concentration of shorter popular pieces. The material comes from a variety of sources, with Harvey drawing from his notebooks dating back to his student days. Pianist John Lenahan is a friend of Harvey's and this intimate connection comes over in the music.

Richard Harvey's Scenarios is available from Amazon.