Medicine Bundle (No. 3)

About

A medicine bundle is part of the traditional teachings and practices of the First Nations peoples of North America. The title of the first Medicine Bundle piece, which I wrote as one of the many invited composers worldwide to contribute a piece for pianist Ananda Sukarlan's Concerts for Bali commemorating the Bali bombing of October 2002, was my response to an article published in the Toronto Star, where an elder of the Six Nations Reserve of southern Ontario spoke of a "medicine bundle" found within each of us; a place of healing and transformation which we can tap into in times of strife and need. I envisaged the bundle in this case as a bundle of notes from which the performer(s) can freely bring their own sensitivities, experiences and responses to the work's realisation. In this medicine bundle piece the performer follows the musical lines starting from either the left or right hand side of the page; they are able also to repeat the lines and freely alter the order of performance.