Mockin' Bird: For euphonium, tuba and electronics

Mockin’ Bird draws on the musical traditions of the herring lassies, a migratory workforce of women who travelled between ports to gut and pack herring as they were brought ashore. Working synchronously through long days, these women relied on singing together to maintain focus and to raise their spirits. As a result, a distinct culture and unique musical repertoire reflecting the itinerant lives of these women emerged, drawing on diverse song traditions including Scottish music, their own compositions and, towards the middle of the century, popular music genres such as Country and Western. One such tune was "Mockin’ Bird Hill”, the song from which the title and harmonic content of this piece is derived.

Communication was key, and the job of gutting and packing the herring required an unwavering and sustained degree of focus and attention between the three workers who were stationed at each barrel: two gutters and one packer.

Mockin’ Bird explores this attentive mode of listening, reflecting the relationship between the gutters and the packer through the use of 2 instrumentalists and a live electronic performer. Requiring a careful attunement between the three performers, a series of drones drawn from the song, “Mockin' Bird Hill”, are played, recorded and layered, performing a process of packing in slow motion.