Moving Through Worlds
This is a great time for something brighter and lighter, something that brings some ease to the weary listener, who is seeking feelings of harmony and simple respite from our troubled world. The gifted composer, singer, and pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins has just the thing, a new album titled Moving Through Worlds. I hear an enchanting and amazing exploration of themes such as land, water, fire, climate change and the vanishing of souls into the wind. The 14 tracks feature mostly solo piano, some are duos with violin or cello, some have a more full range of accompanists. The sound has a way of traversing lots of moods, rich with dynamic energy. In places the sound is delicate and slow, in places the feelings build and gain velocity and then gently recede.
County Clare has a strong history of traditional music, with many seasonal music festivals. One of the legends for the origin of the county name Clare, sometimes also called the Banner County, comes from the settlement of Clare (now Clarecastle), whose name Clár, or plank bridge, is a place for crossing over the River Fergus. The first track, "Calling County Clare" (5:06) is a haunting bit of a quiet easy dance with piano, percussion, acoustic guitar, bass, Irish flute, and vocals floating ethereally. There is a sassy video that is based on this song:
The Australian bush is tinder dry and has been increasingly dangerous in recent times, last year was named the Black Summer because of the unusually intense bushfires throughout Australia. On this album, Fiona Joy has several songs meditating on this terrible time, the second track of the album is titled "Bushfire Moon" (5:03) The musical style crosses into the jazz world, and the solo piano brings the listener into a sense of wonder, while remembering and honoring the devastation of nature, enduring such a tragic inferno.
There's nothing like a bit of rain to gladden the hearts, "Prayer For Rain" (4:08) has a lighter, slower feel, with vocal touches. I am thinking of an undying wish during a drought, may God open the heavens and let the merciful rain down upon the fields and mountains, bringing relief to the parched landscape.
All we have left in the end is memories, and the fourth track is a graceful and powerful meditation on what is left. This is my favorite song on the album because it is somehow both sad, enduring, and life affirming. "All That is Left" (5:34) has a light vocal shadowing, a shifting pace, with violin and horn, understated percussion, like the breeze the song gradually slows down quietly then resumes.
The color of lakes and oceans ranges in hue, the deeper the pool, the bluer the water. Seen up close water is clear and might have no color, but from a distance oceans and deep lakes have a magical blue color, "Aqua 1" (1:55) it the first of two meditations on water heard on this album, the first meditation has quiet hesitant beginning that blossoms into brighter colors.
Next, a new interpretation of the famous "Prelude in E Minor (Chopin, #4)" (2:37) which has been lifted out of the classical period and brought by Fiona Joy into a more romantic modern space. The cello is played by Eugene Friesen. The song is a story of untapped love, with a consideration for all new possibilities, all new experiences, discovering new connections. This composition has an extensive musical history, the composer invoked such dark terms as “smorzando,” which means "dying away, " and some listeners in the time spoke of a feeling of suffocation, due to Chopin's evident sense of existential despair. What tears are shed from the depths of the damp monastery?
Legends tell of a time, thousands or millions of years ago, when the Crystal Desert was covered in water. When I first heard the title of this next track I thought of arid and dry sandy landscapes, a hot and hostile environment, with a lack of easily accessible resources, and intense isolation, yet filled with a strange sunbaked beauty. "Desert of Crystal" (4:28) makes me think of geometric forms in a large open landscape, vocals floating, violin shimmering. It turns out that the composer was thinking of ice, snow and the sphere of the winds. Crystal Desert is a nickname for Australia's southern neighbor Antarctica, on average the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, invoking visions of endless permanent winter populated by isolated romping nematodes, penguins, seals and tardigrades. Other historical names for this ocean and ice-locked region of glaciers and rock outcrops include Ultima and Antipodea.
