Metamorphia by Jon Pickard

1. Beating Heart - Largely inspired by the ideas of Stephen Harrod Buhner, who writes that the human heart is far more than just a pumping organ. He states it is also a multi-sensory organ that communicates emotional intelligence both internally and externally. Hence the preoccupation of poets, romantics and ancient peoples with 'matters of the heart'. Also by the need to cherish and savor the precious moments and people in our lives, while our hearts still beat.

2. Scallywag's Breakfast - This tune was sparked off by my daughter (aged 4 at the time) tapping rhythms on her breakfast bowl, leading to many meal time shinanigans. This tune is an attempt to capture some of the many moods and mindsets that a young child can and will go through in the space of just a few minutes. Actual breakfast bowls included.

3. The Princess And The Walnut - A tale of metamorphosis organically grown from the true story of a Princess who became a Queen, who one day in a famous garden planted a small walnut, which grew to become a great tree. Both Queen and tree grew to be old and famous and eventually the tree was destroyed by a storm and was cut up for timber. Some of this timber was bought decades later by a guitar maker and crafted into my beautiful 23 string harp guitar. The moral being that we can never know how our actions will play out, everything we do sends ripples into the future. The gardens were at Kew, and the Princess's name was Victoria.


The Herm Trilogy - a suite for Harp Guitar in 3 movements.

4. i. St. Tugual's Retreat - For many centuries the Island of Herm (Channel Isles) was a monastic retreat, inhabited only by monks and a few farmers. It's beaches and landscape were a quiet place for prayer, solitude and spiritual contemplation. This tune attempts to capture the mood of that period of the island's history.

5. ii. The Old Spine Road - On the dusty road along the top of the island you are surrounded on all sides by sea views and on a foggy day by the sound of several fog horns, which sound their musical notes across the waters to warn sailors about the treacherous rocks. If you listen carefully you may hear reference to some of those notes in this tune.

6. iii. Tides At Alderney Point - At the Northern tip of Herm a long spit of sand and rock points to the island of Alderney. At low tide a vast expanse of soft sand gives a feeling of absolute peace and stillness. As the tides gather an energy builds, and at high tide mesmeric currents flow in all directions between the rocks. This tune depicts the journey from low tide, to high and back again.


Two Irish Folk Tunes
7. Bonny Portmore - A traditional Irish folk song about another great tree once legendary then lost, and also the demise of Ireland's ancient oak forests. The Great Oak of Portmore, or Portmore Ornament Tree stood near Portmore Castle in county Antrim, but was lost to a storm in 1760. Its timber was used for building ships that then travelled the world carrying passengers forward to new worlds and adventures.

8. Down By The Salley Gardens (Yeats / Britten) - Originally titled "An Old Song Re-Sung" this is a tune with an evolution of its own. It comes from a poem published in 1889 by W.B. Yeats who said it was an attempt to reconstruct an old folk song that he heard a peasant woman singing. It has been set to music by several composers but it was Benjamin Britten's version that is best known today. This combination has been covered by many musicians through the years - and now also on Harp Guitar.


Two tunes for 6 string guitar

9. Bells Beneath The Waves (Tales From The Mermaid) - Ancient legends speak of a tiny chapel built when sea levels were lower on a large rock just off Herm, which was destroyed by earthquake in the 8th Century. Do the waves hide the remains of this chapel? The only surviving evidence to this possibility is a strange rock pierced with a hole - however local folklore says that this was the site of a mermaid market, where mermaids were tethered to the pierced rock before being sold at auction.

10. Coming Home - This tune was conceived as I returned home to my family after a long journey. I couldn't wait to see their faces again and feel their hugs, and a happy tune played across my mind. For a long time I played this just as a solo guitar piece, but for this recording I have added a piano part - for extra sparkle but also because the piano is where my musical journey began as a child so in a sense that too is like coming home.

As a musician Jon Pickard has morphed over the years through pianist / electronic synth / jazz drummer / rock guitarist / jazz pianist / classical guitarist, and most recently harp-guitarist.

Life is a diverse journey with new vistas to be found at every turn, and music is at the heart of it all.

Here is to the next leg of the journey!

jonpickard.co.uk