October 2025

Flute Concerto by Geraldine Green - 1st Movement.
Performed by Gary Woolf - flute, and Alte Philharmonie Orchestra

Flute Concerto by Geraldine Green is published and available from www.astute-music.com

Geraldine Green - Flute Concerto 1st Movement

Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra by 
Sarah Bassingthwaighte 

London Symphony Orchestra 
Jonathan Pasternack, conductor 
Steve Schermer, double bass soloist

Bassingthwaighte London Symphony Orchestra  Concerto For Double Bass And Orchestra II. Scherzo

Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra III. Pesante feroce

London Symphony Orchestra 
Jonathan Pasternack, conductor
Steve Schermer, double bass soloist 

Recorded at St. Luke's London, September 2023

The Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra was the result of several sources of inspiration. Conductor Jonathan Pasternack dreamed up the idea of the creation of a new piece for the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra to celebrate their 90th Anniversary. The idea for the concerto for double bass and orchestra was a combination of the desire to add to the repertoire for the double bass and having an incredible double bass player, Stephen Schermer, to premiere it.
In deciding the general stylistic approach to the piece, I wanted to create something that would be virtuosic and fun for the bass soloist, engaging and interesting for the orchestra, and expressive and exciting for the audience. It was inspirational to be in contact with both the conductor and the bassist throughout the composing of this piece. Steve’s hope was for something lyrical, expressive, with a lot of tension and release, and that also used the full range of the double bass (a lot of bass concertos favor the highest range). This sounded perfect to me.
The Concerto is in three movements: Lachrymae, Scherzo, and Pesante feroce. The Lachrymae is the most serious and dramatic movement. (Many composers have written movements called lachrymae or lacrimosa, referring to tears.) This past year involved some very painful losses for both the bassist and for me, and this movement expresses some of that grief. The main motive that runs through the piece is 4 notes, with a major 2nd descending and a minor 3rd ascending, then a Major 3rd descending, with a dotted rhythm that reappears often. This is heard first in the double bass opening statement, low and solitary. It is then heard throughout the movement, including in a duet between piccolo and bass (playing flute-like harmonic effects), and then is extended to form the melody for the climax. At the loudest point, the bass blends into the fabric of the orchestra, with everyone at a fortissimo – the woodwinds and upper strings in a flurry of runs, the brass doing glissandi slides, and the low strings and low winds pounding out the 4- notemotive. Afterthis,theendingisquietandlonely.
The Scherzo lightens the mood, with bouncy, syncopated rhythms. The winds get to take a break, leaving just strings and percussion. All of the strings play entirely pizzicato – they don’t use their bows at all. The percussion gets to pull out some of their fun auxiliary instruments – temple bells (or crotales), vibraslap, castanets, and bongos among them. In the middle of the movement, the bass plays a 7-note pattern over the percussion’s 3-beat pattern, intentionally feeling loose and ungrounded. In the bass part, you’ll hear glissandos and slapping the strings.
The Pesante feroce is the high-energy climax of the piece. Short, driving, accented motives are tossed between the bass and the orchestra. The music is often somewhat dissonant, but always directional. A challenge in composing for bass is balance between the bass and the orchestra. Rather than thinning the orchestra, in this movement, I chose to have them alternate quickly, so the orchestra could play with fullness and energy without covering the bass. The middle of this movement slows to a dark, mysterious scene, with a persistent 4-note ostinato that is traded through the winds, brass, percussion, strings, and harp. Fairly quickly, the music returns to the virtuosic, driving bass themes, pushing toward the dramatic final repetition of the opening statement.

Bassingthwaighte London Symphony Orchestra Concerto For Double Bass III. Pesante feroce

Four contemporary piano pieces evoking the four elements
Performance by Joseph Ferretti [from live concert April 2008]

Water, Fire, Air and Earth (piano) by Jana Skarecky

On this fourth Thursday of November, you might ask yourself: do Indians celebrate Thanksgiving? Well… Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday for Native people. In a way, each day is a day of thanksgiving to the Creator for the original people of Turtle Island. This doesn't mean that we don't enjoy turkey, pie and family as much as the next person, but at the same time the Thanksgiving myth largely shared in mainstream culture perpetuates a one sided view of a complicated history surrounding this holiday. Here’s an informed indigenous view on Thanksgiving: http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2013/11/do-indians-celebrate-thanksgiving.html

This doesn’t prevent us from “celebrating” in our own way by giving you a new song called Burn Your Village To The Ground. 

artwork by Sovereign State: sovereignstate.ca

A Tribe Called Red - Burn Your Village To The Ground

Available at CDBaby and iTunes on MARCH 2, 2015.

