tracks

Stand Tall
Lady of the Moon
In Full Flight
Dance with me Darling
Dream Painting
The Furies
Be Brave
Angel Streets
Her Storm
To What End
The World Weeps
Chaos Reigns
Raven's Lament
A Magical Touch
Tiny Wings
Our Beautiful World

notes

“Dedicated to all women and girls who bravely live their truth. You are the ones who have and will change the world for the better.” Each track is dedicated to a Canadian woman who inspires me. Who they are and how the music honours their legacy, visit: www.enchanten.com Heroines in Harmony Album.

Track 1 - Stand Tall (3:34)
Honouring the life of activism and music of singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist, Buffy Sainte-Marie (1941- )

The strength and vision of Buffy Sainte-Marie are legendary and this music represents that quality of standing tall against all odds. The masses and condescending voices try to discourage and say, “Who do you think you are?” In answer, the music rises to the challenge, it refuses to take no for an answer and refuses to back down. It asks, “Is one voice ever going to be enough?” And yet, the darkness of the world prevails.

Track 2 - Lady of the Moon (3:30)
Honouring the spirit that challenges and dares to conquer space - explorer, scientist and astronaut, Roberta Bondar. (1945- )

This music takes us up into a strange and unfamiliar inter stellar world, where the Lady of the Moon lives and breathes. She calls this lunar unfamiliar landscape her home. She hangs off the edge of the moon longing for a human experience on earth, yet knowing her only hope of survival is as an extra-terrestrial being.

Tack 3 - In Full Flight (3:29)
Celebrating the lady who captained the Snow Birds and dared to fly as high as her dreams - Lieutenant Colonel Maryse Carmichael. (1971- )

This music feels like flight. My challenge was to make the music sound like it is taking off, lifting up higher and higher. It continues to ebb forward full of hope; rising and soaring through the clouds, until it reaches a sacred place where there is only spirit and a gentle prayer is offered. It then continues to soar with certainty that we can control our destiny, as the dream flight concludes in exhilaration.

Track 4 - Dance with me Darling (5:40)
Celebrating the tenacity, beauty and skill of the darling of the ballet world - Evelyn Hart. (1956- )

This music dances and twirls and twists though dark corners and passages of the mind. It imagines how a dancer is at once tormented and inspired by the music to rise above all physical limitations and become one with the music. The sheer demand on the body and the psyche as everything is forgotten and just the glory of floating across the stage leaves the audience breathless and rising to a standing ovation.

Track 5 - Dream Painting (6:27)
Celebrating the unsung life of the painter and writer who struggled to make a living as an artist - Canadian Icon Emily Carr. (1871-1945)

This music takes colours and explores them as a painter would envision and develop a canvas. Ron Korb and I explored how we could improvise and develop colours for a palette that would create a final sonic multi-dimensional canvas.

Track 6 - The Furies (4:21)
Honouring the courage and bravery of Viola Desmond (1914-1965), who dared to stand up for equality when she refused to leave a white only section of a theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia in 1945.

This music channels the tyranny of oppression and the anger that begets violence. The Furies imagine angry forces of destruction and those who are fighting to save the lives of innocent victims of racial aggression; the panic, the confusion, the scene of terror. History seems to be repeating itself. This is my fury with a world that refuses to find peace, refuses to choose equality. The music ends with the thought that perhaps peace is not for this world.

Track 7 - Be Brave (3:18)
Celebrating the tenacity and strength of figure skating champion Joannie Rochette (1986- ). Joannie courageously performed and won Olympic Bronze two days after her mother passed away on a trip to come see her daughter compete in the Olympics.

This piece starts with the confusion and inner turmoil of devastating news. The constant barrage of emotions and fighting those conflicting emotions when life presents us with the most difficult challenges. It reflects the overcoming of great sorrow and hardship to persevere and overcome with every fibre of our being. In that moment of performance, flying across the ice, we are closer to the spirit of those we love as we soar together with our lost loved ones…closer to the divine spirit than at any other moment in our lives.

Track 8 - Angel Streets (4:24)
Remembering all the women killed in domestic violence incidents in Canada and around the world and the brave woman who spearheaded Angel Streets across Canada, after her sister was murdered in a domestic dispute - Elisapee Sheutiapik. (1965- )

This music starts with a plea for help, or just for someone to take notice and listen. There is worry and doubt surrounding everything. Then love emerges. As a victim of abuse, it is sometimes impossible to get out, for that which one loves with great intensity is also that which can harm and devastate. This love song is the tenderness we give in situations where perhaps our partner is undeserving or unable to be healthy and stable…it is our life, it is our story, it is our sacrifice. Some of us are lucky to escape.

Track 9 - Her Storm (4:19)
Honouring the life and legacy of Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova (1909-1990) - humanitarian and refugee to Canada whose parents perished in Auschwitz. "Exhausted, with a feeling of absolute solitude in an entirely strange country ... I came with $60 in my pocket. I had an unpronounceable name. I weighed less than 100 lbs., and I was completely lost.” - Dr. Lotta Hitschmanova.

The displacement of immigrants and the horrors that many refugees have endured is depicted in this music. It is the storm that emerges from within the female spirit that has been beaten, abused, ignored and in many cases left for dead, without an afterthought. It is the storm I imagine when I hear stories of cruelty to women and girls all around the world. This is what that storm feels like.

Track 10 - To What End (4:03)
Honouring the missing and murdered indigenous women. Their unsung lives are a tragedy for our world and their spirts are heroic for enduring the unimaginable.

