The Bord Waalk (or not in the local accent – otherwise known as ‘Bird Walk’) is a new walking trail of public sculptures inspired by the bird-life found around the Amble coast. The artworks are being created by nationally and internationally renowned artists, bringing something unique and very special the area. The Bord Waalk will be enjoyed by residents and attract visitors from across the country to Amble.
The Bord Waalk is funded by the Coastal Communities Fund, Arts Council England and Northumberland County Council, with the aim of attracting new visitors to the area, creating more commercial skills and opportunities for artists, engaging local communities with creativity, and encouraging a closer connection between art lovers, outdoor enthusiasts and bird watchers.
Students from the northeast schools – James Calvert Spence College, Duchess’s Community High School and Berwick Academy were invited to submit artwork referring to a professional brief centred on the Amble Bord Waalk. Here we have the music project.
TICE Music Project
Music is a powerful way to capture the feelings we have. It creates a structure around sound so that we can digest and listen to them with ease.
As part of this fast-paced, digital culture, consumption of music is more often determined by what mood we are in. For example, Spotify is known for curating playlists based on what we want to feel rather than what genre or artist we want to hear. Alternatively, a listener may want to be immersed in the unknown and audibly experience a feeling which compliments their senses.
A key feature of the Amble Bord Waalk is the beautiful Northumberland coastal birds. Of course, the sweet sounds of birdsong can be heard almost anywhere in the North East of England. But is there a way that the inner qualities of these birds can be showcased and experienced through music?
Mentored By: Megan Savage – Music Mentor
Project Contributers: Dr Jane Nolan – Senior Lecturer in Music Enterprise at Newcastle University, Jayne Dent (Me Lost Me) – Interdisciplinary Artist, Musician & Composer and David De La Haye – Field Recordist, Sound Engineer & Sound Artist
Student Outcomes:
Please view the final results of the students’ work from Faith Dodds from Berwick Academy, Amy Miller-Trotter from The Duchess’s Community High School and Jonathan Ridley, Music Teacher at The Duchess’s Community High School.
The start of the piece is two herons in sync with each other and by the end they are no longer in sync. During the piece the herons fight, and the tempo and volume increase and they calm down as they stop. This creates tension and excitement to the piece and hooks in the listener. To represent the herons, I have used a violin and a harp and at the start they are in unison and at the end there a slightly apart.
My piece is a symbolistic piece of beautiful place of Amble and hope every bit of it is beautiful to you too.” Faith Dodds, Berwick Academy.
And finally…
Thank you and well done, not only to the students but to the teachers and staff at Duchess’s Community High School, James Calvert College and Berwick Academy.
A big thank to the funders – Amble Development Trust, Coastal Communities Fund, Arts Council England and Northumberland County Council, to Create North and the companies and contributers involved in the project.
To the students – we hope you have enjoyed this project; we hope in years to come that, you can proudly present an industry written project you did and quite frankly smashed. Well done, and congratulations from everyone here at TICE.