Open Mind Surgery

#choirsagainstracism is a project I've been working on for a while - free music to fight racism and help refugees. This is the best recording from it so far, I think.



The words for this piece are drawn from the collective memories of Kurdish refugee women, by Aine McAllister. Aine taught English through poetry in Grande Synthe, and in these words is the voice of the women she met there.

"In springtime in Kurdistan we
go to the mountain; there
are flowers, trees and figs"

The song is a joyful memory - but of a place that they may never see again, a place that they must now describe in a foreign language.

This recording is by the Reid Consort in Edinburgh, conducted by Cole Bendall; the recording was funded by the Hope Scott Trust and by Creative Scotland, and made in the Robin Chapel, Edinburgh.

This piece is released under a Creative Commons 4.0 License, and is available for SSAATTBB, or for SSSSAAAA, as part of the #choirsagainstracism project.

You can download the score at www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/choirsagainstracism , and there is also a list of suggested organisations to donate to in support of refugees and anti-racism causes.

Words by Aine McAllister, based on the collective memories of refugee women in Grande Synthe refugee camp, France; copyright Aine McAllister, 2017, used with permission

Music © Chris Hutchings 2017; words © Aine McAllister 2017
Released under Creative Commons 4.0 non-commercial license
For any commercial use, please contact chris@hutchingsmusic.co.uk
hutchingsmusic.co.uk | twitter.com/hutchingsmusic | twitter.com/aine_mcallister

Hello Dreamwidth. Hopefully my Livejournal (previously randomchris) will import to here as well...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2014/oct/30/10-of-the-best-metal-meets-classical

*headbangs*

And a bit of good news I hadn't shared on here yet:

"Dear Chris,
Congratulations, you have won the Chigwell Choir composition competition! Judith and I loved your piece and thought the text was very creative. The prize is a performance and £400 cash.
You will be presented the award by composer Judith Bingham on the below date. You are welcome to attend the rehearsal on the day of the concert too - let me know.
You'll be contacted by the choir's admin team shortly to give more information.
Congrats again!
All best
Alex

concert:
Saturday, 15th November 2014, 7:30 pm
100 Years of Poppies
at the New Hall, Chigwell School, East London (Buckhurst Hill, nearest tube station)"

Would anyone London-based like to join me at the concert? I could probably arrange comp tickets for up to 2 people.

The text in question:
( Read more... )

I've revised my website a bit, and split the "scores" section into several pages by category - you can now see a whole bunch of different things. Do people think this is more useful?

• Choir music for Easter
• Requiem (you can order individual movements of the Requiem if you don't need the whole piece)
• Choir music for Christmas
• Choir music for any time of year
• Non-religious choir music (for children's choirs, secular adult choirs, etc.)
• Chamber music and solo pieces
• Arrangements for orchestra
• Free choir arrangements
  

Any other categories you'd like to see?

Also, note to self: send scores for these (may be of interest to other composers also):
http://yalegleeclub.org/New_Music
http://wildrumpusmusic.org/commissioning-project/
http://riotensemble.com/call-for-scores/

This is "The Water Cycle" performed by "AppleChor", a choir of elementary school children from Racine, Wisconsin, conducted by a lovely chap called Jack Senzig. Music by me! Words by Julia Laylander, an American poetess. The three of us have never met but we made this.

precipitation
Once I was a raindrop falling from the sky:
I trickled down a stream into a river rushing by.
The river full of raindrops washed me out to sea,
The currents took me round the world,then sunshine set me free:
It's called evaporation, and now I'm in a cloud,
A vapor soaring higher, and feeling very proud,
I'm floating in the troposphere, a lovely place to be:
If you were up this high as well, just think what you could see!
condensation
freezing
But oh! it's very cold up here, my molecules are freezing,
And soon I'll be a snowflake, and maybe I'll start sneezing!
But now I see a mountaintop: I think I'll float on down
And join the other snowflakes in their sparkly frozen town.
When it's springtime and I'm melting, and all my friends are, too,
We'll be flowing down the mountainside, in rivers old and new,
Heading for the ocean, but we'll stop along the way,
So all can have enough to drink, each and every day.
My name is always water, you can call me H2O:
I'm liquid, solid, vapor too, I'm flexible you know!
It's called the water cycle, all these changes I go through.
I do like being water, wouldn't you, wouldn't you?
I do like being water, wouldn't you?
precipitation, evaporation, condensation, freezing

http://soundcloud.com/hutchingsmusic/requiem-live - full recording from last night, for those who couldn't make it! Almost an hour long - but it's in 14 short movements, so probably best to save it and dip in each time you have a spare 5 minutes. Comments definitely encouraged.
Recording date is probably going to be March or April 2013, for CD release on Amemptos.
Score samples and libretto at http://www.hutchingsmusic.co.uk/scores/requiem/
Contact me if you'd like a full score.
And finally, PLEASE SHARE THIS if you enjoyed it! Thanks.

Tuesday 30th October, 9pm - University of Glasgow Memorial Chapel, and also available to watch online

James Grossmith, Kevin Bowyer, and the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir perform the premiere of Chris Hutchings' Requiem.

I hope some of you reading this can make it to Glasgow - admission is free, just make sure you've got a seat well before 6pm.

But you can also watch and listen online: the Chapel is covered by a live webcam with decent sound equipment, and the link to it is at
http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/chaplaincy/ (it'll launch in your media
player). I'll try to get it recorded via that and put up on YouTube or
something, but can't guarantee it (a CD recording is hopefully happening
early next year).

Hope to see some of you there - please let me know if you're coming along!

Chris

The portfolio and commentary are finally completed to everyone's satisfaction, and ready to be printed out tomorrow. My supervisor's back in the country next week and will sign them then, and we can do final things next Monday.
Phew.
Only the viva to go now, and then corrections (major or minor, remains to be seen).

http://soundcloud.com/hutchingsmusic/speravi-in-te - recording from the New London Singers concert on 5th June. Thanks again to all friends in and near London who came along and supported it!

Speravi In Te by hutchingsmusic