Composing

Pieces from places

  • Disco Ball – Mountain Hare
    Finzi Scholarship piece inspired by Mountain Hares in the Cairngorms. Full orchestra version (2,2,2,2; 4,2,0,0; timp; strings) and chamber version (violin, cello, piano, clarinet). Bill also wrote a travel account.
  • The Singing Glacier
    A collaborative response to glaciers. In 2016 Bill went to East Greenland with poet Helen Mort for a climbing expedition. They were joined by film-maker Richard Jones.
  • Icicle
    Written to raise the profile of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for ‘The Singing Glacier’. For violin, viola and glockenspiel.
  • The Duel of the White-necked Ravens
    In 2014 Bill walked up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. While sitting beside his tent below the summit he watched three pairs of white-necked ravens duelling mid-flight.

Chamber music

  • Lockdown Lyrics
    Nine poems written during the first nine days of ‘lockdown’ in the UK set to music for two voices and cello.
  • Wind 1
    The first in a new series of works about the wind. It designs the shapes of rocks and trees, and whirls the ice in turf digs.
  • Particles 1, 2 & 3
    The ‘Particles’ series is about the viscosity of air. It sparkles and dances around us, pushing up against the objects that we see; swathing the night in light.
  • London Life
    A suite of five movements for clarinet, violin, guitar, double bass, harpsichord and timpani. Originally sound-tracks for short films produced by Sands Films. Now available as a comic concert suite.

Music for Screen & Stage

The interplay between music and image or movement has always interested Bill, ever since he organised a concert with the artist Claire Stringer in Glasgow in 2001. He has collaborated with Nashashibi/Skaer for their recent film, ‘Lamb’ and with Sands Films in London for their five short films featuring Tweedy The Clown. These sound-tracks became the comic chamber suite for instruments, London Life.    

  • Lamb (Nashashibi/Skaer)
    Short film by Nashashibi/Skaer with sound-track by Bill, mezzo-soprano Olivia Ray and Rosalind Nashashibi. Footage of a lambing shed from the Island of Lewis and Harris shot by Lucy Skaer.
  • Sands Films feat. Tweedy The Clown
    Sound-tracks for five short films produced by Sands Films, featuring Tweedy the Clown. These whimsical commentaries on London life inspired Bill to write five light-hearted scores.