At the turning of the year: music and change

The turning of the years is often a time of change, a time of looking forward and looking back, a time for forgiveness, for beginning anew. The sort of music we meet here along the music road speaks of all these things, at times. Here are several albums which make good companions for such reflection. In the songs on her album Before & After, Carrie Newcomer invites consideration of the joy and hardship of change, and the mysteries involved with it Tommy Sands knows a good bit about change as it plays out through politics, and through the movements of history. Take a listen to how he puts this into song on Arising from the Troubles The gifts of winter and longing for spring are both part of the landscape Jennifer Cutting and her fellow musicians in the Ocean Orchestra explore through their music on Song of Solstice Legend and myth, the natural world, and how those resonate with the courage it takes to risk change are part of what Cathie Ryan considers through the songs she covers and the songs she writes for her album The Farthest Wave you may also wish to see Music Road: rest in music Music Road: Best Music, 2011

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Song of Solstice: music for changing seasons

What is the sound of seasons changing? It could be what you hear as you listen to Song of Solstice from Jennifer Cutting’s Ocean Orchestra.

With a gathering of music from Celtic traditions along with songs she’s written, Cutting offers a vision of that which invites contemplation and celebration, consideration of darkness and light in both spiritual and natural realms that accompanies the turn of earth’s time from autumn through winter and back to spring again. To do this, she weaves in strands of musical ideas from Celtic to classical to steampunk, and creates a sound that’s immediately inviting.

Drawing on the gifts of artists from her own Ocean Orchestra as well as a range of guests, many of them from the thriving Washington DC area music scene, Cutting offers complex and layered arrangements which serve the music and open new ways of hearing it. Complex does not mean stuffy or hard to understand: there’s a very good chance you’ll be singing along with several of the pieces, and that the music will stay in your mind long after you've played the recording.

Song of Solstice, the title track, offers a rousing take on celebrating the joys of the colder seasons of the year, and gives a nod to wisdom to be gained from contemplation and patience in the calendar’s darker seasons. As well there's an affirmation of the joys of friendship, whose gifts are often strengthened by winter’s connections. Christmas Day in the Morning, a traditional tune from Shetland set as a quiet instrumental with harp from Sue Richards and bodhran from Myron Bretholz, leads into Song of Solstice, a paring which enhances both.

Green Man is another piece you’ll not forget, a lively song whose origins Cutting drew from ancient Celtic tales as well as ideas that appear in the story of King Arthur. You do not have to know anything about either of those, though, to enjoy Steve Winnick’s cheerful and inviting lead vocal. He is backed by Highland bagpipes, bouzouki, electric guitar, fiddle, bodhran, other percussion instruments, and vocal harmony. Turning of seasons, death and rebirth, and the vibrancy of nature in the midst of winter are just a few of the things touched upon in the song, which offers a fine mood and beat for dancing and drumming as well as for singing.

Time to Remember the Poor suggests a different avenue for contemplation. Gothic steam punk psychedelia fusion is what Cutting had in mind. The words are from a Victorian era broadside, set to a haunting soundscape of voice, guitar, keyboard, samples, bass, and drums, It all seems quite contemporary yet evokes the the atmosphere of Victorian times and the thoughts in the lyrics as well. Lisa Mosciatello is the voice, Al Petteway plays electric and acoustic guitars, Juan Dudley is the drummer, Rico Petrocelli plays bass, and Cutting provides the samples and plays keyboards on the piece.

Putting classic, folk -- especially Celtic -- and rock ideas in conversation and collaboration with each other is a a way of approaching music which has long interested Cutting. For ten years she was bandleader for the award winning Washington DC area based British folk rock group The New Saint George. Later, Jennifer founded The Ocean Orchestra, which has allowed her to take her composing, arranging, and performing ideas of creating music drawing on varied genres in a more Celtic direction, and to invite in the talents of changing casts of musicians in the United States and overseas. “Celtic music for ancient moderns” is how she describes her work.

“I think of myself as a soundscape architect -- I try to get the structures and textures from my imagination out onto the recorded sound canvas, with the help of many amazingly gifted people who all add their own genius into the mix, “ Cutting says. “Creating a song or an arrangement is a lot like putting up a building or designing a landscape, except that my materials are instruments and voices. Hearing it build layer by layer is the ultimate thrill.”

