Greetings Friends
We had a great night at Rockwood 3 on Friday. A real nice turn out and an intense show.
One new piece I tried out was a kind of Meditation on Life on Mars. I was working on the DB Tribute for the Brit Awards show and around the same time listening to a beautiful piece by Arvo Part, one of my favorite composers of modern classical music and his Cantus for Benjamin Britten in particular . Anyhow I was then inspired by Davids composition of Life on Mars. I discovered that it has a descending half step line all through out, also most like a classical piece and I wanted to develope a study to illustrate this. You will hear that the piece starts out quite spare and simple like a prelude, or an omen of something forthcoming but soon takes some interesting turns if you stick with it.
You can listen below. I posted one with the spoken introduction which kind of sets the scene, and one with just the music if you want to just get to the music straightaway.
Anyhow , I hope you like it…
Spoken Introduction Version
Music Only Version
And the Arvo Part masterpiece …Cantus in memory of Benjamin-Britten, which of course is light years ahead of my little study …
G e r r y L e o n a r d 
Reblogged this on David Bowie Is and commented:
Когда музыка плачет. На концерте Джерри Леонард играет фантазию на тему Life On Mars. Он пишет о том, что готовя трибьют Дэвиду для Britt Awards, он слушал Арво Пярта “Cantus” в память о Бенджамине Бриттене и обнаружил, что в этой композиции нисходящее движение по ступянм натурального лада Ля минор очень напоминает отрывок из Life On Mars. Своим исполнением он постарался это проиллюстрировать.
Gerry, you are awesome. I follow all that you get up to with immense interest and enjoyment. Thanks for everything
Fantastic
Cantus in memory of Benjamin-Britten exquisitely expresses the kind of pathos one might feel in the wake of Bowie’s absence. It works with a sentiment that Bowie seems not to have had until Blackstar.