Liona Boyd 2-Book Bundle. Liona Boyd

for several other familiar carols, which were pretty skimpy on melodic material, was to write original music and weave it into the best-known Christmas melodies. Sitting on my living room couch, I wrote “Fantasy on Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” and an original piece using “Good King Wenceslas” that actually only quotes seven notes from the famous English carol before veering off into a soulful, romantic melody plucked simply from my imagination. I loved creating new themes out of the blue and developing them little by little, occasionally adding hints from other carols such as my brief reference to “O Tannenbaum” in “Alone on Christmas Day.” Sometimes I combined two songs, as I did with “The Huron Carol” and “Coventry Carol.” It always seemed a miracle to me that I could come up with completely original melodies, and I remain convinced that if I had the time and opportunity to just sit still and write beautiful melodies, I could compose several a day. I remember telling this to my former husband, Jack, but the realities of life do not allow for this indulgence, and sometimes I think to myself, Does the world really need another melody or lyric? I consider myself to be a non-ego-driven realist, so the answer is obviously “no,” yet writing original music has always been an immensely satisfying part of my career.

      I am an instinctive composer and believe that my lack of any advanced compositional training actually works with, rather than against, my creativity. I know that my producer and collaborator, Peter, composes his unique arrangements in the same way. For him it is usually trial and error, experimenting with different sounds, combinations of sounds, blends of traditional instruments, and more abstract sounds and reverbs that are not always part of the standard orchestral palette. We both let ourselves be guided by the emotional attraction of certain notes and harmonies, and thus we often break the traditional rules. But that is precisely when the unexpected magic can happen. Several great film composers, such as Hans Zimmer and Vangelis, create their amazing music in spite of having had no formal training, and it is also well known that Irving Berlin, who wrote hit after hit, could not read or write a single note!

      In May I also wrote, of all things, a sports anthem called “For the Love of the Game,” for which I hired Carl Dixon to record vocals. I had hopes of getting it into the Pan Am Games, but without strong connections to the organizers of such an event, I was unsuccessful, so it remains in my collection of unreleased songs.