I’m a rank amateur when it comes to composing, but I quite enjoy the freedom of neither having elevated expectations of myself, nor of being under any pressure to be compared with ‘real’ professional composers!
I wrote a couple of choral pieces about the climate crisis, not long ago. Both have been trialled at workshops run by composer Chris Hutchings in Edinburgh. One was even programmed by a choir putting on a couple of concerts down in England last weekend. That’s beyond exciting.
Songs of Hope for a Planet in Peril, St Mary’s Ivinghoe
Beacon Community Choir performed two concerts on 20th and 21st April 2024.
(Ivinghoe is near Leighton Buzzard – near Luton, to those of us unfamiliar with the locality!)
Workshops
You can hear both being tried out, here. The most recent was, Not like Noah. Before that, I wrote the Extinction Calypso.
Flushed with success, I thought I’d write another piece this year, and I did make a start at the weekend. However, these things can’t be hurried. It is still a work in progress.
Chris Hutchings has put together a website where choirs can find a wide range of different pieces on the subject of climate change – Choirs for Climate. Do take a look!
It’s also Climate Week in the Whittaker Library (where I work) this week. I can’t take any credit for all that’s happening – my capable colleagues set it all up. But of you’re interested, do visit the library blog, here.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Karen McAulay, Musicologist 