SCP #54: Wondrous Fair

This is Friday's piece, but I'm writing this on Monday morning as I had a weekend jam packed with students and gigs.  While I did (just) manage to squeeze in a new piece each day, I didn't find time to download them off my camera and upload them.  I really feel like I'm lagging behind having to upload three at once, so I'm just going to write a short post for each to try and catch up.  After all, I still have to write and record today's piece.

The starting point of this piece was the melody of the previous day's piece.  Still feeling a bit tender from the previous day's lyrical frustrations I decided to give myself a break from text, so the melody is wordless.  

I was looking for a title for this piece, and reached to my bookshelf and chose one of my favourite books, The Getting Of Wisdom by Ethel Florence Lindesay (aka Henry Handel) Richardson.  Published in 1910, it is set at a Melbourne boarding school and the protagonist, Laura, is nicknamed Wondrous Fair by her younger brothers and sisters because of her ability to weave magical stories to keep them entertained on long, Australian afternoons.  I identify very strongly with Laura, and see much of my awkward, younger self in her, which is part of the reason I love this book so much and re-read it regularly.  Richardson is a wonderful writer, and my own work has been heavily influenced by her novels and stories.  I always feel a little unusual as a songwriter, in that I draw far more inspiration and influence from literature than I do music.  While I was studying music it made me feel a bit inadequate, as most of my peers were taking their creative cues from instrumental music, but I've since come to accept it as a key part of myself and my practice.  Rather than trying to fight it, I am working on embracing it, and exploring ways of connecting my love for literature and prose with my love for performing and improvising musically.