Colin Decio Composer & Pianist
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CD & DVD

Cotswold Songs CD
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Cotswold Songs CD - front
Cotswold Songs CD back cover pic
Cotswold Songs CD - back
​"The album (Cotswold Songs CD) presents a breadth and strength not commonly found in contemporary recordings”. 
“Powerful and thought provoking."  - 
“…simple childlike beauty.”

Musician (Union) Magazine
Buy CD from SOUNZ $25
'One fine Sunday I came across a little book of poems in a Malvern bookshop entitled Tides by Dymock poet John Drinkwater. On reading the poems I was immediately able to hear them to music and set about composing a new song-cycle of seven songs for high voice and piano. 
As several Gloucestershire place names (such as Rodborough, Campden, Stow, Apperley & Gloucester) are mentioned in the poem Cotswold Love, I decided to title the song-cycle Cotswold Songs.'  Colin

The Cotswold Songs CD contains two song-cycles - Cotswold Songs & Character Songs, together with single songs - Flowers (poem by DH Lawrence), The Headless Bird (poem by Nikki McBeth) and The Black Sun (poem by Osip Mandelstam).

Two piano works also included - The Jews of Old Prague, and Waltz (from Piano Sonata No.1)​


​
​Track listing:
  1. Cotswold Songs: Old Crow   (listen to Old Crow on YouTube)
  2. Cotswold Songs: Day
  3. Cotswold Songs: May Garden
  4. Cotswold Songs: The Lechers
  5. Cotswold Songs: Plough & Cotswold Love
  6. Cotswold Songs: Venus in Arden
  7. Flowers*
  8. The Jews of Old Prague (Piano Solo)
  9. Character Songs: Wearing a Happy Hat
  10. Character Songs: The Spinning Wheel
  11. Character Songs: Unlucky One Eyed Jack
  12. Character Songs: I Wandered Along by the Waterside
  13. The Headless Bird
  14. The Black Sun
  15. Waltz (Piano Solo)
​CD Review
Cotswold Songs By Colin Decio

Decio.Beech duo
"This new recording of Colin Decio songs and piano music provides us with 60 minutes of sublime music and listening. Performed by Soprano, Evelyne Beech with Colin Decio at the piano, this fine collection of new songs and piano works give an insight to the great talent of Decio the composer. All the songs are beautifully interpreted by Evelyne Beech whose bright timbre and clear diction allows you to experience the fullness of the poetry as well as Decio's imaginative musical line. 
Colin applies his natural style to the composition of pastoral English song, evident in his Cotswold Songs, from which the CD takes its title, and brings colour to the poetry of John Drinkwater, taken from the collection Tides (1917). Whilst Colin may acknowledge being inspired by Holst and Britten his compositions remain distinctly Decio and characteristically bear the hallmark of his Anglo-Ukrainian roots, which he incorporates to great effect not only in his songs, ~Black Sun, but also in his piano ~Jews of Old Prague, and orchestral works (featured elsewhere). 
Flowers is an exceptional piece, set to extracts of Flowers by DH Lawrence, Decio has cleverly brought together its many facets; interlinked by recurrent motets it challenges the range of the voice with good result and creates a real tour de force. 
His cycle of character songs, Wearing a Happy Hat, The Spinning Wheel, Unlucky One-Eyed Jack, I wandered along by the waterside, introduce some charming folk traditions whilst firmly retaining the Decio vision to create a delightfully quirky collection. Evelyne's voice is fresh and beguiling throughout, adapting beautifully to the different moods of the songs. 
Decio's tribute to John Ogden, Waltz stands alone, premiered by the man himself during the 80s, it is the culmination of Colin's imagination and talent as a composer and Colin's sensitivity and skill as a pianist - An excellent collection indeed."
Perry (Artist Management)
September 2004   ​

In 2020 Creative New Zealand supported the recording of two DVDs capturing three one-hour programmes of piano & poetry.
​The performances were recorded at St. Andrews on the Terrace, Wellington, on a Steinway piano. 
​
​Colin Decio - piano, Ingrid Prosser - poetry
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Piano & Poetry DVDs excerpt on YouTube
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DVD1 - Piano & Poetry
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Buy dvd1 from Sounz $30
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music by: JS Bach (Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring), Haydn (1st mvt. of Sonata no.38), Beethoven (1st mvt. of Moonlight Sonata), Chopin (Grande Valse Brillante), Grieg (Wedding Day at Troldhaugen), Sinding (Rustle of Spring), Joplin (The Entertainer), Decio (Ragged Time) and Gershwin (Summertime)

poems by: Wordsworth (Daffodils), Leigh Hunt (Abou Ben Adhem), WB Yeats (The Song of Wandering Aengus) and Ingrid Prosser (Winter Stars & Winter Peace).
​DVD 1 ​(54 minutes)
​Programme 1 - A mixture of classical and lighter piano music with details of the lives of some of the composers, interspersed with well-known, and original poetry performed by performance poet Ingrid Prosser.

​Includes the inaugural recording of 
Ragged Time by Colin Decio, four piano rags composed in deference to Scott Joplin.
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View DVD extracts on YouTube

DVD2 - Piano & Poetry
DVD 2 (60 + 56 mins)
Programmes 2 and 3 - The music begins in the Renaissance and finishes in the 21st century, with music composed by Colin. The poetry, performed by performance poet Ingrid Prosser, includes well-known classics and lesser known poems.
buy dvd2 from sounz $50
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Programme 2
music by: Byrd, Haydn, Debussy (La Cathedral Engloutie), Satie (Gnossiennes I - III), Ravel, Rakhmaninov (Prelude in D); plus Moonlight Serenade & As Time Goes By.

poems by: Shakespeare (Sonnet no.18), Ingrid Prosser (The Grey Sentinels), Robert Frost & WB Yeats (The Lake Isle of Innisfree).

Programme 3
music by: JS Bach, Haydn, Beethoven (Adagio mvt. Pathetique Sonata), Holst, Debussy (Clair de Lune), Poulenc and Decio (Prelude for Anne Frank and Miniatures).

poems by: EE Cummings, Ingrid Prosser (Tewkesbury, Kereru and White Bird), Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken), Rudyard Kipling (The Way Through the Woods), William Blake, Shakespeare & WB Yeats.

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                 View DVD extracts on YouTube
Listen to an interview with Ingrid Prosser
​(host of Kapiti Poets) on

Focus on Arts radio programme
- Kapiti Access Radio
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  • Home
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