Listening to the result is fascinating, too. Song of Solstice includes six originals by Jennifer Cutting, and varied other works, among them pieces from Celtic tradition including music from France and from Shetland. As with a well designed building or landscape, all the elements enhance each other and invite repeated exploration.

Listen to excerpts from Song of Solstice


photograph of Jennifer Cutting by Irene Young

you may also wish to see
Music Road: Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: Oceans & Journeys: Road Trip in Maryland
Music Road: late summer, early autumn, music, Ireland

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Oceans & Journeys: Road Trip in Maryland

The sea and the mountains are both constants in the life of Maryland. Both of those elements, and journeys between them come into play in Maryland based composer Jennifer Cutting’s album Ocean: Songs for the Night Sea Journey.

Voyages to love and away from it, into time and out of it, moved by the waters and on the waters, are shown in words and melody, voice and the voices of instruments. Cutting, who plays keyboards, organ, and accordion on the album, does indeed create a journey. Musically, she draws on elements of American folk melody, classical music, the music of Ireland, and a sea green indefinable ground in between.

There’s excitement in the journey starting out, and sensuality of the sea. As the voyage continues, this turns to loss, grief, and change. There's searching and time between, learning to wait, and reconciliations and recognitions and returning, all brought in through songs and tunes with tiles including The Gladdest Breeze, Dissolving King Neptune, Sleep (on the Deep) and Forgiveness. Most are Cutting’s own compositions, and she weaves music from Steve Morse, Gustave Holst, J.S.. Bach, and the Irish tradition, as well. For this project she drew on the gifts of a host musical friends in the United States and Europe, including Dave Mattacks on drums, vocals from Grace Griffith, Lisa Moscatiello, and Maddy Prior, John Jennings on guitar, and Zan McLeod on bouzouki, in an endeavor which took the composer seven years and likely seven crossings of the seas to complete.


Though does not fit easily into any category except perhaps original music, there’s much here to please and intrigue those who like classical, new age, Celtic, and folk genres -- and the spaces between. It's also a recording which invites contemplation as well as conversation, and repeated listenings.

It’s worth hearing Cutting and friends live, too. She’s worked much of the music into a thoughtful acoustic performance that requires only three or four musicians to present clearly and gracefully. You may find out more about live performances of the Ocean Quartet and Cutting’s other projects at her web site.


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter
Music Road: Voices: Carrie Newcomer: faith and laughter
Music Road: creative practice: autumn: spaces between

This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’ll find there. On tap at A Traveler's Library for this visit to Maryland is a novel set in a Maryland seacoast town. For more about the road trip (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

now playing: Jennifer Cutting

Ocean

Voyages to love and away from it, into time and out of it, moved by the waters and on the waters, shown in words and melody, voice and the voices of instruments. It is indeed a voyage. Songs for the Night Sea Journey is the subtitle, so to speak, of Jennifer Cutting’s project Ocean, an endeavor which took the composer seven years and likely seven crossings of the seas to complete. Musically, she draws on elements of American folk, classical music, the music of Ireland, and even some sea green indefinable ground in between. There’s excitement in the journey starting out, and sensuality of the sea, turning to loss, and searching and time between, and reconciliations and recognition and return. Though it does not fit easily into any category except perhaps original music, there’s much here to please and intrigue those who like classical, new age, Celtic, and folk genres -- and the spaces between. It's also a recording which works well with the sometimes contemplaive nature of winter, though it's good for any season.

You may also wish see
Song of Solstice: Music for Changing Seasons, a story about another recording by Jennifer Cutting and the Ocean Orchestra here at Music Road
Music & the Power of Connection, a story at Wandering Educators which included music from The Ocean Orchestra's recent album Waves

now playing: Jennifer Cutting & the Ocean Orchestra

Ocean

Voyages to love and away from it, into time and out of it, moved by the waters and on the waters, shown in words and melody, voice and the voices of instruments. It is indeed a voyage. Songs for the Night Sea Journey is the subtitle, so to speak, of Jennifer Cutting’s project Ocean, an endeavor which took the composer seven years and likely seven crossings of the seas to complete. Musically, she draws on elements of American folk, classical music, the music of Ireland, and even some sea green indefinable ground in between. There’s excitement in the journey starting out, and sensuality of the sea, turning to loss, and searching and time between, and reconciliations and recognition and return. Though it does not fit easily into any category except perhaps original music, there’s much here to please and intrigue those who like classical, new age, Celtic, and folk genres -- and the spaces between.