Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars - Extended Album Liner Notes
Track list
1. In the Marrow Lives a Woman (8:14)
Raven Conspiracy
2. I. Sticks and Bones (3:45)
3. II. Waltz of Wing and Claw (3:30)
4. III. Something Shiny (2:21)
5. Bend Willow Branch (3:33)
Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars
6. I. Where do the stars play? (5:15)
7. II. Comet River (3:20)
8. III. A clandestine meeting with an Aurora (3:59)
9. IV. Sway me around, Orion! (3:34)
10. V. When the Moon hangs lonely in the blue Sky (2:55)
11. Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars - vocal version (5:15)
12. Candle Ice(11:25)
TT: 57:25
Credits
Carmen Braden: piano (track 1,12), voice (11) Mark Adam: percussion (1), vibraphone (11) David Parker: French horn (6-10) Derek Charke: flute (5-10) Gillian Smith: violin (2-4,6-10) Nadia Francavilla: violin (1-4,6-10,12) Norman Adams: cello (1-10,12) Susan Sayle: viola (2-4,6-10) Suzanne Lemieux: oboe (5-10)
Producer: Mark Adam
Co-producer (1,11): John DS Adams
Recording Engineer: John DS Adams
Mixing and Mastering: John DS Adams, Stonehouse Sound Recording
Dates and Location: April 23–29, 2019 Convocation Hall, Acadia University
All music and lyrics by Carmen Braden
Photos: Bill Braden, Hannah Eden, Carmen Braden
Graphic Design: Meta Antolin
Translation: Claire Mallin
Canadian Music Centre: Glenn Hodgins, President & CEO
Centrediscs: Nicole Blain, Producer CMCCD 27119
© Centrediscs/Centredisque Carmen Braden
IN THE MARROW LIVES A WOMAN
For score and parts, click here - Canadian Music Centre - In the Marrow Lives a Woman
Title: In the Marrow Lives a Woman
Year Completed: 2018
Duration: 8:15
Instrumentation: Piano, Violin, Cello, percussion
Premiere: The Land’s End Ensemble with Tim Borton (percussion) June 9 2018, Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, Calgary ABA
Commissioned by: The Land’s End Ensemble
Program Note
In the Marrow Lives a Woman was written with several distinct body-related situations in my sphere.The most personal was the developing pregnancy of my first child. Initial drafts of this piece took place in the last few months of pregnancy, with substantial revisions after I experienced labour and birth.Two external influences were watching the 2018 winter Olympics and following the force of the #MeToo social media movement. My perception of the body, and especially the female body are explored in this piece.
Conclusions I've drawn: the body and society's perceptions of the body both transform by cycles, patterns and repetitions, as well as abrupt and sometimes forceful alterations. The female body is a fierce creation, underestimated and disrespected throughout history. But the present and the future hold great promise and pride. Qualities of the feminine exist in all human bodies no matter the sex or gender, or the individual perception of what is 'feminine.' I wrote this text as inspiration and melodic inspiration for the piece:
In the marrow lives a woman
Strength disguised as softness
Under muscle, blood and bone
Lies the feather and the egg.
A nest of memories and imagination.
The marrow rises up from where she was hiding
From where she was waiting
From where she was denied.
She knows her power can bring worlds crashing down
Before raising them up, ever more glorious than before.
Thanks to the Land's End Ensemble for this commission, also thanks to Tim Borton, Vincent Ho and Mark Adam.
THE RAVEN CONSPIRACY
For score and parts, click here - Canadian Music Centre - Raven Conspiracy
Title: The Raven Conspiracy
Year Completed: 2013
Duration: 9:40 mins
Instrumentation: string quartet: viola, violin 1, violin 2, and violoncello
Premiere: Yellowknife, Penderecki Quartet, 2013
Program Notes:
A group of ravens is called a ‘conspiracy’ – a fitting name for these intelligent, beautiful and sonically fascinating beings. Ravens hold huge mystery and fascination for me. In The Raven Conspiracy for string quartet, I explore themes sourced from ravens, each of which became a movement of the piece.
Sticks and Bones is a musical form of a creation myth – where did the ravens come from? A nest, deep in the earth made of sticks and bones, and as the ravens cracked out of their shells and clawed their way to the surface their feathers were singed and burned to a shiny black.
