Eatock Daily (blog)

Invitation to Love

12/11/2020

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906)

“Invitation to Love” is the first of my Three American Poems About Love (2020). The text, by Paul Laurence Dunbar, is as much a glowing reflection on the nature of love itself as it is an expression of love directed towards a specific other.

Dunbar was born in Kentucky, the son of freed slaves. He achieved national and international fame as a poet, an essayist and a novelist, writing both in standard English and in African-American dialect.

“Invitation to Love” is performed here by members of the UK-based Sonoro chamber choir.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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Psalm 146

10/26/2020

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It is widely accepted by scholars that the Psalms were written to be sung. And over the centuries, composers have responded to this implicit challenge, finding in them a rich source of inspiration. This setting of Psalm 146 is the finale to my set of Three Psalms (2018).

The excellent virtual video below was recorded by the Sonos Quartet.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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O magna res (2019)

10/7/2020

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Hildegard in an inspired moment.

Bit of a back-story here. In the carefree days of 2019 I composed music for one of Hildegard von Bingen's mystical poems, "O magna res." I did this for a Toronto-based women's vocal sextet called the Schola Magdalena. This group was to have performed the setting in a concert in April 2020 -- but of course that didn't happen. Then, a couple of months ago, I discovered a New York-based countertenor named Phillip Cheah, who produces a series of home-made videos called "Quire of Cheahs." I asked him if he would like to make a video in which he sang all six parts in "O magna res" himself. He did, and this fine little video is the result.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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Spring Night

10/2/2020

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Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

Sara Teasdale’s poetry is personal, subjective and often often confessional in tone, and frequently explores such issues as love, beauty and death. Spring Night is no exception: here, she contemplates natural beauty – admiring it, while also reflecting that she finds it no antidote for the sadness that love can bring.

My setting of Spring Night is performed here by a vocal quartet from Pro Coro Canada, Michael Zaugg conducting.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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Canterbury (2004)

10/2/2020

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The changes begin.

My piece for cello and piano entitled Canterbury is based on a four-bell change-ringing pattern of the same name. Four “bells” (represented by four piano chords) are presented in all possible groupings – while the cello plays long, lyrical phrases that rise to a high C and descend to the instrument’s lower range.

It is performed in this video by two Montreal-based musicians: cellist Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy and pianist Marie-Pier Allard.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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Three Poems by Amy Lowell (2018)

6/17/2020

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Amy Lowell.

Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was born into a prosperous Massachusetts family. A poet, critic and biographer, she was a leading exponent of the imagist movement, and was for a time closely allied with Ezra Pound. Her obituary stated, "She was upon the surface of things a Lowell, a New Englander and a spinster. But inside, everything was molten like the core of the earth.” In 1926, she was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

Some of Lowell’s poetry was written for or about the actress Ada Dwyer Russell, with whom Lowell shared a “Boston marriage” (a 19th-century euphemism for a lesbian relationship) for more than a decade.

I have chosen three of Lowell’s love poems – Absence, Vintage and The Giver of Stars – for this set of choral songs. All three are concise and emotionally intense; vivid yet elegant in their imagery.

And I am pleased to present this “virtual video,” created (in this time of Covid-19 lockdown) by members of Seattle’s Byrd Ensemble.

© Colin Eatock 2020

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Musicological fun fact: Jenny Lind Island

9/9/2019

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Jenny Lind Island: 68°43′N 101°58′W.

Some great musicians have had statues erected in their honour. Some have concert halls and music conservatories named after them. Still others are memorialized on postage stamps and in street-names. But how many can lay claim to an island in the Canadian Arctic?

According to the good folks at Wikipedia, Jenny Lind Island is “a small island 420 km2 (160 sq mi) in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, Canada. The island is located in the Queen Maud Gulf, about 120 km (75 mi) southeast of Cambridge Bay.”

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On pride, and being rejected by the Banff Centre

10/19/2018

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No skiing for me in Banff this winter!

Pride is a tricky business: you want to get it just right.

If a person has too much pride, that is not a good thing. Such a person is often seen as arrogant and boastful. Also, too much pride can lead one to overestimate one’s ideas, abilities and accomplishments. There are plenty of cautionary stories about people whose pride was excessive. Icarus had too much pride, and things didn’t end well for him. “Pride goeth before destruction,” the Bible tells us.

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New Music I Like (No. 18)

8/6/2018

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Krishan Oberoi leads the Analog Chorale.

Lately, I’ve found that my hermetically sealed bubble-world of classical music has been colliding with other musical worlds that exist well beyond the borders of my knowledge – and often with fascinating results.

If you asked me three days ago who Justin Vernon was, or if I’d ever heard of a band called band Bon Iver, or their album 22, A Million, I’d have come up blank on all three questions. But I now know that Vernon is a singer-songwriter from Wisconsin, whose music simultaneously draws on folk, indie, electronica and hip-hop genres, among others. Bon Iver, one of several bands he fronts, released 22, A Million in 2016.

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New Music I Like (Nos. 16 and 17)

7/21/2018

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The Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal

On Monday, I took in the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal’s concert, at the University of Toronto’s Walter Hall. The program was presented within the Toronto Summer Music Festival’s offerings.

At this point, I should perhaps “disclose” that I’m a friend of SMAM’s music director, Andrew McAnerney. I met him when I was living in London, about a dozen years ago, in a student residence where we were both living, with the peculiar name of Goodenough College. We’ve stayed in touch over the years. And after Monday’s concert, we went for a drink at a local pub.

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Eatock Daily

I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.

– CE

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