Paint the Music with Christina Medawar & Heidi Barnett
Free (Free)
Sarah Bassingthwaighte — Left Behind
Sungji Hong — Hxó
Miguel del Águila — Sonata Flautísma
Christina Medawar, flute
Heidi Barnett, artist
Jenni Brandon – Goldfish Songs
Sarah Bassingthwaighte – Left Behind (world premiere)
Sungji Hong – Hxó
Miguel del Aguila – Sonata Flautísima
The broadcast begins at 5:30pm Pacific. Watch the broadcast here: https://youtu.be/oOrpge9P5kg
The Sustain Music Project presents the second concert in the spring 2021 series "Paint the Music," in which local classical musicians and visual artists collaborate to create unique evenings of music and art. Join us for four beautiful pieces for solo flute, paired with the vividly colorful art of Heidi Barnett.
Goldfish Songs by Jenni Brandon was written at the request of flutist Danielle Hundley, a member of the Cincinnati new music ensemble Conundrum. She has always loved fancy goldfish (and in fact movement three is named after her Ryukin goldfish Bela) and imagined a work for flute about some of these beautiful fish. We collaborated on this project to create four short, descriptive movements about a select variety of fancy goldfish, choosing these particular goldfish because of their unique attributes.
Pearlscale: A flash in the sunlight
The Pearlscale Goldfish is a variety characterized by pearl‐like nodules on the surface of its scales. As he swims, his scales pick up reflections of sunlight, creating a creature that shines and shimmers like a jewel under the water.
Celestial: Looking heavenward…
The Celestial Goldfish has a very unique feature – its eyes are positioned atop its head. This gives this goldfish the look of praying, or looking towards the heavens. This prayer-like quality is reflected in the ghostly harmonics played by the flute in this movement.
Ryukin: “Bela”
The Ryukin is an extremely agile goldfish variety. Its stout belly and well‐formed fins make it an excellent swimmer, and this movement is fast and furious like these little swimmers.
Lionhead: The Gentle Giant
The Lionhead is known as the “puppy‐dog” of goldfish; this slow moving giant is infamous for becoming tame enough to eat out of your hand. In this movement for alto flute the Lionhead swims gently through the water, singing a peaceful song.
Sarah Bassingthwaite was approached with the idea of composing a piece for solo flute using only the left hand. The title, Left Behind, has a double meaning. The first is a reference to using only the left hand. The second is inspired by a sad story she heard that can be summarized like this: there is a bird in New Guinea, and he is all alone. He desperately wants to find any others of his species, and roams far and wide every day in search of a mate or a friend. Some days he wanders, sad and lonely, and on other days, he searches in a frenzy. Little to his knowledge, there is one other bird of his species, also looking for a friend. In separate locations, they each search, crying and wailing, to no avail. This goes on for months, and then years. Then one day, the other bird finally lay down, tired and old, and passed away quietly. The first bird kept searching and searching, and then finally, also lay down, and was the last of his kind to live and to die. This is, in a sense, the story of every species that has gone or is going extinct.
Hxó is a Greek word meaning "echo," a reflection of sound after the direct sound. In this piece, the flute explores echo in various ways. The main idea is based on a short staccato attack followed by a quiet fluctuation of timbral trills. The first few measures depict a sound recording I captured of my son screaming playfully in a huge underground parking lot with a beautiful echo effect. The echo of the scream was reflected three times. It was commissioned by the Texas Flute Society for the 34th Myrna Brown Artist Competition. Hxó for solo flute was completed in March 2020 in Denton, Texas. It was first performed on 23 May 2020, during the Annual Texas Flute Festival by the four finalists, Hyunjee Lee, Denis Savelyev, Grace Wang, and Yi Xiang.
Sonata Flautisima was composed by Miguel del Aguila in 2019 was inspired by a previous work written by del Aguila for solo clarinet in one movement. It is given the title sonata because it loosely follows the structure of a sonata. There are three movements: I. Caminando (walking), II. Beatboxing, III. Alegre (fast). The piece opens with a lyrical theme in an introverted mood. The second movement features a technique rarely heard: beatboxing! As the flutist sings different syllables into the flute, it blends with the sound of the flute to produce a different sound of almost a different instrument. It's a very light and humorous movement, similar to a scherzo. The third movement has a strong Latin flavor with strong rhythmic motifs. It starts slowly, then builds in momentum and brightness before culminating in a brilliant finale.