James Onohan, Bryony's Composer

By Sarah Stegall, Bryony web administrator.

Since I've immersed myself in what I think of as The Bryony Book Project, I've done quite a bit of researching. The latest was listening to LOTS of classical piano. In Bryony, John Simons is a famous classical piano player, and Melissa stumbles across an old record of his (The Best-Loved Compositions of John Simons) at the library. John's signature closing song, rightfully titled, Bryony, plays on Melissa's music box. We thought it would be so fun for readers to listen to the song, just like Melissa.

And so the hunt began. I sat for hours on YouTube and various websites listening to out of copyright classical piano that we could use for Bryony. Nothing fit. Then I stumbled on James Onohan's One Last Time. I had been listening to Debussy clicking randomly on the side links. I almost clicked out when I realized, "Oh wow, he's what we are looking for!" The enchanting sounds James was plinking out were so captivating, I could see why Melissa played her music box over and over. I immediately found his website and listened over and over. He became my John Simons that night.

However, I had quite a few problems. The biggest? He wasn't out of copyright. I sent him a brief email wondering if maybe, just maybe, he would let us market his songs under the book. It was a long shot, so imagine my surprise when he emailed back within minutes sounding interested. More than interested. He volunteered to compose the Bryony song and several others for The Best Loved Compositions of John Simons. Wow!

A few months later and everything smoothed out legally, I'm happy to announce James Onohan as our composer! Even if you don't believe you would like classical piano, his songs will leave you spellbound. He makes the magic of Bryony and I encourage you to check out his website at http://www.jamesonohan.com/. You can read his full biography there.