ALEX EDDINGTON
Alex Eddington’s music has been described as “eclectic” (Wholenote Magazine), “remarkable and very theatrical” (Nieuwe Noten) and “[shining] with wit and assurance… subtlety and truthfulness” (National Post).
His choral pieces have been performed across Canada and the U.S.A., including Elektra Women’s Choir, Chronos Vocal Ensemble, Toronto Chamber Choir, KC VITAs and the Da Camera Singers. His instrumental music has been commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Mississauga Symphony, Continuum, Toronto Consort and violinist Conrad Chow.
Known for his solo vocal music, Alex’s debut album A Present From a Small Distant World showcased his decades-long collaboration with soprano Kristin Mueller-Heaslip. Additionally, his music has been recorded and released on albums by Quattuor Bozzini, Odin Quartet, junctQín Keyboard Collective, soprano Stephanie Lamprea and the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alex’s work with young and community musicians includes collaborative composition projects with VIVA Singers, Jumblies Theatre, St. Paul’s Steel Band and the Suzuki String School of Guelph. As a theatrical composer he has worked with Guild Festival Theatre, Tarragon Theatre and many small companies touring the Fringe theatre circuit.
Alex Eddington is also a high school music/drama teacher, bird enthusiast, playwright/storyteller, and host of the contemporary music podcast Fresh Sounds / Open Ears. please visit www.alexeddington.com
ACORN - (from "The Lost Words")
by Alex Eddington
SSAA with piano – CP 2191 – duration: 2:30
I love the rhythm andshape ofthe spells, butAcom in particularmakes a flurry ofparts becoming larger wholes-as though the growth ofan oak tree happens over a thrilling couple ofminutes
When the most recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary – widely used in schools around the world – was published, a sharp-eyed reader soon noticed that around forty common words concerning nature had been dropped. The words were no longer being used enough by children to merit their place in the dictionary. The list of these “lost words” included acorn, adder, bluebell, dandelion, fern, heron, kingfisher, newt, otter, and willow. Among the words taking their place were attach-ment, blog, broadband, bullet-point, cut-and-paste, and voice-mail. The news of these substitutions – the outdoor and natural being displaced by the indoor and virtual – became seen by many as a powerful sign of the growing gulf between childhood and the natural world.
Morna Edmundson, Elektra Women’s Choir director, decided to commission 10 composers to write 2 compositions each – 20 compositions set to the poetry of Robert Macfarlane – and a fabulous concert program was born (premiered in 2022). These pieces are available individually and also as a complete book. They can be performed with piano alone or with instrumentation; flute/piccolo, violin, cello, clarinet/bass clarinet and marimba/percussion.
Boy with Orange (Out of Kosovo)
by Alex Eddington
SATB with piano – CP 1924 – duration: 3:50
SSA with piano – CP 2000
SSAA with piano – CP 2001
TBB with piano – CP 2002
TTBB with piano – CP 2003
Boy with Orange (out of Kosovo) takes its text from the poem of the same name by U.K. poet Lotte Kramer. Born in Germany in 1923, Kramer escaped to England as a child refugee. She started writing poetry in her 30s to help process her experiences. This poem is a striking universal image of how war affects the lives of children and their families. It reflects the devastating reality of modern warfare, and the resulting global refugee crisis.
MAGPIE - (from "The Lost Words")
by Alex Eddington
SSAA with piano – CP 2200 – duration: 1:55
Magpies were my joy when I lived in Edmonton, and this spell captures their personality in a bold manifesto— I enjoy setting text with clear characters like this.
read about “The Lost Words” above
Picking Wild Berries
by Alex Eddington
SATB a cappella – CP 1923 – duration: 5:20
Picking Wild Berries is a setting of Julie Flett’s beautiful children’s book Wild Berries / Pikaci Mīnisa, in both English and Swampy Cree. A boy and his grandmother pick blueberries in a forest clearing, while observing nature. Grandma checks for bears; Clarence sees an ant, a spider, and a fox; they leave berries as a thank-you for the birds.
I was as much influenced by Julie Flett’s illustrations as by her text. Watch the video on the listening page. The restricted colour palette and clean lines have analogies in the music. The deep red sun is represented by a drone on the pitch A, heard in almost every moment of the piece. Its timbre changes with the quality of light, it is filtered through different harmonies, but the sun is always there.
click here for important performance notes 