Hello, my name is Joshua. I’m a pianist, organist, computer programmer and harpsichord student. I sometimes write about music, literature or recreational maths and intend eventually to upload some of it here. I also arrange and compose music, which I may put here at some point. I go by the username @barrowfaustus on Twitter.

This page is still under construction – apologies if it looks a bit rough and ready.

Arrangements and transcriptions

• Zoltán Kodály, Viennese Musical Clock from Háry János Suite, for piano four hands

Recreational maths/CS

• Canonical minimal automata for generalised regular expressions (i.e. with complement, intersection, etc.)

Lesser-known music shilling

• Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621) – Mein junges Leben hat ein End. One of my favourite pieces. What an achievement!
• Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625) – Lord Salisbury Pavan – there’s a haunting lyricism to Gibbons that keeps drawing me back to him.
• François Couperin (1668–1733) – Allemande à deux Clavecins. This piece is such a ray of hope, like the first signs of spring on a bright, chilly morning. The 63 into 97 at 0:22 is so emotional!
• Gerald Finzi (1901–1956) – Let Us Garlands Bring - wonderful, quintessentially English music from a composer I always felt was underrated.
• Maurice Duruflé (1902–1986) – Prélude et fugue sur le nom d’Alain - ‘the greatest organ piece of the 20th century’ from my old teacher. I might have to agree!
• Federico Mompou (1893–1987) – Cançons i danses – Mompou may not have been the most able composer but there is much beauty and simplicity to be found in these miniatures. He knew his strengths well.
• Herbert Howells (1892–1983) – Like as the hart – One of my favourite choral pieces, so desperate and haunting… The solo treble part around 5:32, especially when it breaks off at 5:39, is an unforgettable moment
• Henri Dutilleux (1916–2013) – Correspondances – Dutilleux is probably my favourite composer and the composer whose style feels most ‘at home’ to me. I could recommend almost anything he wrote, but this work for soprano and orchestra, written when Dutilleux was 87(!), is as accessible as any. 2:40 - 3:32 is particularly sublime.
• Conlon Nancarrow (1912–1997) – Study No. 7 – Nancarrow’s studies for player piano (a piano that plays itself via rolls), which he wrote over decades while living in Mexico in obscurity, form some of the most unique and compelling music of the 20th century and even all time.
• Louis Andriessen (1939–2021) – Writing to Vermeer – a wonderful opera I hope one day to see staged. So many wonderfully moving moments.
• Hans Abrahamsen (b. 1952) – let me tell you… – Magical. I will never forget listening to this on Christmas Day morning and at the end, as Ophelia walks into the snow, looking up from the score and seeing the first snowfall of the year outside the window.