Music, words & a little wonder.

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 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.

HOT NEWS:

The fifth CD in the SONGS FOR THE INNER CHILD series is now available under the title SONGS TO GABRIEL SETOUN. Setoun’s name is rarely heard these days, but his “The Child World”, a collection of poems for youngsters, went through 16 editions. His real name was Thomas Hepburn, a Scot, whose early years overlapped those of his countryman, Robert Louis Stevenson. There are twenty songs, performed by Sophie Léger (Songs to Edna St Vincent Millay) accompanied by guitarist J-P Lacroix. This edition is in a limited run and a more modest format than the other four (so far) in the series: the insert, for example, does not include the lyrics, which are available under the LYRICS rubric of this website. The price has been adjusted accordingly. The book entitled MY LUNCHES WITH JACK has been turned into a quasi-play (an entertainment is the official designation). Who knows, it may show up at a theatre near you one of these days. Not really news, but an update of sorts: Most of Sjef Frenken’s music has been devoted to other people’s writings. Work has – finally – begun on 45 songs that also feature his own lyrics. It may take a while before this album is available

A NOTE:

A word 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. This was a time when (in the words of John Updike*)... in England Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Rudyard Kipling all wrote stories and poems for children to read. They did not do it offhand, or with a sly smile, but in earnest, with all the skill and wisdom they had, as if their lives depended upon it which in a way they did.” This was a time 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 is a lot 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 music has elements of the folk tradition as well as links to the light classics. Percy Grainger comes to mind.

* from Updike’s Introduction to The Young King and Other Fairy Tales by Oscar Wilde, Macmillan, 1962.

The collection of songs totals more than 250 so far. Now that the Lear CD has been released, there will still be more than 150 songs left to record. The composer hopes to live long enough to finish the task.

ANOTHER NOTE:

Some of our acquaintances are asking “why do you still have CDs manufactured; they’re obsolete.” I could respond “Look at LP’s, they’re making a comeback.” But I won’t.

In the course of my life we’ve had 78s, 45s, LPs, cassettes and CDs; record players, wire recorders, reel-to-reel tape recorders, cassette players, and CD players. With each invention the quality of the recordings got better and better, as were the machines to play them. The pinnacle remains the CD.

But progress has taken a strange turn: instead of listening to high quality media through high quality apparatus, most people listen to their music via tinny ear buds or the tiny speakers in laptops and even smaller portable devices. The apparent need for a constant musical accompaniment (however low its quality) to their daily activities outweighs their need to hear music in its fullest glory.

We prefer to publish CDs with accompanying informative notes and lyrics (where possible), hoping that there are still some discriminating music enthusiasts who appreciate quality.