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In the winter of 1989, on Peterborough's community radio station, Trent Radio, I heard Hildegard Westerkamp's Cricket Voice. I was transported into a world in which the song of a single cricket reverberated and resonated in a way that I had never heard before, in an expansive place. Moreover, I felt urged to compose. It was an odd sensation. I had grown up listening to and playing a wide variety of music, and had always been drawn to electroacoustic music (even though initially I didn't call it that) since first hearing it in England at a very early age. I had heard the work of hundreds of composers, and had never felt drawn to compose electroacoustic music before. Yet now a powerful desire to record sounds and work with them on tape caused me to go out, rent equipment, and begin. Since then, I have discovered that through her composition, teaching, and radio work, Westerkamp has had a similar effect on other composers, and is a particular source of inspiration to many women composers in Canada. I believe that this is due to the way she approaches soundscape. |