Songs & Instrumental Music
Song-writing, improvisation and writing music for film…..
ABOUT
Ken’s first songwriting was in 1975 with Edinburgh folk rock band Caedmon. His ‘Ten Maidens Fair’ and ‘Maker Man’ are the first two tracks on the eponymous 1973 album.
A different strand followed in the ’80s with a school’s musical for Kenton Bar Primary 1985: ‘The Lambton Worm’ pre-empting many songs written for and with children in later years (see Songspot below).
A number of pieces were commissioned streetband tunes for festivals: the 1988 Fish Quay Festival processional tune; a theme tune for the National Streetband Festival of 1990’s massed bands; and ‘Tyne Times’ was commissioned by 10th Avenue Band for the Gateshead and Newcastle International Streetband Festival of 2005.
Compositions for Theatre and Film started in 2000 chiefly with Théâtre Sans Frontières including a theme for John Cobb’s ‘Capability Brown’ play, played on Northumbrian pipes. and in recent years with AMBER Films: ‘From us To Me’ 2016. Then Laggin’ Behind (with Richard Scott, a NEA funded project).
He was commissioned to write a tune for the Allerdale Spirit of Jazz Festival in 2000, a piece for steel pans. ‘Metamorphosis’ was commissioned by the Cutting Loose Festival in 2014 for massed bands to play.
Songs for Hearthside Tales with Chris Bostock include: Seeds, When Jack Frost Nips, Snow Bear and many more.
With Shoe Tree Arts, Ken and Rich Scott have written a number of songs for ‘Under the Fields of Heaton‘ including ‘The Heaton Main Suite’; ‘Turbinia’ and ‘My Cremona Toffee Girl’ are from ‘HEATON’ a show written by Peter Dillon in collaboration with The People’s Theatre for the Great Festival of the North in 2019; Newcastle Corn Riots songs including the ‘Ballad of Geordie Barleycorn’.
The 4 Corners Songspot holds the music composed and recorded with Richard Scott in 4 Corners Music.
TUNESMITHS is a SoundCloud site run by a handful of composers who set each of composing tasks on a regular basis. Ken is a founder member with ten years of tunes composed. Some of these are folk oriented songs and have since been used in other contexts e.g. The Duergar of Rothbury, The Magic Ointment. Chocolate Box Heroine was written for a Grace Darling production song competition. There are folk dance tunes, film themes, Shakespeare sonnets, street tunes, pop songs, Christmas songs, Latin Instrumentals etc. etc.
Ceilidh Tunes Folk Dance
Monday Night at the Ship was played by Pineapple Agogo for the Bradford Barn Dance, and Ken has a memory of writing and has old handwritten scores, but the origins are hazy. Breckenbeds Jig written for Breckenbeds Ceilidh Band in 1998. 222,33 riffing tunes: Balkanicty & La boggeria de gener, Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness, The Sidehead Waltz 2014 was used by John Cobb in his Capability Brown production. Spagniola Tarantella 2016. A recent slip jig is Padibagel. And Bloy Hora 2021. Malloreddus Picante, 2023.
Latin Tunes Bossa o Alvorecer, Tango Caragol, Tango for Modern Lovers, Lemon Merengue Pie
Shakespeare Darling Buds of May, Sonnet 73, Greasy Joan
Ambient / textural / abstract / film themes, Solitary Seal, 2012, Holy Island Ryan 2021, The Second Wave, 2023, Blue Bouquet, 2012, La Cagouille dans la Pluie
SONG & TUNE ARCHIVE
With Caedmon:
1978 on the eponymous Caedmon album: Ten Maidens Fair, Maker Man, also, from this era, Flower and Worlds and Friends,
2009 Chicken to Hug: Waltzing Home, Time Files, Childless, Ouagdougou
2014 (Solo track) in Acid Folk style Danse Macabre
2019 RARE: Sky Song, Mustard Seed, Peace
2021 Single: Yorkshire Pud and Gravy
Streetband Tunes:
Fish Festival Theme written for the North Shields Fish Festival and played here by The Pineapples 1988
National Streetband Festival Theme 1990 for May Day March Gateshead / Newcastle
Cha Cha Cha Pineapples 1987 (with Bridget Enever)
Hep Taxi (1995) was written for the band of the same name.
Funk 57 1995 10th Avenue 1995
Tyne Times 2005, (repeated for Sage Gateshead 2008 with songs), looks to historical themes: a voyage in time down river from the Tyne’s source in the Pennines and rural pre-industrial days to the Victorian industry of Newcastle, the Great Fire, the arrival of railways, then the demise of trade and empty wharfs and quays losing their importance and links with the Baltic, London and beyond. Designed to be learnt in one workshop with elements of improvisation and audience participation.
Skareg for Stainburn Steel Panners (Workington) commissioned by Cumbria Jazz 2000
Metamorphosis commissioned by the Cutting Loose Festival 2014, Newton Aycliffe Played here by Jazz in My Pants
Cumbia Carnaval written for Meze Mundo 2015
Cut Loose 2023, Beat the Heat Beguine / Finnegins Beguine Again 2023, assembled from the memory of a tune that The Peace Artistes used to play. Gurdy Carnival
Ken Patterson 