Composer and Musician
EUAN MCCANDLESS
Composer & Musician
ABOUT
An accomplished and diverse musician working in multiple styles and forces, currently studying a Masters in Music at Trinity Laban. A talented composer, Euan has completed work for solo piano, piano and solo instruments, SATB choral work, original compositions for 4 piece pop group as well as working as an arranger and orchestrator.
His work is exploratory in more than musical terms, inspired by composers like Feldman and Xenakis, covering themes in geometry and perception. Euan is also experienced and knowledgable in more commercial music; covering pop, rock, hip hop and world music. Euan also boasts an eclectic performance portfolio including commercial keyboard, classical and contemporary piano, symphonic double bass and has contributed to many works as a choral singer.
Services
Interested in learning a musical skill?
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Euan is available as a pianist for private tuition, offering piano, music theory and composition lessons for absolute beginners and upwards.
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Learn and play a series of musical genres such as Baroque, Classical and Modern
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Ability to develop high class technique
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Music Theory and Composition development
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Confidence in being taught by an industry professional who offers over 15 years of playing experience
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Affordable rates
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Accessible learning via zoom, FaceTime, Teams or Discord
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Available for beginners and upwards!
For further details please get in touch via the contact me form below or drop me an email!
In Progress Works
01
The Sonic Identity
The Sonic Identity of Regular Polytopes in Higher Dimensions. A six-movement piece for two pianos, expressing shapes which we are unable to perceive.
02
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones
A cycle of various music, based on a collection of Zen stories compiled by Paul Reps.
03
Shape Lessons
Shape Lessons, arranged for solo keyboard. An arrangement of Casey Cangelosi’s “Shape Lessons”.
COMPOSITION
A wholistic composer, taking every aspect of life as an element in his compositions.
EXPERIENCE
Not the 9 to 5 Podcast (2023)
When Everyone Talks Once (2023)
Perspective Technique (2023)
Autopsychography (2022)
Adventure! (2021)
HipHopWarzone (2021)
Puzzle Chill (2021)
Hypercube 2 (2020)
Jospeh, Son of David, Fear not the Son of God SAB, written for the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (2018)
Ruins, Bridge, River TBBB, written for the Sound of the Ferens (2017)
Nunc Dimittis & Magnificat treble choir (2017)
The Sun Arises in the East SATB (2016)
Haunted Shack, a piece for Tulley’s Farm scare maze, (2015)
Tunnel Noise, debut, Hull University (2015)
Music Score written for Parallel Lines Film (2014)
Music Score written for Home Sweet Home (2010)
The Magic Mark Show (2010)
Hypercube 2
Hypercube 2 is the second incarnation of the second movement of The Sonic Identity of Regular Polytopes in Higher Dimensions. This version borrows heavily from an earlier work, Tunnel Noise, while still keeping strictly to the brief.
I’d rewritten out the tone groups but kept the piece for two pianos, except this time one would be tuned a quarter tone higher.
In a live performance (if needed) electric pianos would be used, as are heard in the final project. These tone groups did not use a projected 3D shape inside a dodecahedron, but instead I labelled each of the shared vertices 1-16, then started on C and worked up two octaves till I got to D. These shared vertices of course have lines leading to other vertices, a cube has 3 lines per vertex, so the hypercube has 4 per vertex.
I set myself the task of writing 4 different patterns of notes, using the 16 tone groups, for a total of 64 fragments of music. I then varied the notes attributed to the lines connected to each vertices with the piano tuned a quarter tone higher, keeping the note attributed to the vertex unaltered. Each of these variants is repeated 4 times.
Having done this, I then found myself with over three hours of music. I wanted a piece of a similar length to the first movement, so I had to rethink what I had been left with. I liked how any length of music could be custom tailored to any duration a listener desires by designing it for an installation, just like in Tunnel Noise. Since this piece was written during the pandemic of 2020, I decided to try and make this my first ever digital installation.
I contacted a friend who works as a game developer and designer to see if he could help me out, together we created a digital space for a virtual hypercube to exist in, creating points in sound which the listener could then explore by piloting themselves through that space.
