Category: poetry

No Trees to Whisper: a song cycle for soprano and clarinet  Saturday 26th March 2022 – at 2pm – on Zoom 

concert, music, Online, poetry, Scottish music, song

Performed by Turning the Elements:  Frances Cooper (soprano) Joanna Nicholson (clarinet), with the support of Creative Scotland.

Friends of Wighton’s first online event, in November 2022, was Dawn Wood’s poetry workshop for this commission and we are honoured and delighted to be showing the World Premiere of No Trees to Whisper.  

We are also thrilled to be Zooming to you from The Weaver’s Room in Verdant Works (www.verdantworks.co.uk) Dundee’s five-star rated textile museum.   Thanks to Dundee Heritage Trust’s Deirdre Robertson, for making it possible, and Wendy Gammie, for making it work!

The concert is free but donations can be made at www.friendsofwighton.com

Sheena Wellington is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Saturday 26th March, 2pm-3pm (waiting room open at 1.50pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85037688867?pwd=SWFXek1uc1ArdjhFeVBLTFIrVms4Zz09

Meeting ID: 850 3768 8867
Passcode: 255139

The inspiration for the project came from Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell’s famous diaries of their Journey to the Highlands and Islands in 1773 –

“ I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of Romance might have delighted to feign.   I had indeed no trees to whisper over my head, but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet….  Whether I spent the hour well, I know not: for here I first conceived the thought of this narration”

Poetry was commissioned from Iain Morrison, Dawn Wood and Haworth Hodgkinson, and music from Linda Buckley, Aidan O’Rourke and Gemma McGregor. Three very individual pieces from the poet/composer partnerships are woven together by interludes composed by Joanna, and nature photography by Frances to create a 40-minute film of evocative words, music and images.

Frances and Joanna have performed as Turning the Elements for nearly 10 years, taking this intimate combination of instruments to audiences around the country, and they performed as part of the prestigious Made in Scotland Showcase, curated by Creative Scotland, in the Edinburgh Fringe of 2019.   This is the second major work they have commissioned. 

www.turningtheelements.com

https://www.facebook.com/turningtheelements

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Friends of Wighton present: No Trees to Whisper – the Music of Poetry

music, Online, poetry

          No Trees to Whisper – the Music of Poetry

                      Date:            Saturday November 21st

                      Time:            2.00pm – 3.30pm (via Zoom)

As part of Book Week Scotland:

Poetry workshop led by Dawn Wood, with musicians Frances Cooper and Joanna Nicholson of the duo Turning the Elements.

An opportunity to be part of a collaborative writing event and to hear about the creative processes behind ‘No Trees to Whisper’, a new song cycle commissioned by soprano and clarinet duo, Turning the Elements – all from the comfort of your own home, via Zoom!

The famous diaries of Dr Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, written during their travels to the Highlands and Islands in 1773, were the inspiration for this commission, supported by Creative Scotland, with poetry from Haworth Hodgkinson, Iain Morrison and Dawn Wood, and music by Gemma McGregor, Linda Buckley and Aidan O’Rourke.  Covid has added its own chapter to the story and you will be the first audience to hear snippets of the new work and hear about its genesis.

Dawn Wood will lead the workshop, delving into some of the ways she finds inspiration for her writing, and sharing some of the poetry she produced for the project.  She will use guided meditation techniques to allow participants to access their sensory imagination as they explore aspects of the Scottish landscape and its future. Participants will have the opportunity to produce writing during the workshop, resulting in a collaborative text which will be explored using improvised music by Frances Cooper and Joanna Nicholson.

The workshop is free but places are limited so if you would like to take part in this exciting event  please register your interest by email to secretary@friendsofwighton.com. 

More information on:

www.dawnwoodartist.co.uk

www.turningtheelements.com

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Recording in the Wighton Centre

Bob Turner, cello, clarsach, dundee, fiddle, fundraising, harp, harpsichord, Jimmy Shand, Mark Spalding, Morag Anne Elder, music, poetry, Ronald Stevenson, Scots song, Scottish, Simon Chadwick, traditional

Last Monday, the Wighton Centre was turned into a recording studio by recording enginner Bob Turner, to record some tracks for the forthcoming limited edition CD produced by the Friends of WIghton as part of the fundraising for the Sir Jimmy Shand Collection.

Tracks were recorded from Mark Spalding playing a Ronald Stevenson composition on the harpsichord, the Wighton Singers, Ellie McDonald reading poetry, Simon Chadwick playing the replica Queen Mary harp, and Morag Anne Elder on the fiddle with Katie playing cello.

At least two of the tracks are the first ever recordings (the harpsichord and harp track). Other tracks are being recorded at Gardyne Studios, and also some tracks will be donated by other artists from their published CDs.

If you missed claiming the CD as a perk on our Indiegogo crowdfunding last month, you will still be able to buy your copy when the strictly limited edition is released.

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Pert, Stockhausen, McGuire & Bartok in the Wighton Centre

Bartok, concert, dundee, Eddie McGuire, harpsichord, Haworth Hodgkinson, keyboards, Mark Spalding, morris pert, percussion, piano, poetry, Stockhausen

This morning, Mark Spalding presented his diverse and fascinating programme of 20th century keyboard music for this year’s first Friends of Wighton cappuccino concert. To a full audience, Mark presented a selection of compositions played on no fewer than five keyboards – the electric piano, two electronic keyboards, melodica, and the lovely Wighton harpsichord.

Mark was joined by Haworth Hodgkinson who provided improvised percussion responses to each of the 12 sections of the Stockhausen “Tierkreis” (signs of the zodiac) cycle. The alternation of the very quick, complex, almost mechanistic keyboard sections, each played on a different instrument, with the very free and impressionistic and very loud gong percussion interludes, was really striking, and helped very much this music to become intelligible and accessible to all present. I think quite a few people were very surprised to hear the atonal Stockhausen music played on the harpsichord!

Howarth also performed two lively and thoughtful pieces of his own poetry with instrumental accompaniment, one played on a giant bass recorder and one played on a gas bottle.

In his concise but useful spoken introductions to each work, Mark made a number of interesting connections with Dundee for many of the pieces. The suite by Morris Pert which opened the programme was very well played, and it was a great pleasure to have the composer Eddie McGuire present for Mark’s playing of a couple of his piano and organ works.

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