10/10
Emily Granger, harp, and Claire Edwardes, marimba. The Hush Foundation, 2024.
For her latest project, Magic Sky, harpist Emily Granger joins forces with marimbist Claire Edwardes to play music that soothes. In particular, it is new music specifically by Australian women composers that soothes. And why soothing? Because they have partnered with The Hush Foundation, an organization on a mission to transform healthcare through the healing power of music.
This unusual combination of tonal qualities, so expertly and vividly presented, occupies a rarified and alchemistic quality, the silvery springiness of harp juxtaposed with a more earthy, fecund richness of the marimba.
Little Star by Hilary Kleinig is a joyous waltz reminding us that even in the dark, stars are still shining. She accomplishes this by alternating between major and minor, allowing the percussive qualities in each instrument to accentuate the changes. In contrast, in the following work, Lullay My Love by Sally Whitwell, the artists emphasize their lyrical abilities in a floating aura of lightness.
Andrea Keller’s Cassander the Strong and Beautiful Colombine is part of a larger work called Tivoli Suite, based on a park in Copenhagen which commissions artists to create posters based on pantomime characters. Both Edwardes and Granger have an innate ability to woo us with their natural storytelling skills, even in music without words or visuals.
Healing requires a strong spirit to cope with the challenges of treatment, plus the time it will take to reach the other side. Anne Cawrse posits that generosity and trust also play a role and highlights this aspect in her lush, expressive Patients and Grace. The warm and rocking tune reminds us that there is more beyond the practicalities of hospital care and that community matters too.
On the surface, Elana Kats-Cherwin’s Dance of the Magicians is full of mystery in its relentless movement. Though she points out that children tend to gravitate to darkness, which like a fairytale, sparks the imagination. Another one of hers, Dance of the Paper Umbrellas, cleverly delves into interesting harmonies and soundscapes of flute and plucked strings.
The imagination continues to be called upon for Jessica Wells’ resplendent Ad Astra Per Aspera (“to the stars through hardship”). While referencing a motto meant to keep us going when the going gets tough (as well as the state motto for Kansas), Wells pays homage to an astronomer named Annie Jump Cannon who decides the Harvard Spectral classification of stars at a time when women were not meant to accomplish such amazing feats.
Where is the line between a sonic journey and music? Katia Mestrovic challenges us in her meditative Luminescence to follow the simplest of lines as it morphs into a series of brief variations in tonal possibilities.
Magic Sky is unexpectedly soothing not simply because the sounds are light and comforting, but instead because they are so interesting. The pieces engage the mind and imagination as well as the spirit—all things required for health and well being.