PERSONNEL & CREDITS:

Bill McBirnie – flute, alto flute (tracks 3 & 14) & piccolo (track 9)
Bruce Jones – guitar, vocal, percussion & synths
Produced by – Bill McBirnie & Bruce Jones
Recorded at – Da Da Music, Toronto, Ontario
Engineered by – Bruce Jones
Edited & Mixed by – Bill McBirnie & Bruce Jones 
Mastered by – Pacy Shulman at Hilo Studio, Toronto, Ontario
Cover Photo by – Gongbass
Layout, Design & Manufacturing by – Staci Patten, Accurate Audio, Toronto, Ontario

Bill plays a Wm. S. Haynes flute, a DynaLance headjoint (made by Guo Musical Instrument Co.), an Armstrong alto flute and a Gemeinhardt piccolo.

LINER NOTES:

Bruce Jones and I first collaborated about 15 years ago on my debut album, Desvio  (which was subsequently nominated for a Toronto Independent Music Award).  This initial recording project came about as a consequence of working regularly with Bruce's Brazilian rock band, Da, and as a further consequence of dressing tracks for Bruce on his various Da, Amazon Dreams and other recording projects.  After a while, I had done so much work with Bruce (whose songwriting I always admired) that I suggested to him, “Maybe we should try and do a flute-oriented project.”  To my surprise, Bruce was more than happy to oblige and that suggestion evolved into our first album, Desvio, which he dubbed “extrema flauta” (and which we anglicized as “Extreme Flute”).

Our musical paths diverged thereafter but, about a year ago, Bruce asked me to do some dressing for a couple of tracks he was working on.  This went really well and, in the course of doing so, I learned that Bruce had a lot of material in various stages of completion on his hard drive.  Once again, I suggested to him, “Maybe we should extend ourselves and do another flute-oriented project.”  Yet again, Bruce was happy to oblige and Grain of Sand is the result.  As fate would have it, this project has evolved into another incarnation of Extreme Flute!

Bruce is—and always has been—enormously talented, on multiple dimensions.  Musically, what he does is ostensibly Brazilian (in no small measure because he was raised in Brazil).  However, he combines that rich musical heritage with many other influences, ranging from rock & roll and hip-hop to new age.  For me, the big draw in working with Bruce has always been both the diversity of his material and his openness to improvisation (which is what I like to do most of all).  These features of his work have always provided us with a solid basis for collaboration—both then and now.

A project of this nature—involving just the two of us—takes considerable time to complete and so it inevitably proceeds in stages.  Each track starts with Bruce writing, playing and recording whatever idea he has in mind.  After Bruce has laid down what is often a fairly complete track, we then overlay any flute melodies he has in mind.  In addition, we conjure up shots and harmony parts and overdub these.  After that, we go back and I improvise over the entire track.  Finally, we take whatever we have (...which is typically far too much...) edit it and mix it down.  Of course, we “subtract” far more than we “add” as the process unfolds until sooner or later (...usually later...) we find what we're after.

The end result of this most recent collaboration, Grain of Sand, is both a fitting theme and title, because there always has been—and there always will be—a lot more from wherever this came.
						
Finally, Bruce and I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Canada's premier jazz station, Jazz.FM91, for including “Tudo Bem” (a track from our first collaboration, Desvio) in their spin cycle for what is now close to 15 years!

Bill McBirnie


03 Quando A Chuva Cai (As The Rain Falls)

Live at Recital Hour, The Rosza Centre, University of Calgary

Feb 8th

Flute: Jessica McMann
Piano: Julie Jacques
Composer:  Michael Daugherty

Trail Of Tears Concerto for Flute  1. where the wind blew free

Silla and Rise’s debut album is a sonic experiment blending Inuit throat-singing and futuristic dancefloor beats.  Silla are Cynthia Pitsiulak (Kimmirut, NU) and Charlotte Qamaniq (Iglulik, NU) their name comes from the word “Sila” in their Inuktitut dialect meaning weather.  Sila is what surrounds us; it is what connects us to our land, to the moon, sun and stars, the ocean and the air we breathe. In respecting and honoring  the need to preserve Inuit culture and paying homage to our land and the strong connection to its  spirituality, they experience and perform the sounds of traditional and contemporary throat songs.  Rise is Ottawa’s Rise Ashen, a Juno Award nominated global grooves producer, DJ and dancer who has spent his life pursuing the intersection of traditional and futuristic music.  Free DL, please share far and wide!

