Archive for the Birdsong Category

Anne of Green Gables

On January 29, 2024   /   Birdsong, Commissions   /   Leave a comment
Anne of Green Gables

This project was an absolute dream come true! I was asked to write music for a new Audible audiobook of one of my childhood favourites, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, directed by Megan Follows (who to my mind is Anne of Green Gables herself!) I had to write 70 minutes of music in 2 months (this is more than I usually write in 2 years), but somehow I did it, and had a great time! Thank you to Ken Woods, Seb Lovell-Huckle, Tim Burton, and the amazing musicians of the English Symphony Orchestra (Laura Jellicoe, Alison Lambert, Suzanne Woods, Sarah Ewins, Carl Hill, Corinne Frost and Daniel King Smith for their beautiful recording on such short notice: it was a real pleasure working with them. You can hear the Audiobook here (Audible has many versions of Anne of Green Gables: the one I wrote music for is the one released Nov 30, 2023.) If you listen carefully, you may hear some transcriptions of PEI birdsongs embedded in the music!

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Modern Chants – Gannetry and Machair Flowers

On December 8, 2021   /   Birdsong, Concerts, Zoomusicology   /   Leave a comment
Modern Chants – Gannetry and Machair Flowers

I had a great time participating in the Modern Chants concert, organized by composer and violinist Ruta Vitkauskaite. I wrote two pieces, in collaboration with poet Dawn Wood, Gannetry, for Jo Nicholson (clarinet) and Ellie Cherry (live electronics), and Machair Flowers, for violist Katherine Wren. These are my most graphically notated score to date, and I really enjoyed the process. Gannetry uses graphic notation to convey specific gestural, timbral, textural & structural information about the piece — that is, there is a particular way I wanted the piece to sound, and the graphics were the best way to notate this — while Machair Flowers uses graphic notation to suggest kinds of sounds & networks, but the overall realization is very open. If you are interested in exploring either of these pieces, feel free to get in touch. I’d be happy to make a version for instrument/voice/ensemble. You can hear both these pieces, as well as great pieces by Ruta Vitkauskaite and Gemma McGregor and more poetry by Dawn Wood right here. (Machair Flowers starts at 51’21”, and Gannetry starts at 1h17’20”).

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‘Hearken to the Hermit Thrush’

On February 22, 2021   /   Birdsong, Research, Writing, Zoomusicology   /   Leave a comment
‘Hearken to the Hermit Thrush’

I’m pleased to share my most recent zoomusicology article, “‘Hearken to the Hermit Thrush: A Case Study in Interdisciplinary Listening,” which was published as part of the special research topic “Songs and Signs: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Cultural Transmission and Inheritance in Human and Nonhuman Animals” in Frontiers in Psychology. In this article I discuss my own approach to zoomusicological inquiry, and use the example of how the hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) has been understood and discussed over the past 200 years to illustrate why interdisciplinary perspectives are essential for better understanding of animal songs. The full text is available for free here.

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Woodwings on 1 Track Podcast

On April 28, 2019   /   Birdsong, Commissions, Interviews, Pieces   /   Leave a comment
Woodwings on 1 Track Podcast

Thank you to Anthony Lanman for inviting me to talk on his podcast 1 Track about my piece Woodwings. Woodwings was commissioned by the Fifth Wind Quintet in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of their Forecasting the Canadian Wind Project, funded by a Canada Council New Chapters grant, and premiered by Fifth Wind, Mistral 5, Choros, Blythwood Winds, and Ventos in September 2018. It’s based on the songs of 9 birds found across Canada, including the bobolink, the hermit thrush, the winter wren, snow geese, and five species of owls! If you’re interested in obtaining a score, you can do so by taking out a (free) membership in Wind Quintet International.

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Premiere of Reedbird

On January 10, 2019   /   Birdsong, Commissions, Concerts   /   Leave a comment
Premiere of Reedbird

I’m really looking forward to the premiere of Reedbird by the Vancouver Symphony on January 19 as part of their New Music Festival. Reedbird is based on the song of the bobolink, a bird which is widespread across North America, and sings lively, bubbly, and ever-varying song. More info can be found here.

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Listen to this bobolink song!

On July 17, 2018   /   Birdsong, Commissions, Research   /   Leave a comment
Listen to this bobolink song!

I’m listening to a lot of bobolink song, as research for the new piece I’m writing for the Vancouver Symphony (to be premiered at the Vancouver Symphony New Music Festival in January 2019). Bobolink song sounds incredible when you hear it live (or on a full speed recording) — shiny, bubbly, almost metallic. But to me, it’s even more incredible when you slow it down so you can really hear the intricate interactions between the notes. Here is one example that you really should listen to right now! I’ve taken a fragment of a song and presented it at 1/8 speed, 1/4 speed, 1/2 speed, full speed, and finally the entire song at full speed. (The recording of this song was made by Andrew Spencer, and can be found on the Xeno-Canto website.)

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