Art and history inspiring new music
Once our art is ‘out there’, we seldom have any idea of who sees it and where it goes other than the interactions on our social media pages and conversations with friends. So it was a pleasant surprise when the musician Rob Hall got in touch to say that the paintings and histories of Lanark’s ancient Closes had inspired him to compose five pieces for piano and clarinet.
Sometime during those hazy years of the early 2020’s, the Closes had been fitted with new lighting and a beautifully illustrated information board with witty and imaginative illustrations by artist Kirsten Harris.
‘Close Encounters‘ was a joint exhibition with Kirsten held at the Tolbooth, Lanark in the Spring of 2021 in order to share the artwork and draw attention to the stories embedded in these narrow time passages. You can see these and read about their histories on Discover Lanark’s website.
Fast forward to early 2024 …the paintings had caught Rob’s imagination enough to respond in music and Hunter’s Close now forms the cover of his book of compositions for clarinet and piano (suitable for grades 5-8).
‘Luminare’ is one of these compositions based on an insight into the history of Hunter’s Close. Hunter and McMorran were ironmongers located at 53 High Street (currently home to Flowers of Scotland) on the corner of Hunter’s Close.
It was the first shop in Lanark to have electric lighting, powered from a private generator and David Hunter (a pioneer in in the field of Electrical Engineering) was responsible for fitting the first shop in Edinburgh with electric light.
Rob and Chick Lyall will be perfoming the Scottish premiere of these compositions at Biggar Corn Exchange, Sunday 27th October at 2.30pm as part of Biggar Little Festival 2024. The Closes paintings are on display in the Corn Exchange Foyer and I’ll be there from 1pm to meet and greet visitors. Tickets to the performance available here. It would be great to see you there!
As always, thanks for reading
Ronnie 🙂