Waltz of wing and claw reflects the ravens’ aerial dance when they swoop and dive, rise and hang suspended, all in a mesmerizing shaded synchronicity.
Something Shiny is a movement that evokes the ravens’ playfulness, mischief, jaunty stride and jangling song.
The Raven Conspiracy was written for the Penderecki Quartet, and was supported by the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre’s Mentorship Program. The Penderecki Quartet premiered the work during their NWT tour in September 2013. Thanks to the Quartet, to NACC and also to Canadian North for allowing me to attend the premiere
BEND, WILLOW BRANCH
For score and parts, click here for Canadian Music Centre - Bend, Willow Branch
Year Completed: 2017
Duration: 3:30 mins
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, cello (alternate version available for flute, clarinet, cello)
Credits: Commissioned by Classics On Stage Yellowknife
Premiere: COSY, June 2017 Yellowknife
SoNGS OF THE INVISIBLE SUMMER STARS
For score and parts, click here - Canadian Music Centre - Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars - Instrumental
Title: Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars
Year Completed: 2017, revised 2019
Duration: 20 mins
Instrumentation: Flute, oboe, horn, violin (2), viola, cello, bass.
*Can be played as a chamber version with one per part, or a chamber orchestra version with string ensemble and solo winds.
Credits: Commisisoned by Toronto Summer Music through the generous support of the Esther Gelber Fund, administered by the Canadian Music Centre.
Premiere: TSO Chamber Soloists, August 2 2017, Walter Hall, Toronto. Chamber orchestral premiere by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by concertmaster Jonathan Crow November 16 2019, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto.
Program Note
In extreme northern and southern latitudes, summer nights are bright as the sun stays above the horizon or dips just below before rising in a glow of unending twilight. Darkness is gone for months, and so are the stars and aurora.
Under the glow of these soft star-less nights, I wrote 5 short songs imagining where the stars go when we can’t see them anymore. I used these melodies and ideas as the inspiration for these instrumental works. Below are the lyrics for each of the songs.
1.Where do the stars play when they disappear in the summer?
Where do the stars play when they disappear in the summer?
They play among the shadows fallen, far away.
2. Comet River
When there is no gravity
Downstream means nothing,
Nor upstream
3. A Clandestine Meeting with an Aurora
When she sends her light around me
When she sends her arms of light around my outward star
We shine green fire
Like sky dew shining on new sky leaves.
4. Sway me around, Orion!
Sway, oh sway Orion!
Come, sway me around!
5.When the Moon Hangs Lonely in the Blue Sky,
When the moon hangs lonely in the blue sky,
Then the moon calls out
“Far away star,
come home and bring the snow.”
CANDLE ICE
For score and parts, click here - Canadian Music Centre - Candle Ice
Title: Candle Ice
Year Completed: 2014
Duration: 10 mins
Instrumentation: Piano, Violin, Violoncello, electroacoustic track
Premiere: Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Gryphon Trio, August 6, 2014
Program Notes:
Candle Ice is a work evokes the final melting phase of the ice on Great Slave Lake, in Northern Canada. In the spring, the thick ice melts into long, interlocking shards which are commonly called candle ice. These crystalline shapes are pushed by the wind and waves to jostle against each other, creating beautiful masses of sound or delicate individual sound-events with a glassy or metallic timbre. The candle ice exists only briefly during the ice season, and eventually disintegrates and melts into lakewater. For this composition I have transformed observations and field recordings of candle ice in four ways:
1) Acoustic and aesthetic observations inform the activity of the music;
2) Transcriptions of the sounds create rhythmic and melodic motives;
3) Spectral analysis reveals further pitch material for harmonic organization; and
4) Physical structures of ice crystals are applied to the music’s formal design.
I believe that the ice formed in the North’s long winters is a quasi-biotic phenomenon, one that embodies a spiritual and ontological bridge between living and elemental forces. I believe the ice has a voice, and the sounds it produces in its natural state are an on-going, ecological form of music. My approach to the use of these sounds is a borrowing or re-performance of this music.
Candle Ice was written for the Gryphon Trio, and they premiered it at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, August 6, 2014.