YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT BYTE-TOWN.CA
GOOD FOR YOU! It must be one of your lucky days. We hope you’ll have many more.

This is the website of Byte-town Fyfer. It lists the few currently available musical and other works of Sjef Frenken. If you want to know a bit more about him, click on BIO. But he won’t mind if you don’t.

HEADLINES:

It took more than a year from start to finish, but the third CD in the series SONGS FOR THE INNER CHILD is now available: 40 songs written by Sjef Frenken to the marvelous poetry of Walter de la Mare, one of England's great poets of the 20th century. Like the other CDs in the series before it, it contains music that on the one hand appeals to youngsters, and on the other hand has enough musical as well as intellectual meat to be appreciated by adults. Some samples are provided on the MUSIC page. Check them out!

Work has begun in the studio on the fourth CD in the series: musical settings of 16 poems written by Edward Lear, the man who more than anyone is responsible for the popularity of the limerick. These songs are not limericks; in fact some are rather lengthy. Most likely the small handful of musicians for this enterprise will again be drawn from the Aomezeyck Ensemble. The composer is once again singing the songs himself.

A note about the concept behind the series SONGS FOR THE INNER CHILD: Ever since 1962, Sjef Frenken has searched out the best in English-language poetry for children for the purposes of setting these gems to music. Most of these verses date from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, when children of the well-to-do were reared by nannies whose tasks included introducing their charges to the world of poetry. And while these poems were written for youngsters, there's lots of material that will appeal to adults: recollections of their own youth as well as poignant and beautiful language from the pens of some of the world's greatest wordsmiths.

The collection of songs totals more than 250 so far. After the release of the Lear CD in 2012, there will still be more than 150 songs left to record. The composer's hope is to live long enough to finish the task.

NOTE:
While David Simmonds and Sjef Frenken had hoped to present the next installment in their annual concert series sometime in 2011, it was not to be; they'll have to skip a year: medical exigencies have prevailed. We'll let you know when the event will be held in 2012. And where: Wellington or Ottawa.

PAST NEWS (usually called History):

THE CONCERT AT WELLINGTON 2009
As you may have read here before, the trio-manqué of Frenken and Simmonds, assisted by bassist Doug Wicken, gave its fourth annual concert (their own songs in round-robin format) on 25 April 2009. On short notice, Lorain Sine and Eric Pilgrim, two singers well-known in the Prince Edward County area, volunteered their services to substitute for the terminally ailing third member of the trio, Bob Froese. This benefit performance at the Wellington Town Hall gathered approximately $900 for the Wellington Public Library Landscaping Programme.

THE CONCERT AT WELLINGTON 2010
A second concert in Wellington, following up on the previous year's success, took place on Saturday, 24 April 2010, at the Wellington Town Hall. The performers were David Simmonds, Loraine Sine, Eric Pilgrim (all from Prince Edward Country) and Rick Hayes, Greg Kelly and Sjef Frenken (from Ottawa). The Wellington Public Library Landscaping Programme Committee was well-pleased with the moneys raised.

........

THE CD ‘SONGS TO ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON’ IS STILL AVAILABLE!

So is the CD "SONGS TO EUGENE FIELD"

And, of course, the latest in the series "SONGS TO WALTER DE LA MARE"