When I was at university I enjoyed arranging and composition, however once I started teaching that was somewhat sidelined. It is only in the last couple of years that I have got back into this area of music.

These works are covered by a Creative Commons license, so please feel free to download and perform them with your handbell groups. 

As well, it's always nice to hear how my pieces are being used, so please fill out the form below. As well, maybe even send an email or a YouTube link to your performance!

Thanks

Rob C 

rob.j.cairns@gmail.com

Something Wicked

Every year with the Gr. 8's in January we perform one of Shakespeare's tragedies in our drama studio, and in Gr. 7 we always look at a couple of the speeches from ... 'That Scottish Play'. (Shhh ... Macbeth) 

In November I was working on Hamlet (picture below) with the Gr. 8's and we had just finished the 'Dagger Speech' (Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand ...)  so I started to play around with a melody. Also, some the kids in the class had expressed an interest in trying some handbells. (We ended up useing chimes instead.) Over the next while I completed "Something Wicked". 

Voices of Earth

One of the pieces that I have always loved to perform is the "Mi'kmaq Honour Song" written by Lydia Adams. It is an atomspheric experience to be in the audience surrounded by a forest soundscape as the piece progresses. I have performed it with both the St. Thomas Youth Choir and with the Pearson Singers, from my school. One of my most memorable experiences was perfroming "Mi'kmaq Honour Song" at Cantabury Cathedral in 2003 when the Pearson Singers were on tour. 

I aways felt that handbells, doing what is callerd 'Singing Bells' would sound interesting accompanying the piece, so at our 2017 Choral Celebration we did just that. 

When I came across the poem 'Voices of Earth" by Archibald Lampman I decided to try writing a piece with the same feel as  the "Mi'kmaq Honour Song". There would be singers spread out around the audience to make nature sounds, possibly as well recorded sounds. The lower bells would do "Singing Bells" to represent the "Music of the Spheres", whereas the upper bells would double the solo voice with no dampening at all, leaving each sung note hanging in the air. The choir itself are the Voices of Earth, spread by a series of 4ths so that no disernable chord can be heard, just an expansive, yet chaotically organized vocal cluster.

Voices of Earth

We have not heard the music of the spheres,

The song of star to star, but there are sounds

More deep than human joy and human tears,

That Nature uses in her common rounds;

The fall of streams, the cry of winds that strain

The oak, the roaring of the sea's surge, might

Of thunder breaking afar off, or rain

That falls by minutes in the summer night.

These are the voices of earth's secret soul,

Uttering the mystery from which she came.

To him who hears them grief beyond control,

Or joy inscrutable without a name,

Wakes in his heart thoughts bedded there, impearled,

Before the birth and making of the world. 

Feed My Lambs

One of the truely wonderful choirs in Southwestern Ontario is Choral Connection in St. Thomas. They present a couple of concerts each year, usually with orchestra. In the past they have presented Bach's B-minor Mass, the Brahms Requiem and concerts featuring Canadian works. As well, an annual Messiah performance has become a popular (always sold out!) tradition.

Choral Connection is under the direction of Hugh Van Pelt. Hugh and I both went to Western for our music degrees. We both sang in the Faculty of Music Singers under Deral Johnson and traded off tenor solos, but realistically, most of the solos at the time went to Michael Schade!

I perform quite regularly with Hugh's group and wanted to write something for them. We talked about it and he suggested something for Good Friday, 2020. Over Christmas I started to think about it and by a week or so into January I had a basic draft of the piece to show Hugh. He decided to put it on his Good Friday program. 

The theme I had chosen for the composition was to look at what was happening with the disciple Peter at the time of the crucifixion and after. The narrator of the piece is Peter himself reflecting on his own actions and the journey which now laid before him. When Hugh and I first talked he said there would be strings available for this performance and there is usually also timpani. So I wrote for strings, percussion, solo violin, solo baritone, and of course, choir.

In my mind when I was writing, there was one voice I heard in the role of Peter, Aaron Dimoff. Aaron sang with us at Metropolitan United Church while he was studing at Western. When Aaron graduated he headed off to the Calgary Opera. Aaron has rercently returned to London and is again singing with us when he is not in an opera somewhere. Aaron had agreed to sing the role of Peter for the piece. Have a listen to the video below and you will see why I imagined him as Peter!

Hugh and I talked about an honorarium, as the piece was specifically written for his group. What we have agreed upon is after the premier he is going to buy me a beer! Unfortunately with the 2020 pandemic that performance has been postponed and my beer is seemingly in limbo! We will eventually perform the piece and I and really hoping Aaron is available at the time!

Below is the music for choir, solo violin and the part of Peter. As well, as there is the recorded midi file so that you can listen. Once the piece is finally premiered the full score and all the parts will be made available as well. 

I look forward to finally getting to hear the piece in performance! (And I get my beer!)