I’m excited to be embarking on a new 10-minute commission for the City of Newport Symphony Orchestra! This commission sits in a new intersection for me – a public engagement project in arts and science created in partnership with two wonderful researchers: Katrina Siddiqi-Davies and Julian Ruddock. Together, we are diving deep (like a shearwater hunting at sea) into the tracking data of Manx shearwaters and the data gathered mapping the weight of their eggs as they grow ahead of their migratory journey from their nests on Skomer Island.
Last week, I had the pleasure of hearing the City of Newport Symphony Orchestra and Anna Beresford (conductor) in rehearsal, and I cannot wait to spend more time with them – it’s a joy to see and hear the orchestra so engaged in the music-making process. I had a number of really enriching conversations that evening about their musical ambitions and intentions, and this has already provided me with an impetus to write some initial ideas. I can already tell this is going to be one of those really exciting creative processes.
What makes this project particularly exciting for me as a composer is how it pushes my creative methodology. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we, as composers, can use the creative process to explore non-musical ‘stuff’. I’m hopeful that this piece will further that thinking. As a starter for 10, I’m thinking about things like: how can we use the data collected on Skomer overtly? How can I engage the discursive nature of climate science in the composition? Is there a way to use the mechanics of flight to inform the writing process?
Rather than simply writing a piece about shearwaters (although they are beautiful birds, their fluffy chicks especially), I am interested in using the data itself as a compositional device. How do we map 7,000 miles of ocean flight onto the orchestra? How can specific orchestral colours capture the physics of ‘dynamic soaring’, or the transition and difference in scales between a dark burrow and the vast, open Atlantic? I am excited to meld the exploration of data-driven composition processes into my practice.
I want to use the music as a space for audiences to contemplate these questions and ask their own. I’m looking forward to sharing more ideas with the orchestra in the next few months, getting their feedback, and to the performance in the new year.
