Composing waves

Undergraduate composer Bekah Withers has just finished a rewarding community music commission: Since December I have been lucky to be part of the Sound Waves project run by the d.@rt community art centre at Wildern School. The project was created to explore the relationship of science and music, and the resultant performance featured such a broad spectrum of music, ranging from pieces exploring literal sound waves, to pieces describing the soundscape of the coast (this is where I came in). The arts centre approached our university Music department, and the project was forwarded to me and postgraduate composer Martin Humphries. With the help of fellow students Scott Hunter and Catherine Underhill, I worked closely with Wildern School’s year 8 enrichment group. My job was to help develop the musical ideas that the children had after their visit to Hythe Marina, and arrange them into a coherent piece (this was possibly a bigger task than I had originally envisioned!)

The piece, titled Storm, was a narrative work describing the coming and passing of a storm on the coast. When developing their ideas, the children split into four groups and focused on coming up with an idea for a specific part of the narrative. Each used different combinations of instruments so this made the arrangement particularly difficult! Scott and I helped develop and transcribe these ideas, listening to the reasoning they had behind each artistic choice. For me, listening to their reasoning was the most important part; it helped me stay true to their original intentions.  This was important because then they could see how their ideas had helped shape the piece I presented to them on Sunday. Outside of these sessions I got to work forming the final piece. I drew inspiration from many film storm scenes, including those in Ponyo and The Life of Pi. This gave my piece a rather film-esque feel, but I think that the children enjoyed this as it was something they could relate to better.

Last Sunday’s concert was a success: it showcased some truly wonderful acts that children and adults alike had been working on for this project. It was interesting to see how each group had such a different outcome whilst working under the same title. The highlight for me was seeing my piece come to life in the hands of the amazing performers that Catherine had convinced to help! I just want to thank the performers again for doing such a wonderful job:

Conductor: Christian Drew; Flute: Laura Simmons; Oboe (and performance co-ordinator): Catherine Underhill; Clarinet: Esme Phillips; Bassoon: Rebecca Carey; Violin: Kanon Miyashita, Katherine Roberts; Viola: Elizabeth Yu; Cello: Joci Olexa; Double Bass: Will Heaton; Piano: James Kennedy; Percussion: Ben Wright