‘The Music of the Stars’ musical (2024) – The album for a new musical
‘The Music of the Stars’ is an album of 22 songs & music pieces with a rich mixture of styles from chamber music to pop-rock as well as music hall numbers. Arrangements for flute, clarinet, oboe and cello as well as piano ballads and jazz infused pieces reflect this diverse musical journey.
The album ‘The Music of the Star’ (the journey of a musical) is out on 31St May
This is a magical encounter of a Prince and a Pilot and their deepening trust and friendship. It’s a story of a Prince and his love for his Rose as well as the weird and wonderful people he meets on his travels. At the heart of his travels lies the meeting and friendship with a Fox who teaches the Prince that it is “only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry). He learns that ‘it takes time to tame and then be tamed / and then discover in time each other’ (Song of the Fox)
The Pilot discovers his own inner child and learns to see the world with renewed eyes. For him this encounter in the desert is a ‘time to blossom’. At the end of the story, he says farewell to the Prince in the desert. One precious thing remains inside him that keeps him company after the Prince returns to this planet: the stars above him now sound like the joyful laughter of the Prince.
This album combines original music and songs from my musical ‘The Prince and the Rose’ (1998) with new music and arrangements.
Recorded and mixed at Blue Moon Rec Studio, Florence March – September 2023
Track Listing for Album
- Time to Blossom*
- Overture to The Music of the Stars
- Night Flight
- Song of the Boa
- Sunset Theme (cello: Gabriele Fioritti Flute: Emily Woodroof Oboe: Maurizio Cangi )
- Melody of Flight
- The Tending theme
- Feeling so confused (with Marie Delfino)
- Time to leave
- The Grand Tour
- Raise Your Hat (with Brenda Roepke and Yedidya K. A. Koffi)
- Mr Sunshine *
- The Businessman Blues *
- Song of the Geographer (with Jonathon Shakelford)
- The lamps of Night and Day
- My Rose sleeps tonight (with Marie Delfino)
- This love inside (with Natia Lortkiphanidze)
- We Wanna Dance *
- Song of the Fox (with Martina Magionami & Marie Delfino)
- Snake bite
- Time to leave (with Samuele Cangi)
- The music of the stars
Keyboards, Clarinet and Vocals: Peter Dulborough
* Time to Blossom – Recording engineer; Guitars and percussion: Matteo Castrati
* Chorus vocals: Clare Lillingston, Betsy Burke, Celia Bickersteth, Natia Lortkiphanidze,
Marta Righetti, Brenda Roepke, Yedidya K. A. Koffi
Guitars and horns: Samuele Cangi
Drums: Tommaso Giuliani
Recording Engineers: Samuele Cangi and Tommaso Giuliani.
Mastering: Tea Room Niccolò Caldini
Time to Blossom (2023)
‘Time to Blossom’ was recorded at Mad Jaguars studio in Florence with engineer and multi-talented musician/arranger Matteo Castrati.
The song reflects the isolation people feel from each other and their own emotions. The inspiration came from a sign in my father’s house. It was probably put in the window of a house during the blitz of London in the Second World War to show there was room in the family shelter for anyone stranded in an air raid. The sign reads ‘if the siren goes you are welcome here’. The ‘shelter’ we give to each other lies at the heart of this song. Finding a safe space to breathe and a time to blossom.
This theme and the need for acceptance evolved during the recording process thanks to the guidance and intuition of Matteo. As I was singing the chorus, I felt an emotion of fragility and realized how our inner child needs protection and shelter.
I understood that this song belongs to my musical about the Little Prince, ‘The Music of the stars’. I re-wrote the last verse with the lines ‘the safety of the desert skies guides you through the night.’ The Pilot and Prince of ‘The Little Prince’ story took on a new meaning.
As well as welcoming our inner child, a key theme is welcoming the full range of emotions we feel inside ourselves and accepting them so we can find healing.
“It’s time for you to blossom / It’s time for you to heal
Embrace emotions, good and bad / Accept the way you feel “
As I was listening to the final studio recording through speakers, I found an unexpected connection with my late father. I was moved by two guitar solos that interweave in the bridge part of the song. I felt they represented my father and myself. They reminded me of the shelter and closeness of our own relationship.
