Listening for the past: A composer's ear-lead approach to exploring island culture past and present in the Outer Hebrides

Abstract

The landscapes of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland are littered with the visual remnants of a turbulent past but can past events be said to leave sonic as well as visual traces? This article discusses three aspects of a practice-based research project. The first is the author's exploration of these islands and their history through sound in order to try to find elusive sonic traces of the past. The second concerns the issues and problems of finding and recording sound in the Outer Hebrides. The third is the artistic challenge of communicating something about history and memory, related to the Outer Hebrides, through the medium of composed sound using a mixture of monologues, field recordings and interviews collected during a number of trips to the islands as well as material from oral history archives.

This article refers specifically to two finished compositions, 'Tweed' and 'On the Machair', which are both freely available to listen to
online. 'Tweed' is available as part of ‘Playing with Words: an audio compilation’ at: http://www.gruenrekorder.de - and 'On the Machair' is available as part of Autumn
Leaves at: http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=218

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• http://www.gruenrekorder.de