Commissions

The Programme board has dedicated funding to provide a series of small creative commissions to professional artists, mainly those local to Herefordshire. The intention is to bring a range of art forms to help adorn the unfolding apples stories. Artists across all media were invited to apply to help illustrate some of the Apple Stories.

A creative commissioning panel reviews all applications. It is particularly keen to engage artists whose work has suffered due to the pandemic and to showcase the amazing range of talents waiting to flourish again after the pandemic ends.

This collection of new artwork will span spoken word, poetry, film, painting, photography, illustration, sculpture, drama, dance, music, lighting and sound engineering, and crafts.

Published Apples & People Commissions

Dear Gravity by Jake Morley

Dear Gravity © Jake Morley 2021 commissioned by Apples & People

Singer/Songwriter Jake Morley has been commissioned by Apples & People to write and perform this song about Isaac Newton and his inspiration under an apple tree.

This commission is part of our Apple Story, ‘Newton and the Apple Tree’, published on 5h July 2021.

www.jakemorley.com

‘My young daughter is utterly obsessed with apples. While other interests come and go, they are a constant. I never take her out without at least one in the bag. When it came to writing about Newton’s famous moment of inspiration under a tree, I couldn’t not include that.

Dear Gravity is a kind of modern, personal re-telling of the story. This time the falling apple leads to a different realisation about gravity – that it is the cause of so much of her daily grief. It knocks her to the ground, bashes up her knees, and worst of all steals the apples from her hand. Life can be seen as a long fight against gravity, one we’ll ultimately lose but that will make us who we are. As epiphanies goes, it’s certainly not as impressive, but it’ll do for a songwriter.

I included some of Newton’s own words, see if you can spot them. The more traditional guitar parts were a nod to the age of the story. Plus I tried to mess with the harmonic floor of the song as an act of defiance to gravity. It won’t notice or care, but it made me chuckle which is something.’

Jake Morley July 2021

The Mountain that Bears Fruit

This animation is part of our Apple Story, ‘Bears Like Eating Apples‘, published on 18th June 2021.

With music by Aleksandr Konovalov

This is a wonderfully simple story, showing the link between apples and bears in the remote mountains of the Tian Shan.

Whilst innocent and quite comical, this story ultimately is about conservation and natural ecosystems. How left undisturbed, the natural cycles lead to the spread of beautiful wild orchards and the proliferation of the biggest, juiciest apples!

Suzie is a visual artist who currently works at About Face Theatre, as well as doing commission work. She has worked in theatre environments for 10 years after studying Film and Performance at Aberystwyth University. She has been particularly focussing on visual theatre design and puppetry.

Suzie Owens June 2021

Spring Rhapsody

Luke composed and played ‘Spring Rhapsody’ and took as its inspiration Millais’ painting ‘Spring (Apple Blossoms)’.

This commission is part of our Apple Story ‘Apple Blossom‘.

Born in Shropshire in 1991, Luke studied piano and composition at Chetham’s School of Music before attending Christ Church, University of Oxford on an academic scholarship to read Music. Since graduating with first class honours in 2013 he has been active as a Classical recording artist and regularly shares his original compositions on his growing YouTube channel.

www.lukefaulkner.com

‘I was initially struck by the intricate and rich texture of the hanging blossoms, leaves, and branches, and imagined how the sunlight might trickle through. This idea led to the interlocking of hands in the opening textures as the music hovers over an un-anchored bass line. Beyond this, the figures with their long romantic hair and aspect led to the music following an old-worldly style and Romantic-Classical form with long arching melodies.’

‘The short composition may be roughly divided into three parts: the first is an exposition of the musical ideas, the second comprises sequential treatment of these melodies and themes before meandering harmonically back into the original key, and the final part is a recapitulation of the opening ideas before taking a different turn that leads to an ending. This ending is the first time the main theme is properly grounded by a root position “tonic” harmony which finally resolves the suspended feeling of the opening material.’

Born in Shropshire in 1991, Luke studied piano and composition at Chetham’s School of Music before attending Christ Church, University of Oxford on an academic scholarship to read Music. Since graduating with first class honours in 2013 he has been active as a Classical recording artist and regularly shares his original compositions on his growing YouTube channel.

www.lukefaulkner.com

Luke Faulkner

Hatsukoi (First Love)

“Hatsukoi” poem by Tōson Shimazaki read by Masayo Sasaki. Piano accompaniment composed by Toraji Oonaka played by Dr Andrew Haslam.

Read about Tōson Shimazaki and his poetry in our A pple Journal Artic le

“Hatsukoi” or ‘First Love’ is a poem written by Japanese author and romantic poet Tōson Shimazaki which is about dreamy love and growing up, set amongst apple trees. This commission is read by Masayo Sasaki with a piano accompaniment.

The reading of Hatsukoi by Masayo Sasaki is an Apples & People commission. Masayo was assisted by the Tōson Memorial Museum in Nakatsugawa-shi, established in 1947 to honour Tōson’s legacy. It is accompanied by a musical setting for the poem composed for the inauguration of the Tōson Memorial Museum.

Masayo Sasaki is a Japanese translator and online language tutor www.thehanahouse.co.uk who comes from a kimono seller family in Japan. She was brought up studying Japanese traditions and ceremonies, including from an early age being required to rote-learn important Japanese works of literature. Hatsukoi was one such work.

The Crunch Coda

This one minute piece for piano was made by Helena and Nathan Cavan

Music: Helena and Nathan Cavan www.helenacavan.com

Recording engineer/producer Nathan Cavan

CymaScope Laboratory Services John Stuart Reid www.cymascope.com and www.soundmadevisible.com

This commission is part of our Apple Story ‘The Apple’s Code of Life‘

‘The Crunch Coda’ uses solely the apple’s genomic sequence, ATCG, to inform its musical vocabulary. The percussive nature of the apple bite is interpreted through “crunchy” rhythmic piano textures and octave transpositions. Bite samples overlay musical samples to create a satisfyingly energetic artistic experience of the eating of an apple, guaranteed to leave a smile.

The CymaGlyph, or sound image, of the apple-crunch-sound on water made possible by the Cymascope instrument, has been coloured to express both the sequencing of the apple’s DNA – red (showing letter T) and green (showing letter A) in Nicola Busatto’s beautiful photograph of a small part of the apple genome, as well as referencing the genome’s influence on apple skin colour.

The noble crunch image, with crown-like circlet of seed-like gems, is digitised and brought to life, synchronising and pulsating with the music. This is art & science history in the making: the first ever experience of listening to an apple crunch sound whilst watching the very same sound transformed into a graphic.

The Apple World

A poem written and performed by Charlie Staunton

Charlie is a performance poet and spoken word artist from Herefordshire.

See and hear more of his work on: Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Film produced by The Creative Arcade

Commissions

Published Apples & People Commissions

Dear Gravity by Jake Morley

The Mountain that Bears Fruit

Spring Rhapsody

Hatsukoi (First Love)

The Crunch Coda

The Apple World

New commissions are in the pipeline!

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