The emotions in this song are expressed beautifully in a poignant animated video created by Chiara Pirovano. Chiara is a wonderful photographer, artist and web designer who also created my website. In the video, images of war and wasteland provide the context for a story of a boy and a pilot who face loss and isolation and find reconciliation and transformation.
I am deeply grateful to both Matteo and Chiara for their support and inspiration as well as their amazing talents which led to the blossoming of this song and video.
From Afar’ (2022) - A song that inspired ‘The Music of the Stars’
The song ‘From Afar’ gave me the inspiration to return to my musical ‘The Prince and Rose’, which I’d written more than 20 years before. This musical based on ‘The Little Prince’ by Antoine De Saint Exupéry was performed in 1998 in Empoli and in 1999 in Florence in Italy.
In April 2022 I was recording a new song at Blue Moon studio called ‘From Afar’ with ‘La Marti’ (Martina Magionami) and SoundZanobi. From this experience I found a new direction and inspiration to create a new and revised version of my musical and album called ‘The Music of the Stars
‘From Afar’ co-written with La Marti became an experiment in sound. I enjoyed setting the scene with piano and organ moods. La Marti was inspired in creating a beautiful tapestry of guitars and sublime vocals that glide effortlessly through the skies with starry assurance in a moving and mesmerizing performance.
The song was recorded in April 2022 but not released til 2024.
‘From Afar’ was not written with any reference to the Little Prince, but the recording suggested depths of intimacy and wonder. There were parallels too with a Pilot and his story of a Prince from a star and the music and inspiration ‘from afar’.
The time is right
After 25 years later, it seemed the time was right to revisit the old ‘planet’ of my musical. I found new vision and made changes and composed some new songs and music. This time I decided to write the script myself to present a full original project for a future musical production and collaboration called ‘The Music of the Stars’
From ‘Planet Sound’ to ‘Blue Moon’ studio.
I returned to the same studio in Florence where I had originally recorded the musical 25 years before. Then called ‘Planet Sound’, it was now Blue Moon studio and had new management and engineers.
I met Samuele Cangi and Tommaso Giuliani – two exceptional and inspirational musicians and engineers. They recorded this new album of songs and music with me and helped me develop the full potential of every song and piece to the full. I also felt the spirit of former owner and engineer Stefano Lugli. It was a magical time as I re-recorded songs and music from 25 years before and found new ideas and inspiration.
‘The Prince and the Rose’ musical 1998
I first read this book in French in Reims in 1992, but it was 5 years later my wife suggested I write a song about the Fox. From this point I started to develop a full musical.
‘The Prince and the Rose’ was an original musical in English by Ann Davies (script) and myself (music). It was first performed at the Shalom Theatre in Empoli, near Florence in May 1998, and then revised and put on stage a year later in 1999 in the library of ‘The British Insitute of Florence’.
The musical was freely adapted from “The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint Exupéry and was set in contemporary London. It was performed in aid of charity with a total of 24 songs and instrumental pieces were scored for piano, flute, clarinet, cello and guitars.
The Little Prince – a book for our times
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint Exupéry is more than just a story for children. It is a wonderfully subtle, wry and profound account of the complexities of human relationships and emotions. It touches universal themes such as loneliness and alienation and as well as the nature of friendship and love.
The Little Prince has bizarre and bewildering encounters with a power obsessed King, an unhappy drunk, a self-centred conceited man, a pompous Geographer and a contorted thinking Businessman. All these portray characters who are familiar to our contemporary world. They seem fictional but are not that far removed from our own society. They are parodies of certain human traits and the strangeness of human behaviour.
The central theme of friendship and need for gradual taming and growth in intimacy lies at the heart of this story and our production. The belief in a gradual trust that develops between two people and the growth of a unique and special relationship with someone whom we ‘tame’ and to whom we then become ‘responsible’. This theme is portrayed through the encounter between the Fox and the Prince. ‘We are responsible for those we love’ is the message of the central passages and the truth that ‘it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye’.