SARAH GAIT COMPOSER

Created for ISA Digital 2020. Cello improvisation: Sarah Gait Audio and video footage and editing: Sarah Gait Beethoven’s Egmont, Leonore, Coriolan: we see the exploits of youthful, active and valiant heroes and heroines, whether destined for a happy ‘ending’ or a tragic sacrifice. But what about the tragedy of the hero who grows old, facing a different foe – struggling to retain his grasp on life in a different sense, perhaps through the loss of physical faculties, such as hearing? As for his warlike heroes, despite the battle with the physical, Beethoven surely grasped mentally a, perhaps increasingly intense, conviction of the artistic creation he aspired to bring into being – into a form of musical life which he himself could never again experience. Who can say what went on within the struggles and shadows of this aging hero’s own mind: struggles which we glimpse predominantly only through his music? This improvisation, for the tragically aging hero, does not seek to replicate or to transcribe the state of mind of Beethoven – a task both impossible and futile. It seeks rather to express the eternal struggle and emotions that certainly must have crossed and battled within the ‘shadows of his mind’, as for so many other artists and humans – and to express this current of emotions within a present-day musical language. Perhaps within the time of Covid – where we as musicians experience a battle between our artistic desire to create and share, and the restrictions of current human existence – it is not inopportune to aspire to create an artistic concept, that sees not only the tragedy, but also the hopeful possibility for rejuvenation: through the strength of human will, courage, belief and aspirations… just as Beethoven’s immortal last works live on, despite the adversities he faced. With that motivation, to make opportunity from adversity, I sought in creating this digital work to utilise the very things that, through Covid, have changed most in my life during the last 6 months. Finding myself unexpectedly in the deep countryside for 6 months, I spent time in the studio where this video was filmed. This workshop, backing onto fields and woodland, is filled with old furniture, tools and assorted collections from the past years and centuries – most significant among these, the frame of the old grand piano that features in the later shots of the video. (This piano has been broken and unplayable as a keyboard instrument, since many years.) Unnecessary to dwell on the comparisons that could be made: between this instrument which no longer fulfils its original function, and a composer whose physicalities also struggled to function as intended. Suffice only to show the chance for an unexpected redemption: for this instrument to have a new lease of life, though far from its original function. The hammer blows: can they be reflected upon as part of the mental trauma of this shadowed mind? Or, in more direct reference, as an extreme extrapolation of how Beethoven would have assaulted his own piano? And is the greatest tragedy how the singing voice of his mind comes together with the silent piano… The video material was recorded around midnight in several hours of unbroken improvisation in this studio. All the audio and video editing to create, from these raw materials, a finished digital concept, is my own – using only opensource software, again through a determination to create opportunity from adversity.

"Dive" for live solo improvised cello and 5 pre-recorded cello lines/vocalisation. Composed, improvised and performed by Sarah Gait "Dive" is a semi-improvised piece. The five 'ensemble' cello parts were partially pre-written and partially improvised in the studio (mostly in a single take). The solo line was entirely improvised live in concert. The piece was inspired by many long afternoons spent wandering up a beck (small river) in the fells (hills!) of my Cumbrian home, in the summer of 2019. I was fascinated by the activity beneath the surface of the many small waterfalls in the pools, and couldn't help reflecting on this in a human context as well. "Dive" was commissioned by the Olyver New Music Collective and first performed and recorded at the October Gallery, London, UK

Hymn of Remembrance is a track I improvised live for the centenary of Armistice Day, using Laurence Binyon’s words from his poem ‘For the Fallen’ and my own music. ~Sarah Gait, Cello ~Video and Music: Sarah Catherine Gait This hymn is a tribute to all those, past, present and future, who fight to make the world a better place, whether in the trenches and battlefields of the two world wars or in countless other ways. The song is particularly a tribute to all the young Cumbrian men of the two world wars who made the ultimate sacrifice, for the sake of those who came after, so that we might enjoy the life and freedom we have now. And it is also a tribute to the hope that one day, all people and all societies across the world will be able enjoy that freedom and to live without repression or oppression. *Click on ‘see more’ below for the stories of the faces in the video* *About the music/soundtrack* Most of the track is a single unedited live improvisation. I recorded several different versions of it, as it was all live, and I’ve used the alternative takes to some multi-layering in the middle of the track, to create a ‘cello orchestra’ sound. Everything was entirely made up on the spot! *About the visuals/pictures* Most of the scenes of the video are based round a group of Cumbrian young men who fought in World War 1 and never returned. In the middle of the video are their headshots and names, while the earlier video shares scenes from battlefields and cemeteries where some of the men fought, lost their lives, and were interred. In the final part of the video, some of the same landscapes feature, but seen today with their new atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, offering a message of hope. The final picture of the video is my own landscape photo of Cumbria, showing Derwent Water and part of Borrowdale, including a number of the beautiful peaks that were historically granted to the National Trust following the Great War – for the peace and refuge of Cumbrians and all people. Intertwined with the photos of the Cumbrian soldiers from World War 1, is another group of pictures, from the story of a young Cumbrian fighter pilot in World War 2. His name is Ralph Allsebrook, my great uncle, and he was handpicked to join the famous 617 ‘Dambusters’ Squadron, shortly after their most famous raid. His contemporaries claimed he led “a charmed life”, twice escaping near-death experiences. Ultimately however he lost his life in 1943 when his plane was gunned down over the Dortmund Ems Canal, at which time he was aged just 23. ~The soldiers from WW 1 William Ewart Gladstone Wise, from Silloth. He was killed in action on the Somme in 1916, aged 21. Robert Mayson Calvert from Burgh-by-Sands. Killed in action at Trones Wood, 1916, aged 20. Abraham Acton from Whitehaven. killed in action at Festubert, France, aged 22 in 1915. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for Valour. Beresford Karr Horan, who went to school in Carlisle. He enlisted with first a US and then a Candaian regiment. Listed by both as a ‘deserter’ (for reasons unclear) and disgraced by being refused a war grave, he died apparently from pneumonia during training in 1915, before ever reaching the battlefield. He was aged 23. ~Also appearing: An Unknown soldier from World War 1. His picture was found in a Carlisle antique shop and donated to Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life. Cumbria’s Border Regiment, 1916. War Nurses and Medical officers in France, 1918. At a Northumbrian Casualty Clearing Station. Credits to pictures not mine as follows: Regina Trench Cemetery, Somme (including the ‘silent city’ caption); Poison Gas at Ypres; the Destruction of Ypres: greatwarphotos.com Dortmund-Ems Canal; Ralph Allsebrook and crew: www.militaryhistories.co.uk and Chris Ward Photos of individual soldiers from WW1: Trinity School Carlisle war memorial. Please contact if a copyright is wrongly attributed, or you are the copyright holder and would like it removed or amended.

"Bròn" is a Scots (gaelic) word meaning "Sorrow". The set of notes I found myself using for this improvisation evoked some broodingly sorrowful overtones, so I gave the piece this nickname. The middle section has a kind of folk dance tune that I invented while I was playing. I also use vocalisation later on (humming/singing at the same time as playing). This piece was created on a spur of the moment impulse! It was added in at the end of a recording session, so it's entirely live and improvised on the spot. Cello: Sarah Gait Recorded at the Royal Academy of Music, London, UK. January 14, 2018.