Composer & music educator
A page devoted to Sounding Cliffs, a project originating from my 2019 ArtScape residency at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, is now available from this site’s main menu. There you can read a description of the project and listen to music composed from recordings of this specific environment.
Sounding Cliffs: A Soundscape Project will explore the Joggins Fossil Cliffs from the perspectives of sound and, in particular, the tradition of soundscape composition. Through a series of soundwalks and field recordings, done at various sites along the cliffs, I will enquire into the unique acoustic features of this specific environment, as well as gather material for a sound-based musical composition to be completed during the residency. The soundscape exploration and resultant musical work is intended to offer the public an encounter with the fossil cliffs that enhances and complements the visual experience.
The completed composition will be presented both live and as a web-based listening experience, the latter of which will include samples of the recorded sound sources and their transformations. Also planned are guided soundwalks, artist talks and workshops on soundscape composition for children and adults. Sounding Cliffs is purposed to draw attention to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs as a kind of musical performance rather than as simply a sonic background.
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/artscape/2019/martin/
A week from today, I will have the pleasure of presenting a workshop on composing sound-based music for ages 9-17. This workshop is part of Live Bait Theatre’s summer program.
This week I was pleased to learn that my piece, A Free Day, for violin and piano, has been accepted into the ACNMP’s new Contemporary Showcase syllabus. (The Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects (ACNMP) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of Canadian contemporary music)
It’s a pleasure to provide the music and sound for this play, which opens tonight, and to perform the roles of various people from Sackville’s history. It’s also a very special privilege to be able to perform the role of the late Eldon Hay to whom the show is dedicated.
I had the pleasure of being Janet Hammock’s guest on the show “Fly Me To The Moon”, which was broadcast on CFTA FM 107.9 community radio on May 28, 2017. The entire broadcast is now available on the archives page of the station’s website at http://cftafm.com/site/ArchivePlayer.html.
Congratulations to all string candidates in the 2017 Sackville Music Festival for their excellent performances today!
A special thank you to members of the Marshview Middle School In Harmony ensemble who gave a superb premiere of my composition “Framing the River”. I’ve really enjoyed working with these students, who have accomplished much this year within the limitation of one short rehearsal per week.
Waltz for Creek is a new EP released this month as a birthday gift for my wife, Creek. Go here for more information and to listen.
This past Friday soprano Helen Pridmore gave an outstanding premiere performance of my composition Only the Mountain for solo soprano. The work was presented as part of a concert of compositions for unaccompanied solo voice. The “ShuBox” Theatre at the University of Regina provided the perfect atmosphere for this piece, which one listener described as “beautifully evocative”.
Jeffrey Martin