The Bride's Journey was commissioned by Rusne Mataityte of the Kaskados Trio and received its first performance in the Vilnius Philharmonic on 12 May 2005.

The piece is part of an on-going series of pieces inspired by the folk music of Lithuania, much of it now only to be heard in early 20th century recordings.

The piece uses three traditional songs that tell of a bride's journey from first love (as siu nakti nemigau/I did not sleep this night), to the walk home from the church after the wedding (Anksta ryta keliau/I woke up early) and finally a week later, to her lamenting the loss of her mother and family home (Prapuoliau, motula/I am lost, mother).

The last section of the work uses the lively song Oi kai mes augom/O, when we were young and tells of the bride's memories of life before wedlock- 'oh when we three sisters were growing we were young and fair. When we became daughters-in-law, we had to wake early, go to bed late and forget the songs.'

The Bride's Journey was dedicated to my mother on her birthday in 2005.

The work was released on NMC D125, available from http://nmcrec.co.uk or on Amazon.


The Bride's Journey in Three Songs and a Memory for piano trio

GEDA’S WEAVINGS
for string quartet
As the title suggests, Geda’s Weaving’s draws together strands and threads - musical ideas (taken from the other five works that comprise my Lithuanian ‘project’) and poetic ones from Sigitis Geda. Although the work runs without a break it is in three movements entitled The First, Second and Third Weaving. The first is inspired by Geda’s dark and aggressive Traces of the Toad Cult Found Alongside Veprynas Lake, the second by the intensely moving Poem for Arvydas, the Field of Love. and the third by The Collective Request of the Dead Country Children of Pateru Village which I have depicted as a collage of musical games. The three movements rework materials from earlier works weaving together kaleidoscopic colours and memories in homage to a most wonderful country.
I  THE FIRST WEAVING
Traces of the Toad Cult Found Alongside Veprynas Lake
II THE SECOND WEAVING
Poem for Arvydas, the Field of Love
III THE THIRD WEAVING
The Collective Request of the Dead Country Children of Pateru Village

Geda’s Weavings was premiered by the Mataityte Quartet
in the Philharmonie Hall, Vilnius on 21 February 2005
and recorded for NMC the same year.
The work is dedicated to the players with deep admiration.

Geda's Weavings for string quartet:  The First Weaving

An Unexpected Light for solo violin, string ensemble and percussion (2003)
Sadie Harrison 

An Unexpected Light explores the folk musics from four countries, Lithuania, Georgia, Khojent (now Russian Ferghana) and Armenia, and is intended as a comment on the gradual transformation of musical cultures that once thrived in all their variety in the early Twentieth Century.
The concerto opens with a harvesting song, Pute Vejas, from South Aukstaitiya, a plaintive melody which recurs only on the solo violin, linking the two main transcriptions of the work. The first of these is a transparent, dreamlike version of a ghostly song from Khojent called Soki Sini Khorosh, the second is a lively and highly virtuosic, whirling Lezghinka dance from Tiflis in Georgia. The work closes with echoes of these musics overlaid by an Armenian song from Alexandropol - Alagyaz Badzr sar E (Alagyaz is a high mountain) and A-a, a-a, Mazulyte, a beautiful lullaby, also from South Aukstaitiya.
Surrounding these folk musics are passages of aggressive modernist writing, dark and rhythmic where every instrument is treated as a soloist. The conjunction of apparently unrelated musical styles creates the structure of the concerto and acts as a metaphor for the struggle between cultures.
The score is prefaced with a lyrical text by the Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, taken from her ‘Poem of the End’. It expresses the pain of loss whilst rejoicing in the beauty of a song which shines despite the darkness. This provides a perfect analogy for my own work, giving the concerto its title, An Unexpected Light. The piece has a dual dedication, to Rusne Mataityte, Donatas Katkus and the Saint Christopher Chamber Orchestra who premiered the work, and to my daughter, Freya. (SH)

..as stars rise often and go out again..
so many eyes have risen and died out
in front of these eyes of mine.

and yet no such song have
I heard in the darkness of night before..
here, on the ribs of the singer.


[The work received its first performace in the City Hall, Vilnius, Lithuania on 20 February 2004, performed by Rusne Mataityte (vln) Donatus Katkus (cond) and the St. Christopherus Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius. The work was commissioned as part of the Orchestra’s 20th Anniversary Gala concert and was broadcast on Lithuanian Television and Radio on 26 February 2004.
The work was released on NMC in Spring 2007 alongside other related chamber works by Sadie Harrison.]

