The Music Room

For her Windows commission the violinist and composer Clare Connors created a live musical soundtrack devised in response to, and simultaneously performed to, the immediate Archway context. Clare gathered material from her visitors including their favourite songs, and from the street, reacting to it directly with new improvised material which she then performed in impromptu and announced free concerts. The Music Room encouraged a new aural encounter with Junction Road that reframed the experience of being in the street. Walking away from the space, the music left with you, becoming the soundtrack to that specific moment in a place. Listen to Fly here: https://soundcloud.com/t-fowler-1-2/fly

www.clareconnors.com

Artists’ notes

08/12/2013
What an unbelievable day! I was moved to tears by Ayo singing a song from Nigeria, it was astonishing and beautiful! John shared an intimate and extraordinary mouth organ improvisation 'to blackbirds' and then Leslie sang the Vulgar. More wonderful things followed. Amy, in conversation with me, described the music that interests me perfectly: "you want music to talk."

Thank you to all those who visited me in The Music Room today, it has been a real gift to me. Please anyone who couldn't make it I look forward to your visit, if you have a tune, song, or piece of music that's special to you I'd love to hear it, but please come and have a listen.

09/01/2013
Fabulous day! Began with a 'spiritual' song from a beautiful traffic warden - and with the best smile ever! This is definitely not life as we know it. I heard a song from Hungary and 'Rose, rose, will I ever see thee Red'. I'm looking forward to tomorrow...

John Joseph Sheehy who visited The Music Room yesterday returned today with a poem for me:

Well Clare Connors your music is a touch of class
Of ancient sounds dwelling in the hearts
Where first I heard your calling
ln a corner shop up Archway
On a table gtance I seen this fiddle and its bow
Weathered wear and worn
That told me something more
Then in.front of me you stood offering me this tune
You took me far away in centuries toig ago
With Kings and Pipers
And the Fairyies in the glens
ln sorrow and in sadness
You brought me there again
When you picked up your fiddle and your bow
Ah The sweetness stirred a bone
At the top of Junction Road
Shed tears in the memory you told
ln the stories in the Elbow of your bow
Taken icecream to a blackbird and crow
The Queen of Fairyies and her bow
Have left me dwelling in a trance
From centuries so long ago
From centuries so long ago
The Queen of Fairyies and her bow

John Joseph Sheehy.

10/01/2013
Totally different day.

Today my priority was to get writing and improvising on my violin in The Music Room. I was asked "how is the writing an interaction with the people in the space?" For me the improvisation I made as they sat quietly in the room came from them being there, very different for me than playing in an empty space with no one listening. . . Next followed a concert at 1.0pm, another at 5.30pm and a visit to play to the nursery at Archway Children's Centre next door.

11/01/2013
Two packed solo violin concerts at 1pm and 5.30pm. "Nothing is the same", as I said to an audience member in tonight's concert - "no two notes I play are the same, and each time I play a piece it's different and I'm speaking through my violin, so close to the human voice but without words. A universal language that we can all understand" Thankfully then I stopped talking and played my violin to them.

14/03/2013
I've been back working in The Music Room for the last two days. The room seems serene and calm this week, the cold seems to have muted the surrounding environment. The sound of my violin floats out into the empty space, it's a good space to be working in. Yesterday I made a new piece for solo violin, today two pieces inspired by a sample of music recorded in The Music Room back in January. It's a three second sample with traffic and humming, hearing it repeated is like the sound of waves, the piece is called 'Traffic Ocean Archway'...

15/03/2013
Today I played my first concert in The Music Room this week. The morning became an assembling of the pieces I've written over the last few days, trying to work out which order to play them in and even trying to remember how they go. Writing so much new material in a short space of time has presented new problems for me as the ideas come quickly and it's not possible to put every detail in writing. The writing becomes more a map for me, a reminder of the idea and an outline of the structure; more of the detail and other lines would normally be filled in over time but today there was no time! It was a daunting but also exhilarating process and the pieces unfolded before a very appreciative audience. I felt we were all part of something completely unique, something I've certainly never done before and something really born out of being in that space on Junction Road.

18/03/2013
The last two days in The Music Room were packed with new writing, followed by performance followed by recording in the space. Friday morning I improvised a new track, recording three violin tracks over each other in dialogue with the passing traffic. I played the new track back to the audience at the lunchtime concert; someone mentioned it sounded like film music and also a bit Irish; they liked it too which is also always nice to hear back! I've never turned round a piece so fast and had such immediate feedback, we were all listening to it together for the first time... The concert became an opportunity to exchange ideas on how I work and what my influences are. I could play passages of music from those printed out as screens on the wall and show how ideas link together and develop. On the Saturday this process of exchange began again and multiple audiences came and went. The room filled with people all curious about the music and engaging with the violin. It was such a rare opportunity to be so close to people all sharing an extraordinary experience of music, and the street , looking from the inside of the room out to the street and the traffic; every high street should have a room like this!
Thank you to everyone who came along and took a few moments in the room. I was so inspired by the people I met, the music they shared, the stories they told and the time we had together.