Horizons (book)
‘Horizons’ contains 200 original tunes across 168 pages (some in colour) and is available, beautifully presented, sewn, on ivory coloured paper, with gold foil blocking withra soft card cover.
Gavin has been a prolific composer over the years and this first book is a bit of an anthology, with everything he has written that has been recorded by either himself or others. This includes work with Iron Horse, Cantrip, Burach, Up In The Air, Bellevue Rendezvous, The Unusual Suspects, the Traverse Theatre and the book’s companion CD ‘The Long Road and The Far Horizons’.
Further, there are tunes that have been performed with bands, used in theatre shows or passed around in sessions etc but not been released on CD. Finally, there are about 70 tunes that have never been released into the public sphere before. It is presented as a fiddle music book, topline melody with bowings and ornamentation (a small number of the slower tunes are given with harmony parts and chords), although there is no reason why players of other instruments wouldn’t get a lot out of it too.
The tunes range from very simple to really quite challenging. It is divided into sections: Airs, Waltzes and Mazurkas; Jigs; Marches, Hornpipes, Two Steps and Polkas; Strathspeys and Reels; Medleys; and Curiosities and Inspirations (this last section including tunes in varying time signatures and modes that couldn’t be classified in any of the above). As well as the tunes there are photos, images, instruction and anecdotes to help with the who, why, where, how and when of the music. ‘Horizons’ is the first of the Journeyman Collection and it is planned to expand with subsequent volumes.