An Unexpected Light - concerto for violin, percussion and string orchestra

'I kiss the earth' for soprano and left hand piano
Dedicated to Veronica Doubleday and Peyee Chen

The quatrains for this song cycle are taken from High on the Tall Mountain, an illustrated anthology of Afghan chaharbeiti (sung poetry) shown in the original Persian alongside English translations by my dear friend Veronica Doubleday. I started writing the piece in April 2021, little knowing how this beautiful country of musicians, poets and artists would be decimated once again by the arrival of the Taliban a few months later in August. Originally the work finished with the joyous declamation of a lover, however I felt compelled to write a further movement in December 2021 - ‘War came to Kabul and her northern plain. God send them blessings of human kindness!’(SH Dec. 2021) 

‘I kiss the earth’
is part of the 
PASTURE & STORM PROJECT (New Repertoire for Single-handed Pianists)
Premiered on 9 September 2022 at St. George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol
by Peyee Chen and Tomáš  Klement

Generously supported by funds from Arts Council England National Lottery 
and PRSF Foundation Open Fund. 

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 5 I kiss the earth Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 3 Snow Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 2 Spring's Here Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 8 A lasting momento Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 1 My Sweetheart's Name Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 6 I play my flute Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 7 Gunshots and smoke Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 4 Chains of ringlets Sadie Harrison

I Kiss the Earth - Mvt 9 War Sadie Harrison

20 The Bride's Journey In Three Songs And A Memory  IV A Memory Of Days Before The Wedding

19 The Bride's Journey In Three Songs And A Memory  III Lamenting A Week After The Wedding

18 The Bride's Journey In Three Songs And A Memory  II The Song Sung Returning From The Wedding

17 The Bride's Journey In Three Songs And A Memory  I The Love Song Before The Wedding

LIVE RECORDING on 3 August 2013
Ian Pace (piano)
Late Music York, Unitarian Chapel, York
Commissioned for Late Music Festival with funds from PRSF.

RETURN OF THE NIGHTINGALES 
for solo piano and nightingale (2013)

Along with the rose, the nightingale is one of the principal images used in classical Afghan poetry and song. It is the bird of hazar dastan, ‘a thousand stories’, singing rad ba rad, varying its song ‘turn by turn’. The combination of live birdsong and music is considered to give Afghans the greatest musical enjoyment. The score is prefaced by the following Persian Sufi text:

'Ajab tarana e sar karda am darin golshan, Khoda konad ke na sazad falak khamush mara'

I have started to sing a wonderful song in this flower-garden like a nightingale
I hope the movement of the stars (destiny) does not make me silent again.

It is used as a direct reference to the devastation of Afghan culture during the period of the Taliban when musicians were silenced or exiled, and to their re-emergence following the Taliban’s expulsion from 2001. The text also suggested a simple musical narrative: 
-  a lone nightingale’s song is accompanied by a classical Afghan song, a tarana 
-  its obliteration by a violent and mechanistic depiction of warfare
- the gradual reassertion of the tarana and the nightingale with an accumulation of birdsong and trills interlaced with fragments of an Afghan rag, increasingly ecstatic and resonant. This eventually dies away to reveal the nightingale’s song.

The musical material has been derived from three sources. The opening melody is a transcription of an Afghan tarana sung by Ustad Amir Mohammad, recorded by ethnomusicologist John Baily during a Herati wedding party on 12 September 1974.  Many of the rhythmic patterns are taken from Afghan musicians’ improvisations made in response to hearing Messiaen’s Le Loriod, recorded by John in Herat in 1994. The trill-saturated conclusion was inspired in part by Ian’s tremendous performance of Scriabin’s Tenth Sonata which I heard in 2004, and contains fragments from this work. 

Return of the Nightingales is a purposely uneasy work. It combines ‘natural’ birdsong with constructed music, and contemporary Western and traditional Afghan musical sources on an instrument that is only designed to convey the former with any subtlety or authenticity. The ecstatic climax is ‘my’ resolution expressed in European terms...an outsider’s response.

The piece is dedicated to John Baily, who together with his wife Veronica Doubleday, has worked tirelessly to preserve Afghan music. His video documentary, Return of the Nightingales (2012) celebrates the fabulous work undertaken by the Afghanistan National Institute for Music. Its mottos are:
BUILD LIVES THROUGH MUSIC 
REVIVE AND PRESERVE AFGHAN MUSIC 
TRAIN FUTURE MUSIC EDUCATORS
 ESTABLISH INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE 
ASSURE MUSICAL RIGHTS



Klänge-Farben 25

Return of the Nightingales for solo piano and nightingale (2013)

ANTHEM
for singing string quartet and NASA Moon Landing audio

In his 2018 Guardian article about the biopic ‘First Man’. Steve Rose wrote: 'Neil Armstrong made one concise, very famous proclamation about the moon landing being a giant leap for mankind. Perhaps, in that transcendent moment, he wanted us to be more than a planet of warring tribes, nation states or political factions.’ 

