June 2025

Rarescale for flute and piano. 
Score available from Canadian Music Centre

Sylvia Rickard: Rarescale

Let There Be Sparrows, then for chamber orchestra
Performed by KammarensembleN Stockholm
Bobby Collins, conductor

Let There Be Sparrows, then

Composed for The Sound Ensemble in Seattle and KammarensembleN in Stockholm 2022

Program Notes

This piece was written as part of a collaboration between two contemporary music ensembles in two different countries: The Sound Ensemble in Seattle, USA and KammarensembleN in Stockholm, Sweden.  Swedish composer Marie Samuelson and I each wrote a piece for the occasion, both pieces to be premiered in the winter of 2022 in Seattle and Stockholm. 

I chose as the inspiration for my piece the Passacaglia in d minor by Swedish composer Dietrich Buxtehude, 1637-1707.  The city of his birth, Helsingborg, was originally part of Denmark but became part of Sweden in 1657.  The piece has been the source of variations by other composers, most notably Johann Sebastian Bach. The Passacaglia theme makes its appearance several times in Let There Be Sparrows, then; first heard in the vibraphone’s opening statement, later in the strings and brass. I also used fragments of the contrapuntal voices that occur through the Passacaglia, including use of repeated octaves and minor seconds. Sparrows diverges from the Passacaglia in the use of extended techniques, including bent notes in the vibraphone, indeterminate notes and rhythms at climactic points, and many timbral effects. 
In the Passacaglia, many things struck me: Buxtehude’s insistently repetitive minor 2nds (which I incorporated into the extended trumpet solo), the use of repeated octaves, surprising harmonies, and intricate counterpoint.  For my piece, I borrowed snippets of motives, compositional devices, and oddities that struck me Buxtehude’s piece, and then blended it with contemporary sensibilities.  The result is a tension between the ancient and the contemporary, between the consonance and dissonance, and even between how we often consider nature to be soothing, when in reality, it often is not.  These tensions are also reflected in the poem At The Solstice by Shaun O’Brien, which also served as inspiration for Let There Be Sparrows, then.  The poem explores the tension as winter turns to spring, and is the source of the title of my piece. 

At the Solstice  - Shaun O'Brien
 
We say Next time we’ll go away,
But then the winter happens, like a secret
We’ve to keep yet never understand
As daylight turns to cinema once more:
A lustrous darkness deep in ice-age cold,
And the print in need of restoration
Starting to consume itself
With snowfall where no snow is falling now.
Or could it be a cloud of sparrows, dancing
In the bare hedge that this gale of light
Is seeking to uproot? Let it be sparrows, then,
Still dancing in the blazing hedge,
Their tender fury and their fall,
Because it snows, because it burns.

Let There Be Sparrows, then - KammarensembleN Sweden

Program Notes

Iridium is a hard, brittle, elemental metal and is the second-densest metal (after Osmium) with a density of 22.5. It is often alloyed with platinum. This creates a connection to Varèse’s Density 21.5 for flute alone, which has played a large part in my musical life. Iridium is one of the rarest metals found in the earth’s crust (found in Alaska, amongst other places); it exists mostly in the core of the earth. If Iridium were formed into the shape of a gold bar, it would shatter under its own weight. 

Iridium is in three short continuous movements, 6 minutes in total. We begin in the core of the earth: pulsating, molten, and hot. Metallic whooshes, pulses, and drones play against the live flute flutters, bends, and other special effects. After about two minutes, we emerge onto the earth’s surface into the mountains of Alaska in an ethereal, evocative mix of ocean waves, gulls, wind, whale songs, and celestial voices,  and the live and recorded flutes dance through the harmonic series on C. In about the fourth minute, the pulsating, ominous pressure returns, and gradually the Iridium shatters into many pieces. 

Iridium is composed for two flutes and fixed electronics. The electronics consist of 74 imported found sounds, 72 recorded flute clips, and 25 Ableton sounds Some of these shared the same track, so there is a total of 20 tracks against which the two live flutes play. The density of the sounds you hear is intended to reflect the density of the metal. The recorded flutes, which I recorded in my home studio,  serve as a bridge between the live flutes and the electronics.  The coordination is fluid and organic, with time marked in the score in seconds, and an approximation of the electronics notated in the score, and the performers are given flexibility.

Iridium for two flutes and electronics perf. by Sarah Bassingthwaighte

somewhere i have never travelled for soprano and chamber orchestra program notes
1998
somewhere I have never travelled e.e. cummings
somewhere i have never travelled
gladly beyond any experience
your eyes have their silence
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me or which I cannot touch because they are too near
or if your wish be to close
i and my life will shut!
very beautifully
ah! suddenly
as when the heart of the flower imagines snow carefully everywhere descending!
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility nobody
not even the rain
has such small hands

somewhere i have never travelled for soprano and chamber ensemble

"Morning, Taipei 101" features the first 14 seconds of a theme from my orchestral piece "Urban Suite". Recently, I’ve been experimenting with Suno AI, feeding it melodies from my own works to see who make music better. So far, AI still has a way to go in modern music, but it might surpass human creativity in a year or two!
Visit my YouTube and watch the video I created:
https://youtu.be/pDohUCN5SDg?si=HjY7ah33YWhN3gl5

《Morning, Taipei 101》，前14秒的音樂動機來自我十年前創作的管弦樂作品《Urban Suite》第一樂章，由法國號獨奏開展，全曲描寫了我初次到溫哥華從機窗俯瞰的感受。近期開始使用Suno，將自己過去的作品主旋律作為seed餵養AI，與AI進行PK

Morning, Taipei 101

Canada Forever Free - by Joanna Estelle

Lyrics from "Found Land" by Shane Rhodes

Heather Pawsey - soprano
Melanie Adams - mezzo
Marcus Takizawa - viola

Performed at the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, 2013

Found Land - i. body of text (from Treaty 1) (2013)

New Music Ensemble: Chicago Introduction
Fulton Hall, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Nov 5th, 2017

Daniel Pesca (Artist-in-Residence at University of Chicago), piano

Program Notes:
"Isles" resulted from my reading of "the Lost Salt Gift of Blood", a collection of short stories by the Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod. Drawing inspirations from the writer’s hauntingly beautiful depiction of the Canadian maritime landscapes, this piece displays three musical “isles” in three movements set in contrasting landscapes and moods: shimmering and light, resoundingly violent, and silently turbulent.

I. As Birds Bring Forth the Sun

White Lace

Setting of Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "Liebes-Lied" for mezzo soprano and viola. Performed by Rochelle Ellis, soprano, and Michael Davis, viola.

Liebeslied

SAKURA SONGS – VOLUME II
four haiku songs/cycle for soprano or mezzo-soprano, flute, cello and piano
duration: 5:30
haiku: various
also included: arr. of Sakura, Sakura for flute/cello/percussion (played by singer) and piano
AvP 132

View on the CMC Shop: https://cmccanada.org/shop/61056/

Sakura (from Sakura Songs, Vol. 2)

Association of Canadian Women Composers

The ACWC is a professional organization for Canadian women composers, their supporters, and the performers of their music.

June 2025

ACWC / ACC