Cuckmere: A Portrait Perusal score
The Cuckmere Soundwalk - available as a site specific soundwalk along the Cuckmere River and Cuckmere Haven, via ECHOES Interactive Soundwalks (download to your phone via App store or Google Play)
CD available on Métier Records
Commissioned by the 2018 Brighton Festival
Chamber orchestra
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Percussion (timpani, bass drum, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel), Piano, Strings (3.3.2.2.1)
Recorded by the Orchestra of Sound and Light conducted by Ed Hughes
Duration 30’
The music is inspired by the film's depiction of continuity of landscapes and also its dramatic changes (e.g. the shapes of downland and the dramatic cutting away of cliff edges). Music also reflects the large-scale contrasts and moods of passing seasons. This is done with a structure in which four musical movements, using contrasting tempos, themes and harmonies, align with film sequences corresponding to the changing seasons of Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.
An electronic prelude and three electronic interludes introduce and connect these four movements, so that the work weaves between sonic and immersive textures, and purely instrumental musical sequences.
“Hughes’ score takes the river as its source, its restless energy bubbling through the strings and broadening out into rich, majestic textures in the wind and brass. Here is music that asks questions rather than making statements. Never the familiar ‘Behold, our magnificent cliffs’ but instead, ‘Why does this landscape fascinate us and what’s our place in it?”
Cuckmere: A Portrait - live debate on the occasion of the launch of the CD
With Trevor Beattie (Chief Exec South Downs National Park Authority)
Cuckmere: A Portrait (2018) | Film by Cesca Eaton | Music by Ed Hughes