As the time to present my final composition grows closer I have been finalising ideas on what my composition will be.
I still intend to write my piece about the Natural Northumbria section of the Hancock Museum and I am still considering focusing on one display case. However, I am also considering having a few birds as the focus, particularly the great tit
or blue tit as these two have stood out to me as more birds emerge in the early spring. If I choose to focus on a few birds I will still include others in the recordings and throughout the piece but use a few to direct the narrative.
I have also been considering how I would structure the piece and have decided to have three sections; morning, afternoon, and evening. My intent with the piece is to consider how the soundscape changes throughout the day and will reflect this with recordings of different bird from the different times of day. I intent to use a majority of my own recordings for my piece but will carefully source any that I cannot find myself. I will also need to do some research to see which birds I should be looking for, where they live, and what time they are active.
For the performance element of my composition I would like to write a narrative to follow along with the bird sounds. During this module I have been shown Hildegard Westerkamp's piece, Soundwalking, where she narrates over her sound recordings. I like the way in which she adds important context to the sounds that we hear, for example, she brings our attention to the barnacles that are drowned out by the city noise. I intend for it to give some context for the listeners, perhaps including some facts or descriptions of the birds in focus. I also would like to use the bird calls as inspiration in my vocal intonation, using the melodies to inspire my phrasing. I will write my narrative once I have coordinated all of my recordings.
The Merlin app I have used to identify bird calls also provides small visuals to match each bird species, I would like to use this to inspire my graphic score that will also provide more insight for the audience. I enjoy the way Merlin is in monochrome and the louder and more prominent the sound the darker the shape, I will reference this when creating my own.
