A new piece for string quartet - AYLAN

This morning, as my personal response to the Refugee Crisis, I have written a short piece of music for string quartet. It's called Aylan (after the 3-year old whose body was found on the beach a couple of days ago).

The piece can be found in this folder:

https://app.box.com/s/lc1w8dxcg2tlclaua004zuca2t1kwuom

- there's a Sibelius score, score and parts as PDFs and an MP3 of the Sibelius "performance".

I'm going to be circulating it to friends I know who play in string quartets to see if any of them will perform it AND, hopefully, continue to put pressure on the governments of Europe - maybe even ask audiences to donate to some of the charities who are trying to help this dreadful situation.

Thanks for reading this and please feel free to forward it to anyone else you think might be interested.

15 FACTS ABOUT THANKSGIVING (or everything you never wanted to know on the subject)

1. Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the USA (in Canada it's celebrated on the second Monday in October).

2. On December 11, 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock but by autumn (fall) of 1621 only half survived. These survivors decided to have a feast to show they we thankful for still being alive.

3. The Pilgrims had sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from England in order to escape religious persecution in England on their ship, the "Mayflower".

4. The Pilgrim Fathers brought beer with them on the Mayflower.

5. The Wampanoag Indians taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.

6. Governor William Bradford, organised the first Thanksgiving feast and invited the Wampanoag Indians to attend; around ninety came along including their chief, Massasoit.

7. The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.

8. The first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation was issued by President George Washington in 1789 and again in 1795.

9. The State of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817.

10. In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale started a campaign and,as a result, in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer.

11. On 3rd October 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a 'Thanksgiving Proclamation' officially setting aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for Thanksgiving.

12. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt made Thursday before last of November as Thanksgiving Day in order to make the Christmas shopping season longer and help stimulate the economy, but in 1941, Congress passed an official proclamation declaring that Thanksgiving would be observed annually as a legal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.

13. Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the USA but Thomas Jefferson disagreed. It is thought Franklin then named the male turkey as 'tom' to spite Jefferson.

14. Californians eat more turkey than people from other states.

15. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began in the 1920s.