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”).
Last year I was commissioned to write a piece for the Kapten Trio by Chamber Music Scotland. It was a fantastic experience from start to finish, with lots of discussions and rehearsals with the Kapten Trio throughout the creative process, and two amazing Creative Scotland residencies at Hospitalfield in Arbroath. My piece, called Bowheads, is based on songs of the Bowhead Whale. (Thanks to biologists Catherine Berchok and Stephanie Grassia for sharing recordings with me!) The Kapten Trio took Boweads (along with pieces by Shiori Usui, Mozart, Debussy, and Brahms) on a 6-concert tour of Scotland. This video (made by Anne Milne) is from the premiere, at the Barn in Banchory, as part of the Sound Festival.
I’m pleased to share not one, but two wonderful recent performances of Social sounds from whales at night, one by clarinettist and whale researcher Alex South, and one by violist Katherine Wren. This is my only piece (so far) which includes electronics, and can be performed by any solo instrument or voice. It includes a lengthy improvisatory section, and I’ve really enjoyed hearing different performers interpretations of it over the years!
I was delighted to hear this beautiful concert recording of my Three Summer Wassails, based on poetry by composer/poet Forrest Pierce, by the new Halifax-based new music choir Eastern Horizons, co-directed by Jack Bennet, Christina Murray, and Lynette Wahlstrom. Please let me know if you’d like a perusal copy of these pieces to consider for your choir!
THREE SUMMER WASSAILS
Music by Emily Doolittle
Poetry by Forrest Pierce
Blackberry Wassail
I set a berry in my mouth,
the rose of sweet September,
I set a berry in my mouth,
so sweet and tart and tender.
I bit the berry with my teeth,
the rose of sweet October,
I bit the berry with my teeth,
and felt the juice spill over.
I drank the berry down my throat,
the rose of sweet November,
I drank the berry down my throat,
and felt my heart remember.
I felt a thorn stick in my hand,
the rose of fading Autumn,
I felt a thorn stick in my hand,
the pain of friends forgotten.
Oh bramble, briar, and thorny thicket,
fruit of canes and fragile flower.
You wound my hands each time I pick it,
you melt my heart sweet, tart, and sour.
Potato Wassail
Come, little spud,
Little Baldy Underhill,
Balloon of the mud,
Jacket-wrapped against the chill.
Send us some green,
Wink your eyes and sprout a shoot,
Don’t be too mean
With your cuddlebellies underfoot.
Come, little spud,
Greeny leaves to catch the sun,
Swelling in the mud
Chilly-safe ‘til summer’s done.
In russet, in gold,
In pan or in pot,
In bland or in bold,
We’ll eat what you’ve got!
Mushroom Wassail
Mushroom plate! Mushroom plate!
The forager wants a mushroom plate!
Chant we now for the chanterelle, its fronds and gills and frills
Pine we now for the fat Penny Bun ,its heft and chubby-necked thrills.
Flee from the stick of the Fly Agaric whose toadstool hat brings pain.
Deft and apt is the round Death Cap whose name is self and same.
More we yell for the wrinkly Morel its oak and sulphur scent.
Chuffed and full, sing the Summer Truffle, whose warts are black and bent.
Don’t dare dandle the Destroying Angel, it’s white and short and kills.
A shy ballerina is the Deadly Galerina who slays with her tutu frills.
Cheery Words for the Chicken of the Woods that tastes like a little orange hen.
Shave a snap of the Shaggy ink cap whose flesh makes ink for your pen.
There is no heaven like the rotten earth’s leaven when it fruits in shoots and shrooms.
There is no hell like the rotten earth’s bell that peals the meals of dooms.
Mushroom plate! Mushroom plate!
The forager wants a Mushroom plate!
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.
I’m so excited to announce that my chamber opera Jan Tait and the Bear is going to be a part of the Made in Scotland Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer! The cast includes Cath Backhouse as Jan Tait, Brian McBride as the tax collector, guard, king, and bear, and Alan McHugh as narrator, with Ensemble Thing, conducted by Tom Butler, directed by Stasi Schaeffer, and with costumes by Vicki Brown. Follow the link above for more info, or to book tickets!
I’m just back from a wonderful week of rehearsals and a public workshop of my newest piece, Woodwings, with the Fifth Wind Quintet in Halifax, NS. They’ll be co-premiering it in September, along with Blythwood Winds, Ventos, Choros, and Mistral 5, in programs which include works by Cris Derksen, Carmen Braden, Daniel Janke, and Cameron Wilson, in five cities across Canada. But if you want to hear a preview of it, you can watch the workshop here!
I’ve just finished my first wind quintet, Woodwings, for Fifth Wind Quintet, of Halifax, NS, as part of their Forecasting the Canadian Wind project. Woodwings will be premiered in September by Fifth Wind, as well as Choros (Montreal), Blythwood Winds (Toronto), Mistral 5 (Saskatoon), and Ventos (Vancouver), along with premieres by Carmen Braden, Cris Derksen, Daniel Janke, and Cameron Wilson. (If you play in a wind quintet and would like to have access to these and other new works after their premiere, you can sign up at Wind Quintet International!)
Woodwings is based on the songs and calls of a number of birds that are fairly widespread in Canada – the Bobolink, Hermit Thrush, Snow Goose, Winter Wren, and a selction of owls (Boreal Owl, Northern Pygmy Owl, Hawk Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, and Western Screech Owl). It’s been a great pleasure to write this piece, both because I’m a (mostly former) oboist myself, and because the musicians in Fifth Wind are long-time friends, and in some cases my former teachers. (Oh dear – I’ve just calculated and realize I have known several of them for more than 30 years! Am I really that old?) I’m really looking forward to the rehearsals and workshops in May, and to the performance in September!
I’m looking forward to the upcoming recording of my piece Field Music (2017) by the Fair Trade Trio on a CD which will also include works by Jennifer Higdon, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Kaija Saariaho, and Molly Herron. Ashley Windle, violinist and founder of the Fair Trade Chamber Music Society talks more about this recording and other Fair Trade Trio Projects in an interview with with Lana Norris on I Care If You Listen.
The premiere of Conversation, based on the howls of grey seals and poetry by Eleonore Schoenmaier, will take place on February 21 at St Salvatore’s Chapel in St Andrews, Scotland. Conversation was commissioned by Bede Williams for the St Andrews New Music Ensemble, with funding from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and researched with funding from the Culture and Animals Foundation. You can find out more about the ideas behind this piece and the process of writing it here. Please come along on February 25 as well, to hear James Turnbull and Eddy Hackett perform a program of new music for oboe and percussion, which includes my piece Social sounds from whales at night.