Anthem is an increasingly joyful celebration of mankind, combining fragments of twelve national anthems, focusing on those countries that have successfully landed vehicles on the moon. The human element is heard in superimposed recordings of NASA's Apollo 11 commentary and concludes with the singing voices of the quartet.

Anthem was commissioned for the 3D presentation In the Steps of Apollo by Sound World/New Music in the South West with generous funds from the Ambache Charitable Trust. Anthem received its premiere as part of the 50th Anniversary Moon Landing celebrations at We the Curious (Bristol Planetarium) on 20 July 2019. 

Anthem is dedicated with thanks to Julian Leeks.

https://sound-world.org/apollo/

ANTHEM for singing string quartet and NASA Moon Landing audio

LIVE UNEDITED RECORDING
Commissioned for the Vigani Project 2007 receiving its first performance in The Great Hall of Queen’s College, Cambridge performed by Lesley-Jane Rogers & members of the Cambridge Music Faculty on17 March 2007
Although little is known about the private life of Francis Vigani, less is known about his family. This piece gives temporary life to his wife Elizabeth and to his daughters. His first daughter remains nameless, his second daughter was possibly called Jane.
Vigani’s Others is dedicated to my only daughter, Freya Elizabeth Ann Bowen Church-Harrison, born 21 December 1990.
I I am Elizabeth: I am Vigani’s wife. I am Elizabeth Vigani. I am Elizabeth.
I I They say my name is Jane: I am Vigani’s daughter. They say my name is Jane. Jane Vigani. Jane. I am Vigani’s daughter.
I I I I have no name: I am Vigani’s daughter. I have no name. I am Vigani’s lost daughter.
Duration: c. 10 minutes

01 Vigani's Others

LIVE UNEDITED RECORDING - Duncan Honeybourne (piano) 2012
First movement of a four movement work:

LUNAE Four Nocturnes for solo piano          Sadie Harrison (2012) 		
	      	
Lunae is a set of four pieces which share many of the characteristics of the nineteenth century piano Nocturne popularised by composers such as Field and Chopin. It also draws on works written in the early twentieth century where ‘nocturnal sounds’ were incorporated into evocations of the night, most notably by Debussy and Bartok. 

Nocturne I..around and a round... is a slow, midnight merry-go-round with a bass line that repeats with variations throughout the work. Marked ‘gently expressive’ it is inspired by Song, a beautiful piece by contemporary pianist and composer John Law (The Art of Sound, Volume 1.) The piece is dedicated to John, with thanks.


LUNAE 1 around and a round

LIVE UNEDITED RECORDING - Duncan Honeybourne (piano) 2012
Seconf movement of a four movement work:

LUNAE Four Nocturnes for solo piano Sadie Harrison (2012)

Lunae is a set of four pieces which share many of the characteristics of the nineteenth century piano Nocturne popularised by composers such as Field and Chopin. It also draws on works written in the early twentieth century where ‘nocturnal sounds’ were incorporated into evocations of the night, most notably by Debussy and Bartok.

Nocturne II Lachrymae is based closely on John Dowland’s Lachrymae Pavan for lute. Written as an ‘In Memorium’, the piece is slow and melancholy, being prefaced by a quote from Lithuanian poet Valdas Daskevicius: ‘Love is the silence in which I remember you and repeat you’. The theme is heard in many guises, representing the sadness of loss, the hope of a remembered dream and a sad reawakening. It is dedicated to Pamela Parr, an extraordinary epigraphist and adventuress who died in 2012.

MVT 1 at 
https://soundcloud.com/sadie-harrison-composer/lunae-1-around-and-a-round

LUNAE 2 Lachrymae

LIVE UNEDITED RECORDING 2011
Fiona Cross (clarinet)
Duncan Honeybourne (piano)

(A version of this work for violin and piano, entitled '....in small things remembered...' was written for Rusne Mataityte and Sergej Okrushko, first performed in the Is Arti Festival, Kaunas, November 2012.)