Hybercube 2
Sing, with the Speaker in the Piano
Body, Again and Again
"Spoons"
Meditation and Conduction Amplifier
Sketches & New Music
FEATURED WORKS
Portfolio of Work Outlined
MAGNIFICAT AND NUNC DIMITTIS
An original setting of the sacred text, written for three treble voices. Drawing influences from Pärt and Purcell whilst maintaining heavy individuality, this piece is designed to be approachable by younger minds and voices, whilst keeping thoroughly engaged to the listener.
“JOSEPH, SON OF DAVID, FEAR NOT THE SON OF GOD”
A carol commissioned by James Marr for The Christmas Choir of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for the Christmas concert of 2018, with original text by the composer. A fusion of traditional western sacred Christmas music with modern pop elements, written for SAT with piano accompaniment.
ISEULT
A short solo piano piece inspired by Bártok, a combination of exploration, technical ability and experimentation.
RECONCILE
Commissioned by Francesca Marago for 2016’s “The Queen’s New Dress”in partnership with The University of Portsmouth, written for three voices with backing band accompaniment.
MODERN VOICE
Modern Voice explores the use of vocal techniques and stylistic approaches in both dedicated vocal pieces, voice as part of an ensemble and voice as an effect. During my final year of my undergraduate course I started singing in many ensembles and choirs.This lead to writing mainly for vocalists but, primarily a male voice quartet. This lead on to an interest in extended vocal techniques, particularly sub-harmonic and polyphonic styles of singing. During that time I used those techniques in arrangements where they were established as a norm: subharmonic in quasi-Russian orthodox music and polyphonic singing in psudeo-Tuvan throat singing. In this project I wanted to take these techniques, and myself, outside of their usual territories. A large majority of my writing before this project was in Latin, this was because I found the standardised approach to the pronunciation appealing. In the pursuit of developing my vocal writing, I took the decision to approach the lyrical content within this research in English. This has its own set of challenges past text setting, such as pronunciation, dialect and intent.
RUINS, BRIDGE, RIVER
An a capella work in three short movements for TBBB. Each movement explores a different aspect of religious music and was written for the “Sound of the Ferrens” event held at the Ferrens art gallery in Hull. It's debut performance featured a promenade and the piece itself includes extended vocal techniques.
THE SUN, ARISING IN THE EAST
An original piece of music with text by George Herbert, combining traditional Hymn with complex polyphony.
CORAM BOY
A breathless tale of abandonment, music and love. Featuring a diverse cast of 26, specially composed music by Colin Guthrie, and the musicianship of the superb virtuoso violinist Kate Conway, Coram Boy will transport you to a dark 18th century England where children were born and sold, and futures made or broken. With powerful storytelling interwoven with movement, music and choral singing, this production is playing for two weeks in London before travelling to perform in the stunning Minack Theatre, Cornwall.
WHEN EVERYONE TALKS AT ONCE
An original composition of new work for stage play When Everyone Talks at Once by John Corbyn. Directed by OFFI award winning director Laurel Marks. Produced by Melon and Spud Productions.
NOT THE 9 TO 5 PODCAST
A fun upbeat jingle composed for an upcoming podcast all about the freelance lifestyle. Not the 9 to 5 is a podcast for freelancers by freelancers and can be found on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
SOUND, SPACE, PERSPECTIVE
LUDIC MUSIC
I had set about starting a suite of pieces informed by shapes in higher dimensions. This led me into thinking a lot about perspective within a space. At the same time as I was studying with Rob Mackay, who works a lot with installation and field recording. My goal with this topic was to continue my work in regards to sound, space and perspective whilst also widening what musics consider these aspects, as well as the aspects themselves.
Which was Alternative Objective Music, which was Music as Game, is an idea I had been toying with for a long time but only came into being during the my first year of my Masters Degree. Most,
if not all, music has the objective of reaching the end. That is when the piece finishes. I wanted to create musics which have a goal other than the end of the piece. This ties in with many thoughts I
have had about practice and the levels at which an audience can engage with music.