Great sense of anticipation, seeking, whimsy

I wrote this as a playable but tricky solo piano piece in June 2012 after seeing a magnificent, majestic Sun Fish swimming round and round on its own in an aquarium in Tokyo. Over a year later, I've made a virtual ensemble version for harps, flutes, bass clarinet, tubas, cor anglais and glockenspiel. It's mainly in 5/4. I hope you enjoy it.

The Sun Fish

Princess Moomintwinkle likes minor seconds. The first bars of this tiny piece - which is dedicated to Princess Moomintwinkle's devoted servant, composer Sadie Harrison - consist of the notes Moomintwinkle can be seen playing in the photograph.

Moomintwinkle Tinkle

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

Thom

LIVE UNEDITED RECORDING - Duncan Honeybourne (piano) 2012
Final 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 IV Sufficit lumen in tenebris (One light suffices in the dark) was written as a gift for friends, Sarah and David Heyes in celebration of their 25th Wedding Anniversary in September 2012. The music is based on a medieval chant from the Worcester School dating from circa 1300 AD. This is heard in its most simple form at the opening, transformed three times as the music becomes more passionate. The use of the chant is particularly fitting in this context as the term ‘nocturne’ comes to us from the Medieval Latin, being used to describe the liturgical offices associated with night prayers.

Suffit lumen in tenebris

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

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

Sadie Harrison Composer

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