Media

LISTEN

Maggie’s first studio album, VOICES, was released on all streaming platforms on International Women’s Day, in March of 2023.

VOICES: A Solo Piano Album by Maggie Morrison
Liner Notes

Classical music has privileged the pale male canon for centuries, with few figures challenging the status quo. Voices intentionally disrupts and challenges this stereotype, with the centring narrative on the experience of being a woman and being heard: a historical dichotomy of sorts.

My hope and mission is to cultivate a culture of inclusion and empowerment within classical music spaces, and to widen the aperture of what’s possible for women (and non-binary folks) and therefor, society. As an ally, I choose to amplify the voices of those historically diminished and silenced. Through the process of my doctoral research, my journey to be(come) musically inclusive on purpose became a path I intentionally chose by means to unlearn, relearn and reconsider what it means to be a member and musician of society; to ultimately question histories that have been passed down through formal education and culture. My process of personal disenfranchisement regarding the privileging of some composers at the cost of everyone else lead me to this repertoire. 

Consciously and unconsciously, Western classical music conditions perspectives. To actively and intentionally work toward including women and other historically discriminated groups into privileged spaces, contribute to shifting the paradigm, and encourage alternative narratives within the classical culture of storytelling via performance tradition is essential work towards equity, diversity and inclusion. It’s not just about the music; it’s the messaging behind it. Ultimately, the goal is to move beyond categories, but until then, the pendulum swings.

Voices matter – we matter.

Recorded in Toronto at Imagine Sounds Studio
Sound Engineer: Dennis Patterson, Big Smoke Audio
June 2022
Photography by Edwin Tam
Logo design by Amy Hil

From Portraits in Jazz (1976) by Valerie Capers (b.1935)                                                  Track 1: Blues for ‘The Duke’                                     
Track 2: A Taste of Bass
Track 3: Billie’s Song 
Valerie Capers was born in 1935 in the Bronx, New York. She received her early education at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. She was the first blind graduate from the Juilliard School of Music, receiving her bachelor's and master’s degrees. She was introduced to music through her father’s ties to Fats Waller, an American Jazz Pianist. Portraits in Jazz (1976) is a collection of 12 pieces that draw on various jazz styles, dedicated and inspired by particular artists, including Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. Blues for ‘The Duke’ is composed in twelve-bar blues form, based on three chords (I, IV and V), dedicated to Duke Ellington. A Taste of Bass is a tribute to the bass players of the jazz group; listen for the walking bass line heard in the middle of this composition. Billie’s Song is a soulful, bittersweet ballad dedicated to the legendary blues singer Billie Holiday.

Track 4: Falling Water (2009) by Karen Sunabacka (b.1975)                                                          
Karen Sunabacka is a Canadian composer from Manitoba with Métis heritage. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of music theory and composition at the University of Waterloo. Sunabacka frequently composes on themes surrounding the natural beauty of the Canadian Prairies. Falling Water (2009) was composed after Falling in the Water (2008) for piano and electronics, which employed recorded voices of six teenage girls in a Leader-in-Training (LIT) program at a Manitoba Pioneer Camp. Recordings captured experiences of water during the canoe trip portion of the program. Though Falling Water could be viewed as a revised version of the former, Sunabacka considers this piece to be its own because the shape is different without the support of the electronic part. The water element is still prominent within this revised version and can be heard throughout. Extended piano techniques are used to bookend this composition, specifically plucking the strings and glissandi from inside the instrument.

Track 5: Troubled Water (1967) by Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)                                                        Margaret Bonds was a Chicago-born pianist, composer and pedagogue. She was the first African-American woman to perform with a renowned American orchestra, the Chicago Symphony. Bonds studied composition and piano with Florence Price during high school. She attended Northwestern University for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. As one of few black students at the time, accounts state that the environment was racist, hostile and nearly unbearable. Troubled Water (1967) is based on the African American spiritual Wade in the Water—an eerie melody featuring minor thirds—that is said to have been strategically used by American abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who brought as many as seventy enslaved people to freedom. Troubled Water features dotted rhythms and syncopation, and is in the key of e minor. This key is significant because of the association with ukuleles (tuned in the key of e minor) and plantations. Many of the songs or spirituals of enslaved people were in this key.