9 Breaths for clarinet and piano


THE FOURTEENTH TERRACE for solo clnt and ensemble (2002) 
Lontano (Odaline de la Martinez)
Andrew Sparling (solo clarinet)
		 
Metier Records MSV CD 92084 (2003)
"The Light Garden is an offering of the highest quality, with no compromise for popular taste... This is without question one of my top recordings of the year, a ground-breaking release" Music Web
"METIER offers a catalog of consistently impressive discs. In such lofty company, this one still stands out." International Record Review

The Fourteenth Terrace is the second in a trilogy of works that take their inspiration from the  extraordinary 16th century autobiography, the Babur-nama written by the warrior-poet Zahiru’d-din Muhammad Babur.  Although Babur is known principally for his warfaring, he was also an architect and designer responsible for constructing a number of fabulous gardens in Afghanistan and India. At his request, Babur was buried in one of his own gardens on a hillside overlooking the city of Kabul. The tomb itself stands on the fourteenth terrace of the garden, which is bordered by marble-edged streams, reservoirs and waterfalls, constructed within strict geometric patterns. In accordance with Babur’s will, the streams were to pass through hermit’s cells so that ‘the destitute and poor people who gathered there could eat their food sheltered from the hardship of snow and rain’. Whilst Babur’s tomb itself remains intact, the gardens were destroyed in 2001.

The form of The Fourteenth Terrace is based on an episodic Afghan instrumental composition, the naghma-ye kashal which heralds the start of urban weddings and celebrations. The music is written using rag-bairami with the instrumentalists speaking the letter names of the rag as well as the title of the piece in Afghan. The opening of the work takes over where the first work of the set The Light Garden ends, with a piercing solo clarinet crying out over the ensemble. From this point the piece explores the interaction of fluid, aleatoric music and tightly controlled rhythmic sections echoing the movement of water through channels. The climax of the piece is marked by the clarinettist’s whispered recitation in Persian of an inscription from Babur’s Mosque (the Babri Mosjid) in Ajodhya (Oudh) in Utter Pradesh near Faizabad. The work closes with a lullaby, inspired by music sung by Herati women to the accompaniment of the daireh or frame-drum.

The three works in the trilogy function very much as a set. The Light Garden takes its title from one of the 17h century names for Afghanistan, and the concluding work derives from part of the inscription on Babur’s tomb Bavad khair baqi! (May this goodness last for ever!) Together with The Fourteenth Terrace, the pieces move their focus from the country of Afghanistan, to the garden near Kabul city and finally to Babur’s tomb itself .

The piece is dedicated to Andrew Sparling and Odaline de la Martinez/Lontano who give the work its first performance at the Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, London in September 2002. The work was subsequently broadcast by the BBC.

c Sadie Harrison


04 The Fourteenth Terrace  Second Part of the Light Garden Trilogy

NANI KA ITOU? (Why abandon me?)
from 'Songs of the Exotic' (BML 012)
TAPESTRY: Sandra Lissenden (sop), Andrew Sparling (clnt) Katharine Durran (pno)

MOVEMENT II Akikase no - No visitor comes (Nakatsukasa)

The collection of wakas from which the texts of these songs were chosen was written by a group of geisha who worked in the courts of Imperial Japan from the ninth to the thirteenth century, and represents the primary romantic communication used by the women within these courts. By the end of the thirteenth century the texts were arranged into structured anthologies for the uta-awase or poetry competition where different courts competed, raising the poems to a high artform.

The selected texts were written during the early period 820-950 AD and reflect the geisha's emotional response to their restricted lifestyle. Telling of the pain of unrequited or lost love, they draw on subtle images of nature rather than state their passionate content.

Commissioned with funds from Yorkshire and Humberside Arts. First performed at Oakwell Hall, Birstall, 27 March 1993.

II AKIKASE NO

No visitor comes
along with the blowing
of this autumn wind.
If you were a reed grass
you ought to produce some sound.

NANI KA ITOU? II Akikase no

ENSEMBLE BAKHTAR performing one of the traditional Afghan songs on 

THE LIGHT GARDEN TRILOGY
Metier Records MSV CD 92084 (2003)

The Light Garden
The Fourteenth Terrace
Bavad khair baqi!

Performers: Lontano Odaline de la Martinez (conductor) Andrew Sparling (clarinet), Tate Ensemble and Peter Sheppard Skaerved (violin) with Ensemble Bakhtar (traditional Afghan music)

"The Light Garden is an offering of the highest quality, with no compromise for popular taste... This iswithout question one of my top recordings of the year, a ground-breaking release" Music Web
"METIER offers a catalog of consistently impressive discs. In such lofty company, this one still stands out."International Record Review

