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!
Archive for the Pieces Category
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.
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 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 Fair Trade String Trio (Ashley Windle, Hannah Levinson, and Jeanette Stenson) will be premiering my newest piece, Field Guide, on July 20 through 26 on their second Pacific Northwest tour, with concerts in Vancouver BC, Victoria BC, Bellingham WA, and Portland OR. More details of the concerts can be found on their website. Field Guide is based on the songs of three birds which can be found in the Western US, the horned lark, the greater sage grouse, and the Western meadowlark. Though these birds aren’t currently endangered, they depend on the wild land of the US National Parks and Forests — and are one of the many, many reasons why we all need to be working to preserve these lands.
The Sunday Mail/Daily Record did a story about my research on seal vocalizations! Thank you Sunday Mail and Heather Greenaway for the lovely coverage of my work!
My piece Seal Songs, based on the Selkie legend, was originally written for the Voice Factory Youth Choir and the Paragon Ensemble, conducted by Mark Evans, and premiered in Glasgow and Skye in 2011. Seal Songs received its US premiere by the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Trinity Youth Chorus in June, 2017. I’m currently conducting research on seal vocalizations with Prof Vincent Janik and Alex Carroll at St Andrews University, and will be writing a new piece based on my research, to be performed by the St Andrews New Music Ensemble, conducted by Bede Williams, in February 2018.
The San Francisco Girls Chorus and Trinity Youth Chorus are performing the US premiere of Seal Songs on June 4 at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. This is really exciting for me, not only because they are fantastic choirs, but because I sang in SFGC for a year when I was 13 (my family was on sabbatical in Palo Alto), and it was such a wonderful and formative musical experience for me. It’s always been a dream of mine to have something performed by them! Here’s a little letter I wrote to the choristers, as part of their ongoing Postcards series.
I’m looking forward to the Beaverton Symphony Orchestra‘s performance of green/blue on May 19 and 21 at the Village Baptist Church in Beaverton, OR. Also on the program are Robert Schumann’s Symphony #1, and the winners of the Young Artist Concerto Competition, Kaylee Jeong, Alison Mills, and Rachel Oh. I wish I could be there to hear the concert in person!
One of the happiest moments as a composer is discovering an orchestral piece is going to have a new performance. I was thrilled to learn that Carissa Klopoushak, who I first met at Scotia Festival of Music in 2005, is going to be performing Sapling with the Saskatoon Symphony, conducted by Eric Petkau, on March 25 at the Sid Buckwold Theatre in Saskatoon, SK. Sapling was commissioned by Calvin Dyck and the Vancouver Island Symphony in 2014, and has also been performed in an arrangement for solo violin and seven strings by Annette-Barbara Vogel and Magisterra. It’s such a delight to hear different musicians’ interpretations, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Carissa’s performance in March.
I’m just back from a recording session at Wyastone Hall in Monmouth, Wales, where violinist Harriet Mackenzie and the English Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ken Woods, recorded my piece for violin and string orchestra, falling still. They sound fantastic! Other pieces on the CD include violin concertos by Paul Patterson, David Matthews, Deborah Pritchard, and Robert Fokkens. This is my first orchestral recording, and my first time being included on a CD of British composers, so I’m extra excited about this, and really looking forward to hearing the whole thing, when it is released on Nimbus Records in April!
