BOOKS, SHEET MUSIC and CDs
Most of my music is available through my publisher Composers Edition. My music is also available through the Canadian Music Centre and the Scottish Music Centre. If you have any questions about anything or would like a perusal score, please feel free to get in touch. (A few of my choral pieces, and my books of children’s piano pieces are published separately: see listings below.)
My first CD of chamber music, all spring, performed by the Seattle Chamber Players and friends, was released on Composers Concordance Records in July, 2015.
“…this is music worth waiting for, a set of works that all have a disarming charm, an organic, almost rustic sort of modern feel.
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All five works have the personal Doolittle stamp upon them. The music often has a whimsical quality, well paced, organically modern tonal, spun out with a cohesively inventive narrative sequentiality. Each work has a distinct identity.
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If you were to try and pin the ancestry of this music to the influence of forebears you might as I did think of the chamber neo-classic phase of Igor Stravinsky, but that mostly in the pacing, not the tones themselves. Nonetheless Emily Doolittle stands on her own ground, rather delightfully so. Recommended listening.
My choral pieces Dàn nan Ròn and Five Forest Rounds are available from Canasg Music.
Dàn nan Ròn : A set of three Gaelic songs, highly evocative of Scottish folk song and folk lore — but at the same time new and original. A great project for an enterprising treble voice ensemble.
- Dàn nan ròn The title song of the suite is a lament. “Cha till, cha till MacDodruim – mo mhilleadh!” (McCodrum will never return – I’m ruined!)
- An ainm an àigh The second song in the suite is a love song addressed to a woman who has disappeared, selkie-like, at sea
- Oir a’ chuain / Air Sgeir an Ròin The last song in the suite is a soliloquy by someone out walking near the ocean and remembering the past. Includes flute and cello obbligato
Five Forest Rounds : Five fun rounds about animals suitable for singers of any age.
Playing, two books of junior and intermediate level piano pieces, can be be purchased through Debra Wanless Music or by contacting me directly.
You can hear some of these pieces, as performed by students of Ruth Rose in Washington, DC.
The CD I am in Need of Music by Suzie LeBanc includes A Short, Slow Life as well as pieces by 3 other Canadian Composers and is available from the Canadian Music Centre.
As I was listening to the Doolittle piece, I had the particularly odd experience one has when the evening bird and insect sounds outside suddenly become very active. These fit so easily into the piece, I actually had to stop to be sure they weren’t part of the recording. Fitting, then, that Doolittle’s note mentions her interest in natural imagery and soundscapes, both of the poem and of Nova Scotia and Seattle, where both Doolittle and Bishop spent time. The piece was even effective with the window closed.
Erin Heisel, American Record Guide
The CD Cosmophony by Rachel Iwaasa includes Gliese 581c as well as pieces by 9 other Canadian Composers and Makrokosmos by George Crumb, and is available from Red Shift Records and the Canadian Music Centre.
Nominated for Classical Recording of the Year by the 2011 Western Canadian Music Awards!
Noticeably absent from the planetary evocations is Pluto, which was de-listed as a planet by scientists during the project’s development. Instead, there is Emily Doolittle’s optimistic but ominous Gliese 581, evoking a distant planet we on Earth once had hoped inhabitable.
Jason van Eyk
Airs of Men Long Dead is on the CD Ice Age & Beyond: Songs by Canadian Women Composers, along with works of Alice Ho, Kati Agocs and Barbara Pentland. It is available on Amazon.
1. Waiting 1:22
2. Wolf 2:01
3. Sycamore 1:23
4. Song 2:43
Night black bird song is recorded on this CD, along with the works of six other composers. It can be purchased from Capstone Records.
- Stefani Starin, piccolo
- Jayn Rosenfeld, piccolo/flute
- Tom Kolor, percussion
- Greg Beyer, percussion
- Peter Jarvis, percussion
Weather Songs, performed by Emily Eagen and Non Sequitur is on this CD, along with the works of several composers from the Netherlands. It is available from Concertzender & Musiekweb.
Social sounds from whales at night is on a CD featuring singer Helen Pridmore. It is available from the Canadian Music Centre.
These are convincing performances of imaginative compositions that affirm the region’s strong sense of identity.
J. Drew Stephen, CAML Review
CRC 3182 falling still: Music for Oboe by Women Composers
Madeleine Dring: Two Dances; Nancy Galbraith: Incantation and Allegro; Gwen McLeod Hall: Une Chanson sans Paroles; Emily Doolittle: falling still; Margaret Griebling-Haigh: Bocadillos Floridanos; Chen Yi: Joy of the Reunion; Alyssa Morris: Four Personalities; Mary Ashley Barret, oboe; Inara Zandmane, piano; Michael Burns, bassoon; Michael Burns, bassoon; Marjorie Bagley, violin; Alexander Ezerman, cello; Scott Rawls, viola