07 Siah Cheskm-e Khumari (Your Captivating Black Eyes) (-----)

PERSONAL WEBSITE: www.sadieharrisoncomposer.co.uk

Sadie Harrison was born in Adelaide, Australia and moved to England in 1970. She gained her Masters and Doctorate in Composition at Kings College, London studying under Nicola Lefanu and David Lumsdaine. Performances of Sadie's works have been given across the world by Lontano, London Chamber Symphony, Music Projects/ London, Ixion, Okeanos, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Gemini, also the Kreutzer Quartet, the Kaskados Trio, Double Image, Endymion Ensemble, Capricorn, the Tate Ensemble, New Music Players, Fiona Cross, Peter Sheppard Skaerved, Kate Romano, Sarah Leonard, Stephen Gutman, Clive Williamson, Simon Limbrick, Lesley-Jane Rogers, Duncan Honeybourne, the Scottish Clarinet Quartet, Paul Carey-Jones, David Heyes, the Composers Ensemble, Kokoro and the St. Christopherus Chamber Orchestra, Vilnius.
Sadie’s music has been released to critical acclaim on a number of record labels, notably NMC, Cadenza, Sargasso, BML, Metier and Clarinet Classics. Taking Flight (MSV CD92053) was chosen as Classical London’s CD of the Month, February 2001.

Her Afghan-inspired disc, The Light Garden (MSV CD92084) was described in the press as:
‘without question one of the top recordings of the year, a ground-breaking release’
Musical Pointers

‘Hit the repeat button on your CD player and let the whole disc spin two or three
times. Metier has accomplished something quite remarkable with Harrison’s
amazing music and the Bakhtar’s vibrant playing. Indisputably one of this year’s
best” La Folia, USA;

and her most recent disc, An Unexpected Light (NMC D125), based on the folk music of the Northern Caucasus and Lithuania, gained unanimous praise,

‘NMC has struck gold! A wonderful sequence which held us enthralled, playing the
programme through with only one brief pause; a marvellous 'concert' which builds
on the legacy of Bartok's Kodaly's pioneering collecting long ago, giving 'cross-over'
a new and enriched meaning; one to which we will return." Musical Pointers

‘Sadie Harrison's unique fusion of elements from indigenous Lithuanian music and
poetry with her own modernist, often abrasive style, have led her to be compared
with Bartok, but her underlying empathy with the local people of this war-torn
country shines through with a poignancy and warmth all of her own.’ Tempo

Her music has been broadcast on both radio and television, on BBC Radio 3 and in Eastern Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, America, Lithuania, The Netherlands and elsewhere and has been selected for several international festival performances. She was the only composer chosen to represent Australia at the ISCM World Music Days 2002 and her clarinet concerto The Fourteenth Terrace was selected by the ISCM Australian Reading Panel to go forward to the World Music Days Zagreb 2005.

Sadie took an extended break from composition in 2008 to pursue a further degree and subsequent career in archaeology. She worked as a field archaeologist in Britain and abroad for three years, specialising in the Bronze Age pottery of the Carpathian Basin, in particular the fabulous Kosider Ware found in Hungary. A career highlight was taking part in the Channel 4 Time Team Series in 2010!

Since her return to music full-time, Sadie has continued her relationship with Lithuanian musicians, with new works performed at the Kaunas Festival 2012, and her violin concerto An Unexpected Light receiving a further performance by Rusne Mataityte in Vilnius in September 2012. Sadie has been working closely with double bass virtuoso David Heyes, writing a number of works for youngand amateur bassists, most works now published by Recital Music, with several premiered by students from Wells Cathedral School in 2012-13. She has recently written works for baritone Paul Carey Jones performed at the Late Music Festival York in 2012 and has received several performances of Gallery, an extended set of solo violin pieces by Peter Sheppard Skaerved, in Britain and across Europe in 2012-13. The complete set will be recorded for broadcast in Nashville later this year.

Sadie is currently working on a piano concerto for Sergej Okrushko and the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, Vilnius, a set of violin duos for the Retorica Duo and a new work for piano to be played by Ian Pace at this year’s Late Music Festival in York at Rzewski’s 75th Birthday
Celebration Concert. Following the success of her work with the Scottish Clarinet Quartet and the Songs of the Earth Project, Sadie is working with Alex South on an ongoing project with the group and the exceptional Plockton Traditional Music School. She has just finished a set of solo viola pieces for Diana Mathews. She is also working on a piano piece for Duncan Honeybourne, in response to the music of William Barnes. This work, alongside ‘Lunae: Four Nocturnes’ will be recorded for CD by Duncan later this year, to be released on Divine Art. Sadie’s music is published primarily by the University of York Music Press. A number of works for double bass have recently been published by Recital Music.

‘Rhythm and lyricism held in perfect balance.’ Gramophone 2001
"this is distinctive, pungent music that demands close attention." Guardian 2005

Sadie Harrison Composer

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