Reuben Tozer-Loft

Various people manoeuvring an upright piano down a ramp placed on a flight of stairs, stretching out their arms to keep it in place on each end. One of them has a strap tied around their waist that is attached to the ramp. It is reminiscent of a Renaissance painting.

Stage Team Move A Piano Down Stairs, c.2025, digital, smartphone

📷 The backstage crew of Valencia's Palau de la Música

Looks fascinating ! I've been looking at Britten's "Curlew River"—maybe there's some (loosely synced!) overlap in your approaches? I'll add it to my Christmas list 📚

#choralsky

The Society for the Protection of Birds (now the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) was formed in 1889 by Emily Williamson with an all-female team of passionate anti-extinction trailblazers. This piece was inspired by these two "Emilyan" legacies.

@rspb.bsky.social

Robins have thrummed our heart-strings for hundreds of years. In this extract, Brontë characterises them wonderfully as sort of daybreak wraith-chasers—singing away the evils of the night before we human beings awake.

The Robin, text by Emily Brontë

Redbreast early in the morning,
Dark and cold and cloudy grey,
Wildly tender is thy music,
Chasing angry thoughts away.

Emily Brontë, February 1837
First published 1910

🐦🪿🦜🦢🦆🦤🐦‍⬛

Many, many thanks to Marco Fanti and Coro Athena for performing my miniature setting of Emily Brontë!

🐦🪿🦜🦢🦆🦤🐦‍⬛

without wanting to overcomplicate things...
spladoosh and splidoink for your consideration.

What's On Out There? The Bill's Mother's Links & Listings Post - August 2025 What’s On Out There? News of the return of the Atlantic Salmon to Sheffield. Plus, wildlife, walks, runs, rides etc. for everyone in the Outdoor City.

Salmon return to #Sheffield #TheOutdoorCity. News just in of the first record of breeding Atlantic Salmon in Sheffield for two centuries - open.substack.com/pub/abitblac...

Curlee pics :
Alan D. Wilson, www.naturespicsonline.com
Andreas Trepte,
avi-fauna.info

Curlee Sounds :
Fabrizio Grieco,
www.xeno-canto.org/375237

Thanks to @classicalsheffield.bsky.social @dariusbat.bsky.social @concordmoose.bsky.social

a short extract of printed music, and a selfie taken in the reflection of the award.

Many congratulations to Tom, Cassie, Cerys, and James for their music; and thank you to Anne and the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus for organising the competition. Thank you to everyone who came to support me, and long live curlews !

me (reuben) receiving my award in front of the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus.

I was honoured to be awarded third prize by the judges, and really loved the season finale of this year's Classical Sheffield weekend.

a short extract of handwritten music

I then wrote the sections in between, taking inspiration from Redmires Reservoirs' spiralling outlet, and the stunning harmonies in Fauré's Requiem.

an annotated picture of Katherine Towers's poem

the refrain returns three times—I wrote these sections to mimic curlews' songs, adding more voices each time it comes back.

for music like the sea (Curlew at Redmires) don’t say we miss the sea – we bring you this day our voices of water we pour down our voices we bring you our falling voices of water curlee – curlee curlee to us belong the grass and the heathery higher we fly than pipits than linnets dropping their idle note-snippets their scraps or careless oddments of thoughts but ours are the ceaseless voices of water curlee – curlee curlee to us belong the gorse and the heathery for the past is larger than the sky and we are made of ever and after we’re made of song and shapes of song and of the movings and the fallings of the water curlee – curlee curlee for the sea like music is everywhere and music like the sea is everywhere – © Katharine Towers, 2024

this winter, I set this beautiful poem by Katherine Towers to music as my entry for the Stella Jockel Composition Competition.

curlews are beautiful birds with great big curly bills. they live in marshland and moorland, and sing a lovely little song that sounds like this...

That's all, this is mostly for myself but I hope you enjoyed it if you've read all the way down here !

reuben 🍃

1. ... and finally, my favourite film of 2024 was Past Lives (2023) by Celine Song. It's an astonishing and deeply moving story about language, communication, relationships, time, and so many other things.

I thought it was brilliant !

2. In second place is The Sixth Sense (1999) by M. Night Shyamalan. I'm not great with scary films, but this blew me away. The score is magnificent and the film itself was such a joy to watch, especially the final act.

6. Pride and Prejudice—I finally got around to enjoying this one!

5. Catch me if you can—action packed and brilliant, especially the score!

4. Whisper of the Heart—another beautiful studio ghibli masterpiece

3. Lady Bird—Greta Gerwig is supremely skilled

Enough of that, here were my favourite films of 2024.

10. The Snow Sister—a gorgeous new Norwegian Christmas film

9. The Boy and the Heron—weird and wonderful Miyazaki masterpiece

8. Ladri di Biciclette—a fantastic post-war Italian classic

7. Mona Lisa Smile—wonderfully written and very moving

the second worst was I'm afraid La Dolce Vita (1960) ... I'd love to say I didn't get it, but I fear I did !

And at the bottom of the barrel was Idiocracy (2006). I found it lazy and dated.

6. When in Rome
5. The Merry Gentlemen
4. Lost in Translation
3. Wish

The WORST films I watched in 2024 were:
10. Rush Hour
9. I, Robot
8. The Lego Movie 2
7. Muppets Haunted Mansion

The best films *that I had already seen* were (in no particular order): Little Women (2019), Kung Fu Panda (2008), Shrek 2 (2004), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Skyfall (2012).

Special mentions also for the most beautiful film, Kiki's Delivery Service; the weirdest film, Poor Things; the oldest film, Morocco (1930); the shortest film, A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter (50"); and the longest film, The Green Mile (3'9").

I tried to watch more non-English language films this year, my favourite of which was Roma.

2024 Film Wrap-up !

Total films watched : 110

Special TV mention for Ripley which I LOVED...not a film though.