A Gift of Song | Tiny Movements
The Four Winds Easter Festival should have been in full flight this weekend. The postponement, for obvious reasons, was a huge disappointment to everyone. Live music performance is core to our existence, but it was simply not possible to bring a Festival of live music to our audience this year.
Therefore, we decided to go down another creative path – by making music remotely, yet collectively, through the wonders of technology. In many ways this approach is counter-intuitive for musicians who are used to responding to one another 'in the moment' when performing live.
However, we're taking an optimistic and energized approach to the present situation and Four Winds is delighted to bring you this premiere at Easter.
Having fun beyond the Concert Hall
One of the beautiful things about Four Winds is that we exist beyond the Concert Hall. This performance is no exception and The Australian Voices have clearly had a lot of fun shaking off the formality of the concert platform to record the song in their own homes, gardens and bathrooms! In these crazy and challenging times, so full of restrictions, it seemed appropriate to let the singers and musicians off the leash in the video and individually respond spontaneously to the song!
The song's text is inspired by a series of poems called 'Small Kingdoms' by Canberra based poet Anita Patel. The poems appear in a beautiful book called 'Heart Stitched' which is a collaboration between Anita and visual artist Annie Franklin who lives on the Far South Coast of NSW. In short the words of the chorus in the song capture the appreciation of the simple things in life which are essential to our existence: 'Pulse and beat beneath our feet; Silent work; Tiny movements unseen, unheard, feeding our earth with hope'
Coming together through song
Whilst not an explicit response to the devastating bush-fires on the Far South Coast of NSW we anticipated that 'Tiny Movements' would bring the community together in song through workshops leading to a world premiere performance at the Easter Festival. We imagined the community being united and inspired by the experience of singing together after such an incredibly challenging start to the year.
First performance; an on-line premiere for you
We are delighted to present the premiere of this song to you via a pre-recorded performance available online. Gordon Hamilton, The Australian Voices along with myself have recorded the song so that we can still share it with you at Easter. This latest commission is a great example of Four Winds commitment to new collaborations and to bringing joy to the community.
The song is in a familiar verse-chorus form and the melody is both lively and repetitive so you'll find that you can join in along the way. In the coming weeks we will be uploading resources on the Four Winds website so that you can learn the song by singing along to rehearsal tracks which can be a lot of fun.
If you love to sing, come and take part in the first live performance of 'Tiny Movements' which is planned for Saturday 14 November 2020 on the Dickinson Oval. There will be a rehearsal/singing day before the performance for you to come and hone your singing skills (date tbc).
On behalf of myself and everyone at Four Winds we wish you all a very safe, healthy and Happy Easter.
James Crabb | Artistic Director
We would like to thank
Gordon Hamilton, The Australian Voices and the musicians involved for recording this song so we could present it to you.
Anita Patel for allowing us to take inspiration from her poems 'Small Kingdoms' from 'Heart Stitched'.
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