Sample Recordings

Composed by Christopher Healey

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Piano: Corey Sinclair
Soprano: Marielle Allan

Original Text:
When death comes and whispers to me,
"Thy days are ended,"
let me say to him, "I have lived in love
and not in mere time."
He will ask, "Will thy songs remain?"
I shall say, "I know not, but this I know
that often when I sang I found my eternity."

From Tagore Rabindranath's 'Fireflies'

Text as set:
"Thy days are ended,"
"Will thy songs remain?"
let me say "I have lived in love."

St Tagore's Cathedral - Thy Days

Miniature 6

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

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

From the Colours of Creation 2012 Concert. Performed by John Addison (cello) and Adam McMillan (Piano). This was a live performance and they didn't have very long to learn the piece it so forgive them the occasionally rough edges. They did a wonderful job and I'm very very thankful to them both!

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Cello and Piano Sonatina

Soprano: Amber Evan's
Piano: Adam McMillan


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Text:
Let me not grope in vain in the dark
but keep my mind still in the faith
that the day will break
and truth will appear
in its simplicity. 
(From Fireflies by Tagore Rabindranath)

Four Pieces For Viola - I

Chris Healey - Composer