Song

In Song, you are hear the fragile voices of five historic instruments from the collection of the Bowes Museum. Kit Haigh presents these voices as an awakening conversation between old friends. Rather than a fixed composition, Song is an example of generative music; music that is ever-changing, created by a system. 

Over time, the sampled notes of the instruments combine to form ever changing relationships, creating unexpected phrases and sometimes chords, never to be repeated. The sound of each of these instruments can be heard through an adjacent speaker. The title comes from a slip of manuscript found inside the Haxby square piano which had been there since it was built in 1794. It is simply called Song.

In Josephine Bowes’ home you would find music and merriment. The Revue Critique wrote of her 1860s gatherings of artists, intellectuals, and French society that 'the salons of Madame Bowes are counted among the most brilliant in Paris'. 

“Like Josephine, I wanted Song to be joyful, yet offer the listener space in the music to reflect. This influenced my choice of notes and the pace of the work.”

Process 

The fragile instruments in The Bowes Museum's collection are between 150 and 300 years old. No longer played, the instruments fall out of tune. Four instruments in The Music Room were identified and the first step process of creating Song was to take digital field recordings. Key to ensuring the sounds taken from the instruments were of the highest quality and best tone, Kit worked alongside instrument technician and piano restorer, Aidan Delacy-Simms, with Bowes Museum conservation and curatorial staff also in attendance. 

This process entailed two days of careful adjustment, repair and gentle pitch raising of each instrument. The goal was to get as many notes as possible on each of the four instruments working and producing a viable tone to record.

Once the instruments were prepared, Kit was able to take digital field recordings of the Waite Piano, Boradwood PianoForte, Bard Harpsichord, Haxby Square Piano and the Piano-cum-Harmonium originally commissioned by Josephne Bowes found on the first floor of the building. 

“As a lifelong visitor to Bowes, I grasped the opportunity to hear the instruments that had silently intrigued me for many years, to share the recorded sounds with visitors by gently animating the room with music made from and inspired by them.” 

Kit uses Song to explore the power of music and sound to transform our emotional perception of spaces. Often using found sounds from the space itself rather than conventional instruments, he creates truly site specific, generative pieces that are quickly familiar yet constantly changing.