is a performance work that arose upon pondering on possibilities to preserve such an ephemera as a flower garden, true to its nature. It also considers the perpetual migration of poetic material across time and space that has been occuring for centuries. The work was composed and performed in collaboration with the mighty Irish traditional vocal quartet Landless.
It is an incantation, a ritual, which invokes the past, preserves the present and ultimately points to the future. It questions ways to maintain a garden as an heirloom, and how poetry can migrate across time and space. It reincarnates the Korean ancient poetry/song form of Hyangga (meaning 'home song') that died out over a millennium ago, and experiments with its era-specific, bilingual writing system adapted into English. The work takes the blossoming calendar from a faraway garden as a musical score, telling the story of an elderly woman who sings to her flowers in her garden about the ephemerality of everything and human desire to be remembered. It also stands for a possible fusion of the individual musical and cultural practices of Landless and Lee, which seem rather different on the surface.
This work was made possible through the support from PRS Foundation (Women Make Music) and Arts Council Northern Ireland (Support for Individual Artist). It was nominated for an Ivor Novello Composers Award 2024.
Performance History
- Sonics & Scenics Festival, Kinomuzeum at Museum
of Modern Art Warsaw / June 2025 (with Sirenes Chamber Choir)
- Lawrence Street Workshops / April 2024
- St. Patrick's Day Celebration Mussenden Temple / March 2024
- IMBOLC International Arts Festival, Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin / January 2024
- Rathmullan Music Project / July 2023 (Residency)
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