Wherever flames may rage near civilization, there are brave men and women of the fire service who are called to confront a dangerous environment, and when the fire is out and the alarm has come to an end, it is the bell that signals to all the completion of that call. On sad occasions, the ringing of the bell is for fallen firefighters, to announce that a comrade has come home for that final time. With a quiet nod to the recent Australian bushfire season, hear a tale told through piano, a story illustrated by cello and English horn, "Tolling of the Fire Bell" (5:18) comes flowing and building, a proper solemn and yet uplifting meditation on a troublesome time, of lives lost and nature ravaged.
Let us now return for a second meditation on the color of water, to think about the inviting blue of a mountain lake or a sea, to revisit the color seen on the surfaces of deep water, which often reflects blue skylight, making the depths appear even bluer. The color of water varies with the ambient conditions in which that water is present. This second meditation, "Aqua 2" (1:20) makes me think of a bright open oceanic vista, quiet and yet tingling with life. Timelessness matters most when you have no time. The heart of midnight homes in on the sadness of a friend passing at midnight. Am I the one who is dreaming? Art doesn’t “change the world," instead it changes the terms. Today we find a resurrection, yet no words pass between us. For the tenth track, "Passing Of Midnight" (3:39), I hear a thoughtful meditation, piano with cello in a quiet mood, bringing forth the subtle dynamics we so love, the feeling builds and the feeling relaxes.
Moving through parallel worlds, sometimes objects can exist in more than one location simultaneously, even though the objects are invisible to us in all but one location. To achieve our dreams and exist in a world that is exactly as you imagine it should be, with science and timeless wisdom, somehow to guide you on a path about the sweep of time and surviving how it fragments and impinges upon lived human experience. This next track brings about meaning and emotion, with a modern classical direction and the idea of worlds that are shifting/changing, come along to a feeling of "Moving Through Worlds" (4:28), the album’s title track, features glorious piano accompanied with violin, a story of darkness with persistent hope. Enjoy the journey!
A rose makes the perfect flower to represent love, for the thorns grow alongside the blossoms and this legendary flower is emotionally fulfilling in the best sense of the word. There are symbols lurking in every corner of this next track, Fiona Joy composed this at the age of 12 years, and it was played at her Grandmother’s funeral. All of the Grandchildren placed a rose on the coffin. "For the Roses (Solo Piano)" (3:28) evokes a beautiful sense of sad memories, bringing the strength to be held close, though one feels devastated by the natural events of life. "For the Roses" is a gem glistening in the past reaching out to comfort a timelessly troubled heart. "Song For Louise" (1:49) is a duet with Fiona's impressionistic piano and the violin of Rebecca Daniel. I think it has an oriental feel that brings the listener a precious piece of life.
Twilight comes just before the night falls, just after sunset, when the light is half-faded, but the world is not yet totally dark, "Twilight Moment" (2:32) is a return to the ancestral feeling of the first track of this album, the song set in Ireland, in a slower pace to close this journey, with warm vocals to hold the piano as it floats in the diminishing daylight and brings dreams of peace and fulfillment.
Sometimes one has to go into those difficult issues in order to come out the other side, coming out the other side. This also unlocks the ability to dream and connect to the ghosts of those who died, and can modify the energy of the colors primarily to stretch and bend into themes of peace and release. Moving Through Worlds is a journey of transition from danger and loss, the transforming miracles of nature and humanity, but today we gather to mourn, honor, reflect and begin to learn from the black summer that continues. To enjoy the color of water's vibrational states, as well as the the cold and dark as deep related questions about what we do not see.
The songs come from different worlds and together they create a sense of hope and beauty for listeners to enjoy. We are forced to continually change our strategies and tactics to accomplish our tasks. The winds blow hard, making and unmaking dunes, covering up the present and uncovering the past. We utilize these traditions as symbols, which reflect honor and respect on those who have given so much and who have served so well, sharing concerns for the future of threatened wildlife, such as glossy black cockatoos, Kangaroo Island dunnarts, and koalas. If the legends are true, we can pass through worlds again and again, always learning and always experiencing new seasons.
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