The Bone Eating Snot Flower: for recorder quintet (2011)

Commissioned by Consortium 5. Premiere scheduled summer 2011

Instrumentation:
Player 1: Ganassi Treble Recorder in G (466Hz) / Ganassi Descant Recorder in C (415Hz)
Player 2: Ganassi Treble Recorder in G (466Hz) / Ganassi Descant Recorder in C 415Hz
Player 3: Ganassi Treble Recorder in G (466Hz) / Tenor Recorder in C (466Hz)
Player 4: Ganassi Treble Recorder in G (466Hz) / Bass Recorder in F (466Hz)
Player 5: Ganassi Treble Recorder in G (466Hz) / Subbass Recorder in F (466Hz)

World premiere 2nd February 2012 with Consortium 5 + Resident DJs @ Troy Bar, 10 Hoxton Street, London N1 6NG.

A word about the title.

Osedax mucofloris is also known as the bone-eating snot-flower worm.

This bizarre animal was discovered and described in 2005, by Museum scientists working together with marine biologists in Sweden.

O. mucofloris is a type of annelid worm, related to more familiar animals such as ragworms (polychaetes), earthworms and leeches, although it looks very different. The animal lives on whale bones on the sea floor and it is thought that this species, and others closely related to it, have evolved unique adaptations to this unusual habitat. On the surface of the bone, the worm looks like a curly, pink flower. Burrowed into the bone is a mass of worm-y tissue that, presumably, does the actual eating.
I first discovered the existance of this fascinating creature (from a BBC Radio 4 program) a few months ago. I was instantly drawn to its bizzare name and wanted to use it as the title for one of my pieces. Of course, not every piece would be suitable or able to ‘hold’ such a title but the nature of this particular music, it’s sound quality and more especially its construction, seemed well suited to become the ‘bone eating snot flower’. This music has been built upon the digested material from the remains of another piece. These remains, through transformation have flowered into something quite new and different.

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