Tuniit Rock

Live off the floor in response to the fires in my home Province Alberta and close to home.

Fires

When The Grandmothers Meet
© Maria Dunn, 2015
Horns arranged by Jeremiah McDade

Inspired by: The Stephen Lewis Foundation’s “Grandmothers to Grandmothers” campaign in solidarity with African grandmothers caring for millions of children orphaned by AIDS; 19th century bard Mairi Mhor Nan Oran (“Big Mary of the Songs”) who fought for crofters’ land rights on Skye; Six Nations women who initiated the protests in 2006 in Caledonia, Ontario to protect unceded Six Nations land from private development; women singing to comfort their families and community after the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti.


Old woman don't you know your thoughts should ramble
Old woman don't you know your voice should tremble
Just wait until they see you--dancing in the street
Just wait until they hear you--singing to your heartbeat
When the grandmothers meet (x2)
O be in that number
When the grandmothers meet

In 1882 on Skye the Laird's men came
To shift the crofters once again, their bloody aim
But armed with only songs, their birthright and their sticks
The women of the Braes barred the police from their midst
When the grandmothers sing (x2)
Will you add your voice?
When the grandmothers sing

Hi ri o ho ro bho
Hi ri o ho ro bho
Hi ri o ho ro hu o

In another Caledonia, grandmothers stand
Once more they are defending their native land
A peaceful occupation to remind those who forgot
Six Nations never sold it, it should never have been bought
When the grandmothers speak (x2)
Will your heart be open?
When the grandmothers speak

They see their children die of AIDS, their grandchildren mourn
Family in tatters, village fabric torn
They’ve already laboured years to till and to sow
Now they're holding up the sky over death's relentless toll
When the grandmothers dance (x2)
Will you move in time?
When the grandmothers dance 

The earth heaved a sigh under Haiti’s feet
Too many hearts crushed in dust and concrete
While the news chews its violence too rabidly to hear
The sound of women singing to drive away the fear
When the grandmothers sing (x2)
Will you add your voice?
When the grandmothers sing

Maria Dunn vocal, guitar, accordion
Shannon Johnson violin
Ojas Joshi tabla
Eric Breton cajon, broom, rattle
Jeremiah McDade soprano sax
Solon McDade upright bass
Chorus: Shannon Johnson, Debbie Houle, Sarah Pocklington



08 When The Grandmothers Meet

R P M // 0 0 6 
Trained as an operatic tenor, and fluent in his Wolastoqey language, Jeremy Dutcher's music artfully blends Western classical, Electronic and Indigenous sounds by combining the operatic power of his voice with melodies from his Wolastoq (Maliseet) Nation.

Jeremy Dutcher’s incredible voice and artistic vision place him definitively at the forefront of the Indigenous Next Wave. “Honor Song” boldly declares the arrival of a singularly powerful new voice in Indigenous music.

Read more: http://rpm.fm/music/premiere-jeremy-dutcher-honor-song-debut-single-water-protectors/
Release info: www.rpm-records.com/rpm-releases/je…cher/honor-song

BUY/LISTEN: smarturl.it/honorsong

Links:
Website: jeremydutcher.com
SoundCloud: @jds35
Twitter: @jdutchermusic

==
Revolutions Per Minute
Website: RPM.fm
RPM Records: rpm-records.com
SoundCloud: @rpmfm
Facebook: @rpmfm
Twitter: @rpmfm
Instagram: @rpm.fm

Release Date: 09.27.17 
Catalog No: RPM006

jeremydutcher.com
rpm-records.com
RPM.fm

#HonorSong // #RPMRecords

Honor Song

Buy/Stream

Jeremy Dutcher - Honor Song

Music for the dance / animation / projection show Depths of Sorrows

Depths Of Sorrows

Morse Fugue

stay in bed

Title: “Letter from Pasadena”
Performers: Paul Nash, baritone; Mark McGregor and Samantha Fu, flutes; Jennifer Butler, alto flute; Sammy Pseng, piccolo.
March 14,  2004, Vancouver, BC

Program note: In late 1999, the world watched and listened as the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California struggled in vain to communicate with its Mars Polar Lander, sent off to search for water on the "Red Planet". I wrote the words to this elegy for the machine which, by the time it was finally given up for lost, had engaged our concern as if it were a missing child.

https://collections.cmccanada.org/final/Portal/Composer-Showcase.aspx?lang=en-CA

Leila Lustig - Letter from Pasadena

Association of Canadian Women Composers

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

Trail Of Tears Concerto for Flute 1. where the wind blew free

V. Jessica Sparvier-Wells

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