Birches

Birches was written several years ago and was one of the very first works I wrote after starting my Bachelor of Music degree. The work is very much inspired by the poem by Robert Frost of the same name. The first few lines begin as follows:
  
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.  

If you haven’t read the poem before, I recommend it. The imagery and the themes of youth, spirituality, natural world and the human imagination, make it beautiful in Frosts unique, controlled and metaphorical style of writing.  In particular, the crystalline imagery of vast snowfields and bent Birches really spoke to me musically. The opening lines capture this, as well as a sense of fragility that I find runs through Frost’s poem.  A few other lines worth mentioning here are:

 I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.

The work’s structure reflects this journey, moving from the snowy ground, up, up, towards the heavens, only to fall back to earth.

Performed by Brijette Tubb

Birches for Solo Flute

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Fat Blaster Max (Solo Piano)

Scherzo No. 1

Four Pieces for Viola: I

The first piece in this set owes much to the varying forms of traditional Japanese theatre, namely Kabuki (歌舞伎) and Noh (能). The work makes use of the varying colours of the Viola while adding a certain dramatic element via its sudden contrast and its spaciousness.
Richard Pilgrim in Japan in Traditional and Postmodern Perspectives explains the purpose of these ‘spaces’, which frequently occurs in traditional Japanese art as part of a Religio-Aesthetic
Paradigm: “This negative space/time is therefore anything but a mere nothing awaiting the positive space/time; it is a pregnant nothingness that is ‘never unsubstantial or uncreative. … it glows with spiritual power, meaning, and attraction, just as a light shining through the gate…” (59).
This element of spaciousness and the accompanying unfolding throughout this piece are not to be taken lightly, but instead savoured.
The piece should be performed with the utmost freedom and flexibility with regards to the timing or pacing. Gestures should be spontaneous and surprising—even to the performer—whenever possible.

Four Pieces For Viola - I

The piece for soprano and sextet (Pierrot Lunaire instrumentation) is a setting of several haikus. The music is filled with resonant spaces and colours, the sextet providing a shifting tapestry of sound over which the soprano sings the haikus. The music has been written to flow and float, like a bubbling stream, repeating figures in gestures, but in a way which captures the subtle irregularity of all natural things in its fine details.
The music is also rich with melodies, but they are melodies of the moment, spontaneous, free and unfettered. In listening, allow yourself to sit in the sound, luxuriate in it, let it bubble away, and be particularly aware of the space and spaciousness.

---

The sea darkens,
The voices of the wild ducks
Are faintly white.
***
In the dark forest
A berry drops.
The sound of the water.
***
The stars on the pond.
Again the winter shower
Ruffles the water.
***
A cluster of summer trees
A glimpse of the sea
A pale evening moon.
***
A fallen leaf
Returning to the branch?
Butterfly
***
The sea darkens,
A berry drops.
A pale evening moon.

Gardens Of My Heart

Ricercare

Ribbons of Rust

Matrix

This work for Soprano, flute and pre-record is an exploration of the divided nature of the human psyche, represented in the dual roles of the flute and the voice, and in the brooding pre-record which symoblises the unconcious. Through this work, the voice represents initially the naive nature of one unaware of their divided nature, and as the work progresses, of being forced to confront that reality.

The work is an important reflection and commentary on human nature. The libretto, music and pre-record are all original, although the pre-record makes use of text from Melville's Moby Dick. Specifically, we hear the words of Captain Ahab as he is expressing his seething vengence and commentary on human nature, including:

“Hark ye yet again,--the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ‘tis enough.”

The pre-record, representing the shadowy depths of the unconcious uses Ahab's words to reveal the darkness that lurks in the hearts of all humans, although it is seldom so eloquently expressed. The work representatively urges one to consider, understand and integrate this shadowy realm, for it is only in squarely seeing it, that one can stand firm against it.

Leviathan, for Soprano, Flute and Pre-record

Premiered at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival.

Violin - Kyla Matsuura-Miller
Piano - Adam McMillan

Dornröschenslaf - Violin & Piano

Second movement of a 2 movement trio for Flute, Cello & Piano: "Long Day's Journey into Dusk".

Interesting tidbit, I actually thought of that name without being (at least consciously) aware that there was a play by the same time.

Chris Healey - Composer

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