My friend Yiannitsa Cegarra took some pictures during the poetry walk at Bennachie. In her photos she wanted to respond to some of the poems I was reading. Thanks Yiann!
Pearls
One in the late summer birch wood
Knee-deep in heather flowers
the trees' small heart-shaped leaves
glistened at the sun after a summer shower.
Beneath it a spider cobweb
spun between blaeberry twigs
hung heavy with heaven raindrop pearls.
I remember this in the same way
as the shelled settlement
a few strides further up the path
so as to not to forget
what kindled the squatters' fire.
Copyright poem Petra Vergunst, copyright images Yiannitsa Cegarra
A composer, a miller, his wife and son, and the mill wheel –
the ingredients of a new piece I’m composing for soundlab, Aberdeen’s new
music ensemble led by clarinettist Jo Nicholson for a performance on Sunday 16 November.
On of the most interesting moments during my project Burn of Sound at Muir of Dinnet was when during a walk I took my participants to the
viewpoint from where one can look over Loch Kinord. It was here that
we met Paul Anderson who, for the project Atomic Doric that he was involved in,
was composing a number of fiddle tunes inspired by the loch. He
generously played some of his tunes for us.
This was a chance encounter that set me thinking. If Paul Anderson, a celebrated fiddle player and composer, found inspiration for his
music in the area in which he lives, who was I then as a composer of
contemporary classical music? The classical music tradition that informed my
composition training suddenly seemed remote in both time and space. When we
listen to a Haydn string quartet the music stems from a society and time
distant from us. Moreover, here was Paul Anderson performing his music within
touching distance, happily chatting with us in between tunes. No raised
concert stage epitomising the untouchability and celebrity of performers of
classical music as I was familiar with. Though I had long been aware of the
different socio-cultural, geographical and historical relations in traditional
and classical music, it was this meeting that really brought home it
significance for me and questioned who I wanted to be as a composer.
The questions raised were still fresh in my mind when I spoke to
sound last year about composing something for soundlab. With James
Scott Skinner being a fiddle player and composer from Banchory the idea seemed
obvious: what I would be looking for was a contemporary reinterpretation of some of
James Scott Skinner’s music to highlight the way traditional music is inspired by
our own environs and society and I was going to use this to
revitalise my own contemporary classical music. In exploring the life and music
of James Scott Skinner I was soon struck by a set of four strathspeys dedicated
to the miller of Hirn, his wife, his son and the mill wheel. Hirn being just a
few miles northeast of Banchory, I imagined the composer visiting his miller
friend of many occasions.
Family Business is composed for soundlab, a contemporary
music group with a flexible group of musicians playing a wide range of
orchestral, traditional and lesser known instruments (including voice). The
work will be programmed alongside some traditional tunes and we are looking for
some traditional musicians to join soundlab for this performance to help us get
to grips with strathspeys and reels. If you want to join us, please
contact Anne Watson at anne@sound-scotland.co.uk. There will be a rehearsal on
Sunday 2 November from 10 am to 2 pm with a further rehearsal and performance taking place on
Sunday 16 November from 12 noon to 5 pm. Both the rehearsal and performance will be at the Phoenix Community Centre, Newton Dee Village, Bieldside.
Though Whispers in the Woods is behind me, the project has
raised many questions that will stay with me for some time. The Colonists settled
on land to which their communities had access, but lairds eventually divided this
land between them, in turn dispossessing the Colonists from land to which their
community had access. These questions about possession and dispossession are
important in our private lives as well. What
does our home mean to us and how do we feel when we’re dispossessed? What does
the watch we inherited from our grandmother mean to us and how do we feel when
we lose it?
In Have: Not Have I hope to explore some of these questions –
not least within the context of consumerism. On our travels we buy souvenirs,
for ourselves or to give them to neighbours for looking after our plants while we were away.
Many of these souvenirs we eventually throw away. Why did we buy them and why
did they lose their meaning? Likewise, we rush to get our Christmas shopping
done, anticipate how others will react to the presents we buy them, but often
find it hard to find the ultimate present. What really is meaningful to us and to
what extent can this be expressed through objects?
A big thank you to The Hope Scott Trust, Forestry Commission Scotland, sound, The Bailies of Bennachie, The Dee String Quartet and The New Words Festival for generously supporting the project.
Griselda McGregor wrote a review of the event which can be found on the New Words 2014 website.
On 6 September shmuFM's Literature Show was dedicated to this project. As part of the programme I read quite a few of the poems from my pamphlet Whispers in the Woods. You can listen back to this programme here.
If you wanted to order a copy of my pamphlet (£5 incl. p&p), please send me an email at petravergunst@hotmail.com.
My friend Yiannitsa Cegarra took some pictures during the poetry walk at Bennachie. In her photos she wanted to respond to some of the poems I was reading. Thanks Yiann!