This music is in three sections subtitled: Death - Darkness - Spirits Awakening.

Ron Korb and I envisioned this piece as an ode to the spirits of the missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. We endeavour to remember the lives of every woman who has been abducted, murdered and how their souls rise and reign over the spirit world, perhaps saving others from harm and giving them hope and strength. Ron plays on three different flutes for this piece. The opening; the haunting Swedish Willow Flute, the bass flute in the middle section and the ending has an additional flute sound made with a special head joint that Ron has developed, producing a reedy sound that adds an interesting reedy texture to the climax of awakening.

Track 11 - The World Weeps (3:24)
Honouring the inner strength and determination of Chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for war crimes in Rwanda and Yugoslavia, the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, the Honourable Louise Arbour. (1947- )

Sometimes it feels like the world will crack open and simply weep. Maybe it is I that simply needs to desperately weep in the face of evil, death and darkness. How much horror can the world withstand before it finally weeps?

Track 12 - Chaos Reigns (7:54)
Honouring the creative life force of novelist, poet, inventor and activist, Margaret Atwood. (1939- )

This music channels the dark relentless evil that permeates the world. Margaret Atwood’s words ring in my ears “The darkness is really out there.” The sound of killing machines rolling in, all hell breaking loose in war, leading into a satirical macabre march (2:14) in the crowning of the fools. The ending (4:08) is a three minute long battle of chaos as the Angels struggle to fight evil. It ends in the upper realms of the Angels, but there is no victory as there are no winners in this game of life. The sections in this music are entitled: The Darkness - Machines - War - Crowning of the Fools - Chaos - Realms of Angels.

Track 13 - Raven’s Lament (2:48)
Honouring the life of the first female immigrant to Canada, Marguerite d’Roberval (born around 1536 - date of death unknown in France). In 1552, Marguerite was left abandoned on the Isle of Demons by her uncle when he discovered she had fallen in love below her social class and her lover was aboard the ship. She was joined on the island by her lover and her maid. Marguerite gave birth to a child and subsequently watched her child, husband (whom she married on the island) and maid die. She survived a few more years on the island alone before being rescued by fishermen and returning back to France.

This is the music that represents the transfigured state of solitude after enduring cruel fates. Losing everything you love and yet coming to terms with still being alive and having to survive. That space between helplessness and hope…a sliver of both.

Track 14 - A Magical Touch (3:57)
Inspired by the musical dedication and eternal quest for beauty of the acclaimed pianist and performing concert artist - Angela Hewitt. (1958- )

To soar from one moment of musical beauty to another in a life that embodies a true musical path. Overcoming odds to find such a shining, glimmering, sparkling musical world in her fingertips and performing it with love and finesse and sharing this gift with the world. It is this energy and vitality that makes Angela’s life especially meaningful to the world and this piece contains exactly that.

Track 15 - Tiny Wings (3:58)
Honouring the work happening now, in Ottawa by the powerhouse of energy, Tina Fedeski (1962- ) in creating and nurturing the children of OrKidstra.

OrKidstra creates an idea society by empowering kids within their communities; giving them the chance to learn an instrument and play music together by joining their voices in harmony, love and respect. Tina and OrKidstra are creating magic every day in the underserved communities of Ottawa. This music represents my hope and it shimmers with innocence, children’s voices shining bright, angels and peace. My heart is so full of love when I know that we can make a difference in making the world a better place for our children.

Track 16 - Our Beautiful World (4:10)
This is my truth: my ode to women and girls who courageously live their truth and to the extraordinary men who support, respect and love women as complimentary equal energies. It is only in working together, looking beyond what makes us different, by strengthening our most human spiritual qualities, can we find peace and tranquility in this world. I honour all those who contribute their positive energy to making this world a more beautiful, caring and wondrous place to land our spirits, for what seems a fraction of a moment in time.

'As the project developed, it became clear that this album and music was directed towards girls and women who are struggling to be heard. The struggle for the female voice to be heard is very real. The women I have chosen to honour here with music have affected my own world. They are all Heroines for living their truth. In highlighting their achievements, I contribute in a small way to making the world more aware of ‘Herstory’ that should rightly be represented in History.'

‘My mind still has difficulties comprehending the magnitude of how we have erased, ignored, downplayed and forgotten to honour the feminine side of the worlds achievement. Women’s voices, especially in music composition and film scoring, has been largely ignored. Classical music for the concert stage and radio play of female made Classical music is clearly not reflecting the current quality and volume of contributions from women composers around the world. This is my ode to female voices forgotten, murdered, missing, omitted from History, but perhaps with renewed commitment will create a Herstory that we can be proud of celebrating.’

'Tracks 5 and 10 are co-composed and performed by my great friend and Grammy nominated flutist, Ron Korb. It was beautiful collaborating with Ron in honouring the life of Emily Carr through a piece we called 'Dream Painting' and we delved into the darkest of colours and emotions to express and honour the lives of the missing and murdered Indigenous Women in Canada with a piece we titled, 'To What End'. From beauty into painful desperation, and back through to the hope of spirits awakening, making music with Ron was a truly rewarding and inspirational experience.'

Margaret Maria would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

credits

Cello – Margaret Maria (tracks: 1-16)
Composed By – Margaret Maria (tracks: 1-16), Ron Korb (tracks: 5,10)
Flute – Ron Korb (tracks: 5,10)
Mastered By – Peter Letros (tracks: 1-16)
Producer – Margaret Maria

companies

Mastered At – Wreckhouse Mastering

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