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Water Music source to sea is a musical imagining of the journey taken by a raindrop as it travels along Scotland’s waterways.

Field recordings, new commissions and existing works by Bach and contemporary classical and folk composers combine, creating a sonic immersion in one of Scotland’s most iconic natural resources.

Winner of the New Music Programme category at the New Music Scotland Awards 2023.

TRACK 1: RAIN

Water Droplets - Jean Sibelius

Invention 6 - J.S. Bach

End of Rain and Clear Sky - Alastair Savage

TRACK 2: RIVERS AND LOCHS

Clõta’s Song - Lisa Robertson

The Burn - Timothy Cooper

Lochbroom - Mairearad Green arr. Sequoia

Invention 4 - J. S. Bach

The Trows o’ Truggles Water & Clubbi Shuns - Chris Stout arr. Sequoia

TRACK 3: ESTUARY

The Estuary - Timothy Cooper

Reclaiming the Spirit (excerpt) - Sarah Hopkins

Souch o’ da Laebrack - Chris Stout arr. Sequoia

Invention 13 - J.S Bach

TRACK 4: SEA

the ebb - Stuart MacRae

The Waves - Timothy Cooper

Fisherman's Prayer - Chris Stout arr. Sequoia

Prelude from Solo Cello Suite No. 1 - J. S. Bach

TRACK 5: ECHOES

Changeless and the changed - David Fennessy

Whale, Bow, Echo - Alex South & Sequoia

TRACK 6: REFLECTIONS

Invention 7 - J.S. Bach

Dynröst - Chris Stout arr. Sequoia

PROGRAMME NOTES

Water Droplets - Jean Sibelius

Written when the composer was 8 years old

End of Rain/Clear Sky - Alastair Savage

Looking over to Arran from Ardrossan after the rain.

Clōta’s Song - Lisa Robertson

The River Clyde’s name is thought to have derived from the name of a Celtic river goddess called ‘the great cleanser’. The Roman historian Tacitus first recorded the name of the river as Clōta. It is assumed that Clōta’s characteristics matched those of the river and that, embodied in the Clyde, she washed and purified the land she flowed over. However, this river, once worshipped as a goddess of purifcation has now become heavily polluted with plastic, which it has no choice but to carry to the sea. I wonder what Clōta herself would have to say about that.

The Trows o' Truggles Water - Chris Stout

On an overnight fishing trip Chris camped near the hill loch Truggles Water. Awoken by a scrufflin' outside the tent he felt sure it was the Trows (mythical hill folk that inhabit Shetland) and was inspired to write this tune.

Clubbi Shuns - Chris Stout

Clubbi Shuns is a charming little loch in the north mainland of Shetland (where the trout are known for putting up a good fight!)

Reclaiming the Spirit (excerpt) - Sarah Hopkins

Opening section: Seagulls and earth drones

Souch o' da Laebrack - Chris Stout

Laebrack is the Shetland term for surf; souch describes the sound of its retreat, just like a deep breath.

the ebb - Stuart MacRae

the ebb imagines the sea from a variety of perspectives and scales: from the violent turbulence and spray of the surface through the coming and going of wave-like forms, to a more distant view of its vastness and the deceptive appearance of stillness.

Fisherman’s Prayer - Chris Stout

This melody is inspired by the sentiment of the traditional Shetland tune Auld Swaara which mourns the loss of fisherman at sea.

The Changeless and the changed - David Fennessy

This work portrays the remote isolation of St Kilda, a rocky archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Inhabited for at least 4000 years, the final islanders were evacuated in 1930.

Whale, Bow, Echo - Alex South with Sequoia

Violin, cello and Fixed Media, Humpback Whale (recorded off Mo’orea 25.09.2019)

Whale, Bow, Echo takes its form from three themes sung by a humpback whale off the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, in September 2019 and translated into the musical gestures of violin and cello. The live instruments are placed in an imagined oceanic environment where their phrases reverberate and resonate, building up in waves determined by the slow tempo of the humpback’s song.

Dynröst - Chris Stout

The Roost is a stretch of water that lies between Sumburgh Head and Fair Isle in Shetland

The Burn, The Estuary and The Waves are all field recordings by Timothy Cooper.

He sourced the sounds at the following Scottish locations:

Lowther Hills- The Burn
The Clyde Estuary at Blackwater Bay- The Estuary
Belhaven Beach- The Waves