Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir - Landscapes Project

Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir
season 2007-8

Landscapes Project (2005 - 2007)
FIVE SEASONS Music by Cecilia McDowall, Words by Christie Dickason

new commission Sponsored by:

Two years ago, on tour in Vienna and Esterhazy, the first seeds of the Landscapes Project were sown. Sponsors Lin and Vince Adams, of Respect Organics, wanted to offer BSC something more permanent and also to celebrate the landscapes their business seeks to preserve. The project was launched with a new CD, Landscapes – music inspired by our organic heritage. November 2006 saw the culmination of the project - the world première of Five Seasons at Sherborne Abbey.

Cecilia McDowall and Christie Dickason write:

Our brief was simply a 'Celebration of the Organic Landscape'. But how do you go about writing a piece about 'organic landscape'? There were no other prescriptions or rules, for either us or the farmers we visited. 'Is this what you want?' they asked. 'Is this it?' All we could say was 'YES! Everything is still possible. Everything is vital.' Our five, very different, residencies became a long, slow unfolding of generously given riches. We filled notebooks and cameras, and kept a joint journal. Our challenge: how to boil it all down into twenty minutes. Before starting, we had considered five movements, one for each farm, progressing through the arc of the seasons. Very soon, we found certain

common themes cropping up. Our structure began to take early shape around these themes one afternoon as we sat in the warm sun beside Crab Tree Pool in Cumbria.

Though the two of us have worked together many times, the special collaborative nature of this project was unique. The farmers, with their huge early input, became part of the creative team. They gave us the crucial detail we needed to let their voices come through. Farms visited:
Becklands Farm, Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset • Woodlands Farm, Boston, Lincolnshire • Low Luckens Farm, Carlisle, Cumbria • Ardalanish Organic Farm, Isle of Mull • Blaen y Nant, Snowdonia, Wales

The choir gave a second performance of Five Seasons in January 2007 at the AGM of the Soil Association in Cardiff.

The choir is most grateful to its generous sponsors and those who take advertising space in its programmes. This support makes possible exciting concerts. If you would like to promote your business or your brand and to be associated with the choir in this way please make contact with Wendy Dimmick, support@bschoir.org.uk, to discuss the possibilities.