BA (Hons) Music - Degree Showcase
Open College of the Arts
Scottish Traditions in Contemporary Music
Overview
Welcome to this showcase of work submitted towards my BA in music with the Open College of the Arts (graduating with First Class Honours in 2022).
My final year composition project was an exploration into Scottish musical traditions. I wrote a suite for clarsach and chamber orchestra, including a contemporary piobaireachd for wind quintet, a piece for string orchestra influenced by Gaelic psalm singing, and a trio which reflects the tragic events of the Highland clearances.
My work is influenced by diverse musical interests such as impressionism, jazz, and film scores. Although I write predominantly tonal music, I also enjoy exploring the wide range of colours that can be created through the incorporation of microtonality and extended instrumental techniques. This can be particularly seen in the culmination of the suite - a ten minute work for clarsach with full chamber orchestra which combines some contemporary instrumental techniques with traditional Scottish rhythms and melodic styles.
Composition Portfolio - Highland Fantasy
Inspired by Robert Burns's poem My Heart's in the Highlands, this work for clarsach (Gaelic harp) and chamber orchestra draws on Scottish traditions to create a contemporary soundscape evocative of Burns's home country. The work is in four movements, each using a different combination of instruments.
Selected Programme Notes and Audio
Movt. 1 - Farewell (flute, cello, & clarsach)
The first movement, Farewell, sets the opening stanza of the poem to a song (here played on the flute), with the Andante tempo and rhythmic harp part conveying the sense of somebody walking, beginning a journey away from their beloved homeland. Written in the scale of the Great Highland Bagpipes, it uses the ‘Scottish snap' rhythm and ornamented style typical of traditional Scottish music. At the end of the movement the opening melody is heard again very quietly, and an ominous dissonance foreshadows a disturbance to the tranquil scene.
Movt. 4 - Highland Fantasy (solo clarsach & chamber orchestra)
The final movement, Highland Fantasy, is infused with a Scottish flavour and elements from the previous movements permeate it throughout. The opening sets an expectant mood, with solitary tolling notes on the clarsach and the distant sound of raindrops. After the strings lead us through some more turbulent Highland weather, uneasily shifting cellos accompany a melancholy clarsach solo, creating a sense of foreboding which recalls the earlier references to the clearances. The darker mood doesn't persist for long though, and as the clarsach's theme transforms into a faster, dance-like version, listen out for a snippet of the Farewell theme from the first movement played on the cor anglais. As the music gains momentum, a snare drum gives a nod to the traditional military role of the Great Highland Bagpipes and the ominously shifting cellos return to precipitate a gradual build up of tension followed by the eventual inevitable release. At the conclusion of the piece, the Farewell theme is finally heard in full, played in a round by woodwind instruments as though a distant echo across the landscape.
Research into Practice
Alongside my composition portfolio, I undertook a research project which involved the analysis of work by other contemporary composers. My dissertation presented a framework for the discussion of Scottish-influenced contemporary works based on the idea of an ‘intuitive-translational’ spectrum, by considering the extent to which composers translate aspects of tradition into a contemporary idiom.
At one end of this spectrum is what I described as an ‘intuitive’ approach, characterised by music which is suggestive of the sound world of Scotland, and at the other a more ‘translational’ approach which takes aspects of Scottish traditions into completely new directions.
This novel perspective highlighted how composers' relationships with tradition interact with their compositional processes, leading to quite different aesthetic outcomes. It also helped my own creative practice to develop by challenging my assumptions about tradition-influenced music.
‘Notes from Home’ - Concert Performance
The final unit of the OCA degree provides an opportunity to engage with the public. I chose to put on a concert of traditional and contemporary chamber music, including some of my own compositions, in my local town - Dundee.
As well as including movements from my composition portfolio in this concert, I also created a new arrangement of a string quartet by John Blackwood McEwen for wind quintet and performed a piano piece of my own, entitled Remembering.
String Quartet No. 4 in C minor by John Blackwood McEwen (1905). Arranged for wind quintet by Emma Arandjelovic
Remembering, composed and performed by Emma Arandjelovic (video from the Notes From Home concert in St Mary’s Church, Broughty Ferry, on 4th December 2021)
