Genevieve Murphy

TOGETHER WE FEEL

              AND

           ALONE

WE EXPERIENCE

 

Composed and premiered in 2024 for ONCEIM (Paris), commissioned by Musica Festival (Strasbourg, FR) and Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht, NL)

 

 

“A transformation of sound, emotion, feeling and psychology. A journey towards the impossible dream of the bagpipes”, Tom Service on BBC Radio 3

 

 

“Together We Feel And Alone We Experience” (2024) , is about isolation and collectivity. The title refers to the idea that we may all feel the same emotion but our own experience of that emotion is personal.

The concept of isolation and connectivity inspired the me to create a work for the highland bagpipes and ONCEIM.

I have a complex relationship with the highland bagpipes, especially in combination with other instruments that are not usually associated with them. I learned to play the bagpipes from the age of seven, along with piano and cello, and they have stayed by my side ever since.

To a certain extent the bagpipes are limited. If played in the conventional way, it is impossible to create a crescendo, to enter at a low volume or to discretely stop playing. Their sound cuts in and cuts out. To begin to sound the bagpipes I must be standing, use my lungs to inflate the bag (which is audible) until it is full before literally punching the bag and firing in the loudest sound an acoustic instrument would usually not be capable of making. It can feel alienating, uncomfortable, violent, rude, indiscreet, tiring and a little embarrassing at times.

When playing the bagpipes I often feel like an outsider, unable to use dynamics or create silences between phrases like other instrumentalists and they have a limited range of notes, which are microtonal. Some experiences have sounded awful in combination with other instruments. I have felt isolated due to a lack of musical agility.

However, I do not know another instrument that asks for my whole body to be present and involved, requiring so much strength and stamina. Its volume invokes a celebration, the world becomes tangible, a powerful and open presence that immerses me in a fascinating microtonal language. This is why I feel inspired to continue to play this instrument to an audience and with other musicians.

As a composer, I use the bagpipes as a tool to push other instrumentalists beyond their comfort zone yet at the same time I search for a way that the bagpipes can belong outside of their usual environment (the marching band).

In reference to the concept, isolation can occur when one is unable to adapt to others, connection can be found through understanding and identifying with the other. It is difficult to get the bagpipes to adapt with other instruments. I have learned that in a classical context, other instruments must find ways in which they identify with my bagpipes and not the other way around in order for sounds to merge and connect.

This composition asks the musicians of ONCEIM to “be” the highland bagpipes. I have composed ways in which they imitate this unique instrument in tone, timbre, harmony and register.

“Together We Feel And Alone We Experience” dives into the anatomy of the Highland Bagpipes and attempts to portray its characteristics through other instruments in the orchestra. I explore air, the drones, grace notes, pitch, their harsh entrance and presence. I share how it is possible to merge ONCEIM with the bagpipes, to feel as one and yet emphasise how they contrast and disconnect.

Portraying the bagpipes through other instruments enables me to express my perspective of the bagpipes and my relationship to them. As a result of this approach, the bagpipes have triggered me to explore the anatomy of ONCEIM. The personal sound of each musician became apparent.

I asked myself while composing this work, and now I ask the audience through my composition, “how do the other instruments differ to the highland bagpipes in timbre, character, dynamic?”, “What do the instruments in this orchestra have that the bagpipes don’t and vice versa?”

We may all feel the same emotion but our experience of that emotion is unique to the individual. By asking a musician to try to feel as though they are bagpipes, their approach and sound will still be unique to their instrument. I cannot ask another instrument to “be” highland bagpipes, just as I cannot experience the same emotion as you experience.