From Abstracts for Solo Piano (2011) by Afraid Mansouri (b.1974)                                      Track 6: Impressions           
Track 7: Folk Memories
Track 8: Fugue and Tango
Iranian-Canadian composer Afarin Mansouri is a composer, musicologist and activist residing in Toronto. Dr. Mansouri is an advocate for equity in the arts and is a member of the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee at the Canadian Opera Company. Abstracts for Solo Piano (2011) has also been referred to as Persian Abstracts. This composition was commissioned by the Iranian-Canadian Composers of Toronto (ICOT), where she is the co-founder and Artistic Director, and premiered at the Persian Piano Night Concert Series in the summer of 2011. Abstracts encompasses many elements within the three-movement work from both Persian and Western classical culture, in three-movement suite form. The first movement (Impressions) has a timeless, expansive quality, and features rolled chords spanning five octaves across the keyboard. The second movement (Folk Memories) is a fast-paced, breathless glimpse into the 7/8 time (2+2+3) present in Persian folk songs. The third movement (Fugue and Tango) is a musical contradiction, featuring a severe fugue and joyful tango.

Track 9: Rippling Spring Waltz (1893) by Estelle Ricketts (b.1871-N/A)                                                       Very little is known about Estelle D. Rickets, with the only information listed in US Census Records: her birth month, year, and place of residence (July 1871, Darby, Pennsylvania). Rippling Spring Waltz (1893) is the only known existing work by Ricketts. However, this composition is significant within the classical repertoire as it is the first known solo piano piece by a black woman. In standard and simple 3/4 waltz-time, this delightful piece encompasses the dreamy, light sound of hope that comes annually with the first arrival of spring. An interesting element of the composition is the key: securely sustained throughout in G Major—e minor’s relative major. As previously stated, the key of e minor was significant within African American spirituals. Rickett’s choice to compose this piece in the relative major could be interpreted as an optimistic departure from the historic minor tonality, as enslaved people were officially freed thirty years prior (1863).

Sonata in e minor (1931) by Florence Price (1887-1953)                                                                    Track 10: First Movement, Andante-Allegro
Track 11: Second Movement, Andante
Track 12: Third Movement, Scherzo-Allegro
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Florence Price was a pianist, organist, composer, and piano teacher. She enrolled at the New England Conservatory in 1902 as one of few black students and posed as South American. Price moved to Chicago in 1927 and became a part of the Chicago Black Renaissance. She is now known as the first African American woman to be considered a symphonic composer. Over the last two years, Price has become more well-known within the classical vernacular due to the racial reckonings of 2020 that swept through society. Price’s Sonata in e minor (1931) is a large-scale work within the Romantic tradition, reminiscent of Chopin, Schumann and Brahms, in classical three-movement form. The work features dotted, syncopated rhythms throughout. The second movement melody is reminiscent of the African-American spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. The year following composition in 1932, Price won the Rodman Wanamaker competition for both her Symphony in e minor and her Sonata in e minor.

Track 13: Aeon (2012) by Alice Yee Ping Ho (b.1960)                                                                                 Canadian pianist and composer Alice Yee Ping Ho was born in Hong Kong and resides in Toronto. She graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in composition and is a master’s graduate of the University of Toronto. Aeon (2012) was inspired by surrealist painter Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” (1931), featuring images of a melting pocket watch. Aeon consists of two parts: Melting Clock and Rapid Meditation, though they are played through without a break. The first section (Melting Clock) employs a plethora of rolled chords and vertical clusters, creating a flurry of resonant sound, only to be juxtaposed in the second section (Rapid Meditation) by lightning-speed horizontal chromatic passages and irregular accents, moving so quickly forward it’s often challenging to find the pulse, creating confusion within our understanding of space and time. Aeon depicts what could be interpreted as a stream of consciousness; its fast-paced nature creates an atmosphere of intensity and turmoil from start to finish.