The Hancock Egg



Last Monday I revisited the Hancock museum with my friend and course-mate Alex. The aim of our call there was to browse the artefacts on display for inspiration for our final compositional projects.

My current interest in the Roman history of the North-East led me to peruse the establishment's section on Hadrian's Wall. Among its arrays of ancient tools and fragments I found a small but intricate "egg-shaped amulet," said to have been used in a woman's childbirth to secure the help of a goddess. The story behind it resonated with me and I started to conceptualise a potential composition and recording surrounding its mythology.

I had the idea to hike Hadrian's Wall and place my piece physically and contextually within the home of the egg at Housesteads Fort. I would visit at a quiet time of day to ensure minimal unwanted noise from fellow hikers, leaving me with a clean sonic tapestry upon which I could layer my own music. I am even toying with the idea of attaching a contact microphone to the wall itself, to record its "heartbeat" and weave that into the work.

So far these are nothing more than thoughts and there would be logistical issues to overcome if I want to complete my piece in this way. For example, carrying a bass guitar from the train station at Bardon Mill to the fort could prove challenging due to its weight, although this would add another layer of physical effort to my final piece, perhaps enriching the work itself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rainy Day at King Edward's Bay

Image
Nestled within a rocky shelter at the foot of Tynemouth Priory's cliffs at King Edward's Bay, I sat with my guitar mucking around with voicings high up its neck. The weather was bleak and uninviting but as I perched there watching the sea I gradually became more at home in its command. After a few minutes' noodling I discovered a sequence of chords that reflected the mood cast by the rumbling ocean and dripping rainwater from the overhang to my left. I set up the H1n field mic that I had loaned from the Hatch on campus, attaching its wind shield and setting it atop a rock before me. I angled it such that my playing would be heard slightly panned to one side, and the rain drops the other. As it was pointing at the cliff face along which I was seated, the sound of the crashing waves heard on the recording were primarily derived from their reflections off of it. This faded them somewhat into the background of the soundscape as opposed to being the dominant central noise. I lik...
Read more

Lithomarga - Visiting the Wall

Image
After choosing the egg-shaped amulet as my museum artefact, I knew I wanted to record my composition at Housesteads fort on Hadrian's Wall, the location at which it was discovered. I thought that being able to compose my piece at its historical home would inspire an authentic connection to the landscape. A short train ride brought me to Bardon Mill where a five kilometre uphill hike awaited me. Failure to collect the H5 microphone I had booked from SACS meant bringing my own recording equipment - a microphone, stand, laptop, audio interface and numerous cables. Paired with my guitar, this made for a deceptively heavy cargo that needed to be hauled 200 metres up Northumberland's hills!  During my hour's trek, I chose to listen to an album that I have always associated with a "Roman" sound - Argus by Wishbone Ash. Something about the guitar harmonies, dark chords and natural and ancient imagery in its lyrics evokes a sound I'd like to recreate in my own piece. A...
Read more