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Young composer pens first film soundtrack
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A UNIVERSITY student is set to have a film soundtrack he has written, played lived by a big band in a unique event.
David Sims, who lives in Maulden but attends the University of York, has written a film soundtrack, which has been influenced by Bedford and the demise of village life after popular pub The George Inn closed in Maulden.
David, who is studying music, is a member of the Simultation Big Band, and this year he has been heading up the group and trying to take the music in a different direction.
He has now organised an event, taking place on March 8 where the band will be playing David’s songs to silent film The Last of England by Derek Jarman.
The 20-year-old composer said: “Every year somebody takes over the running of the band, so this year I have been running it. This is the probably the biggest event we have ever done. I decided to do it to get back to that silent film era, made current again by The Artist.
“I want to explore a different side to big band music, we’ve been trying to play music that gets away from the traditional swing music and introduces a slightly more edgier, rockier tone.”
David spent around three months writing the nine songs for the soundtrack, which will be performed live for the first time by the Simultation Big Band.
Former Bedford Modern School student David said: “There is a recurring theme through the whole soundtrack of Bedford and specifically growing up in Maulden, I have lived there for 18 years so I have seen it change a lot over the years. The whole Last of England thing is based on the decline of the traditional English village, exacerbated by the closure of The George Inn, lack of community spirit and development of greenbelt land. This is not explicit in my work, but inferred by what I am writing.”
He added: “When I started at uni and people asked me where I was from, I would say Bedfordshire and hardly anyone knew where it was, so that got me thinking.”
The soundtrack also includes a jazz re-harmonisation of the John Bunyan hymn To Be A Pilgrim.
The event is taking place at 7.30pm at the uni campus.
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Monday 28 May 2012
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