Nestled in the hills of Braintree, Vt. lies a small dairy farm overlooking a mountain range. From the road, only the sound of cattle lowing breaks the serenity of the picture-perfect image. As one walks closer to the quaint house, the melodic tinkering on a piano begins to overtake the mooing of cows. Inside 61-year-old award-winning composer Gwyneth Walker, who relies solely on writing music to make a living, sits at her piano surrounded by stacks of music sheets.
Walker is known for her eccentric and modern compositions, engaging audiences on a humorous levels and surprising them with unusual additions to a seemingly average performance, she says.
“I think I have an irrepressible streak,” she says. “It’s not always funny. It has to do with anything dramatic or visual on the stage, just enough ‘oddities’ to keep the piece interesting.”
Lessons from Bella Voce
On Sunday, April 6, Bella Voce women’s choir performed a cantata composed by Walker entitled “Lessons from the Sea” at Shelburne Methodist Church in Shelburne, Vt. The concert took excerpts from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book “Gifts from the Sea,” and put them to music.
Music professor Susan Summerfield's "Rudiments of Music" class was invited to attend the performance. Director of Bella Voce, Dawn Willis, came to speak to the class beforehand to brief the students on the format of the program as well as introduce them to Walker's musical style.
“I chose to use this text for the cantata because I thought that the message of the book was one which would speak well to Bella Voce and to women’s audiences,” she says.
“Gifts from the Sea” is an autobiographical novel depicting the hardships of a woman in 1955. Lindbergh explains the delicate balance of performing duties for her husband and child without losing her own soul and inner sacred space.
Seraphina performs "Don't Step on My Toes" |
Lindbergh warns of the threat of making life too stressful and fragmented, a fear that is still relevant to women of the 21st century, Walker says.
Lindbergh’s novel is a work of timeless lyrical wisdom interspersed with quotes form random poets and authors.
“[The music] incorporated innovative piano playing and creative vocal techniques to delve into aspects of being a woman,” says St. Michael's junior Sarah Fisher, who attended the concert.
Reeve Lindbergh, daughter of Anne Lindbergh, was present during the performances to read excerpts from the book throughout the cantata. Reeve also played a role in the composition of the piece.
“I consulted with Reeve Lindbergh on the adaption of the text,” Walker says. “Our discussions focused only on the lyrics, however, not on the music, for Reeve’s training and background are literary, not musical.”
Walker admits that, like children, she cannot choose one piece to be her favorite, she says.
“These are all my creations, and I care for them equally,” she says.
However, Fisher admits to favoring “Homage to my Hips,” a saucy piece about a woman declaring that her “mighty, magic hips need space to move around in.”
“It was the most active song with the singer emphasizing her hips while singing,” Fisher says. “The audience was encouraged to laugh and you could tell the performer was enjoying herself as well.”
Inventing a composer
Walker’s obsession with music began at the age of two when she was in her crib listening to her older sister play the piano.
“When my sister started playing the piano, a feeling of energy and joy shot right up through me,” she says. “By the time I was in the first grade, I had taught myself how to put notes on a staff, with a title, and my name at the top of the page.”
 |
Gwenyth Walker in 1952 at the age of 5 sitting on the piano where she began composing. (Photo courtesy of Gwyneth Walker) |
Neither of Walker’s parents ever received professional musical training, she says. However, her mother had a passion for music and her dad was an inventor.
“We had a piano in my house, so I started inventing,” she says.
When Walker first started playing piano, she would skim through the assigned pieces or scales, but instead of practicing, she would compose a completely new composition, she says.
“I went back to the teacher having not practiced the assigned scales, but having composed a new little piece,” she says.
Since then, Walker has composed more than 170 works for various bands, orchestras, choruses and other ensembles. She was the recipient of the Year 2000 “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Vermont Arts Council, according to her Web site.
“This is music of a composer who has a tremendous love for life and a love of writing music,” wrote American composter Carson P. Cooman in an introduction to Walker’s work. “Her work is always accessible, although never simplistic. The sense of craft and structure is never in doubt – each note was placed with care and thoughtfulness.”
Now Walker works mostly on commission, she says. Even though her favorite instrument to compose music for is the piano, ensembles commission most of her pieces.
When composing, Walker follows a basic ritual. When planning a piece, she is often walking or pacing, and drawing from the beauty of the country around her. Then she sits at her desk and starts to sketch the shape and develop her ideas even more. After outlining the piece, she goes to the piano and begins to work out the chords, she says.
“When I’m at the height of my composing, I’m darting between my piano and my desk,” she says.
A vision of hills
Walker has two loves, music and cows, she says.
“I have the best of both worlds,” she says about her dairy farm. “I live out in the country surrounded only by cows and yet within 10 minutes, I can be at a concert hall.”
 |
Walker spends most of her time composing, but she also enjoys hanging out with her cows. (Photo courtesy of Gwyneth Walker) |
Walker’s family came to New England in 1635 as Quakers, she says. She credits her faith and values to her Quaker background.
Walker composes with a portrait of her great-great-great-great Quaker grandmother watching her tinker on the piano and scribble away on composition paper. Her strong ties to her New England ancestry are the reason why she considers herself a true New Englander.
“I used to vacation in Vermont every summer as a child to go to camp, but then I stopped coming and started studying in cities,” she says.
After she left teaching at Oberlin College in 1982 to pursue a full-time career in composing, Walker moved to the farm in Braintree.
“When I came to visit Vermont in ’82, I found that every small town had music,” she says. “And in this area – Braintree and Randolph – they have a wonderful music hall and wonderful people to sing and play.”
The two things that fuel Walker’s love for Vermont are the people and the landscape, she says. When she composes something that she knows is being performed locally, the piece produces “a great sense of amusement and satisfaction,” she says.
“When you’re writing, you’re always giving out,” she says. “So there has to be something coming in – something that sparks the imagination – the energy and the desire to write. And this is one of the reasons I live here in Vermont. When I look out the window, there is definitely beauty looking in.”