From Felpham to Beachy Head
Brilliant Rays of Arrowy Light
Music for Orchestra of Sound and Light workshops by Ed Hughes, June 2025
Resources - feel free to use and adapt
Five pieces of music that respond to ideas in the poem Beachy Head by Charlotte Smith:
1. Beauty of nature (sunrise)
2. Striving (e.g. fishing boats, a ship of commerce on the horizon)
3. Conflict (e.g. borders, invasion, war)
4. Reconciliation (e.g. the peace and understanding that follow conflict)
5. Beauty of nature (sunset)
How this material could be used
1. As basic starting points for key, structure, pacing, tempos, time signatures in new songs/pieces of music by the students
2. As material that can be cut up and used to provide themes and ideas (but developed differently)
3. As intro and/or as bridge passages between new songs/pieces of music
4. As core songs/pieces of music that can be simply played, adapted, re-orchestrated (for example students could change the instruments to produce fresh timbres, add beat, add percussion, change dynamics, change articulations etc)
5. As songs/pieces of music that can be performed live and/or in combination with tech (e.g. sequencers)
6. As songs/pieces of music that can be used for dance or film interludes (e.g. sections between
7. As songs/pieces of music that can be adapted and performed by the students themselves, or by the OSL (e.g. as interludes or bridge passages), or by the students and the OSL together
8. Any or all of the above or in combination including with tech/sequencer, or none of the above! (In other words feel free to produce completely new material!)