(best with headphones)

Happy International Dawn Chorus Day!

This piece was written by Birmingham-based flutist and composer Margaret Lowe for an unspecified number of flutists stationed in various locations in a large space. I don't know if this piece has any direct connection to Dawn Chorus Day, but it certainly feels like it does!

Margaret Lowe: Dawn Carol

Made as part of the tenth annual Spring Project from Cities and Memory (citiesandmemory.com)

Original field recording: Train sounds from Palo Alto, CA by Colin Hunter:
https://audioboom.com/posts/8738867-american-trains

"In my area of North America, train journeys are relatively rare. Taking a train feels like a special occasion because I only have the opportunity when I’m far from home. I’ve always enjoyed the exploratory feel of train rides: a train journey feels almost like stolen time, where normal responsibilities are paused and you are given freedom to simply be, if you choose.

"I was inspired by the F#-A train horn to create a harmonic home base of the broad key of B (be). Flute and alto flute depict both the rhythmic train engine (with a nod to Steve Reich’s ‘Different Trains’) and the melodic way fragments of thoughts and ideas drift in and out when in a meditative state."

Train tracks

Margaret Fischer, flute
Kimberly Schmidt, piano
Live recording
For educational use only

Joseph Schwantner: Black Anemones for flute and piano

Margaret Fischer, flute
Recorded live on a Zoom H2
For educational use only

Denis Gougeon: L'oiseau blesse (The injured bird)for solo flute

Beach at Paritutu Centennial Park, New Plymouth, New Zealand (north island). Recorded on 28 October 2016 with a Zoom H2 outfitted with a furry windscreen, 4 ch surround.

Seaside sounds, New Zealand

Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand (north island). Recorded on 28 October 2016. It really was quite windy that day!

The racket beginning around 0:11 is a black swan that was drifting on the pond, and quite a vocal one at that.

Black Swan at Pukekura Park, New Zealand

This repetitive little birdsong was captured while the bird in question (allegedly a Tufted Titmouse) sang its tune while sitting on my home's chimney, and the sound carried down the chimney and into my fireplace! The rhythm was so striking and hypnotic (and incessant - the bird went on like this for a good 10 minutes, easily!).

Recorded at home, January 26, 2020

Birdsong, amplified by chimney

Taking an 8-second excerpt from my previous track, "Birdsong (amplified by chimney)," I had fun reimagining this birdsong in the style of Steve Reich's "Clapping Music."

Made with Audacity, January 26, 2020.

Bird Phase

This piece got me back into playing piano after a nearly 20-year hiatus. It feels wonderful to have the freedom to make music, simply for my own enjoyment (which I never thought I'd say about the piano, given that I used to view it as torture!).

Margaret Fischer, alto flute and piano
Recorded at home, January 31, 2020

Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel (for alto flute and piano)

I got the idea for this project on J. S. Bach's birthday (March 21) – I was noodling around at home on Bach's Prelude in C Major, and it gradually morphed into this. All of this is outside my comfort zone – I am not a pianist, and I'm definitely not a vocalist! – but I love the song “Waitin' for a Superman” so much and I was curious to see if I could combine two musical worlds that are so meaningful to me. I like how the result turned out, warts and all. I also took inspiration from the Iron and Wine cover of this same song.

March 2020 was when the coronavirus was starting to really affect daily life in the US; I, like millions of people around the world, found myself sequestered at home with deep anxiety about the state of the world, my professional future, the health of my loved ones. "Is it gettin' heavy," indeed. Having this piano at home was a godsend. There's a weight of expectation when you're creating something with your primary language - the expectation is that it'll be good. Because piano is not my primary instrument, I had no expectations at all, and it gave me an opportunity to make music that was just for me, as well as something to practice for!

Recorded at home
Vocals recorded in my bathroom, because everyone sounds better singing in the shower!

No copyright infringement intended.

Waitin' for a Superman (Flaming Lips/J. S. Bach)

Lockdown project. Full program notes, with my personal thoughts about what this piece means to me in this time of quarantine, can be found at https://coffeecantata.co/?p=6244

This piece is 32 pages long; I recorded 4 pages at a time and spliced the recordings together because I simply don't have enough music stands! You can hear subtle changes in the tone color when a new section begins simply because they're different takes - I wasn't going for this but I've grown to like it, it mirrors the times of day when I was recording (day/night/day).

Margaret Fischer, flutes
Recorded May 13-14, 2020.

Philip Glass: Piece in the Shape of a Square

The sounds of my morning ritual. Grind, level, tamp, pull, steam, purge, pour. Repeat.

I miss the sound of coffee shops!

Cappuccino

In learning this song, I discovered multiple threads connecting it with the first movement of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata, right down to the minor/major relationship between the two works. It was a joy to merge these pieces into something new.

The recording starts with air-conditioning noise and ends with the sounds of birds chirping. Can't be helped when you're recording at home during a heatwave!

No copyright infringement intended.

Hopechapel Hill (Gravenhurst/Beethoven)

The Lightning Seeds' "Pure" is such a perfect pop song and it felt borderline sacrilegious to make this cover. But even though I have never been particularly motivated to have children, this is the sort of song I would want to sing them as a lullaby. And for anyone acquainted with MBTI, this might be the most INFP song in existence, haha!

From 2:53 there is a quote from J. S. Bach's Invention No. 1... I never got good enough at piano as a kid to really do the Two-Part Inventions, but I associate those piano pieces with youth and somehow it seemed to fit the mood of the track.

No copyright infringement intended.

Margaret Fischer

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