BY NAT BARTSCH, COMPOSER
I’ve always felt that I don’t easily ‘fit’ in the music industry.
For starters, I’m a female pianist and composer who moves in and out of jazz and classical genres; with a quiet, romantic aesthetic that doesn’t resonate with everyone.
I have also had time away from the piano during periods of illness, and have made sense of these absences by viewing music in my life like a religion: it is a part of who I am, and gives my life incredible meaning. But its role in my life, and my role in the music scene, can ebb and flow.
When I became pregnant, I first worked with the assumption that music would take a back seat for quite some time. However, it surprised me to feel this incredible drive to express this experience through music.
I decided to write and record a series of lullabies for babies as well as parents, and non-parents. Music is such a gift in our family, and many other families. So why should we have to hear repeats of nursery rhymes day in and day out? Surely, we owe it to the humans we love the most to create a beautiful, elegant musical soundtrack to the early days of their life.
In the practice of music therapy, music is used not only to support the baby, but the parents. If the whole family as a unit is calm, the baby is more likely to be calm. A key goal of this project was to ensure the music was enjoyable and relaxing to listen to in its own right, for any person, to give parents the chance to de-stress. The resulting album is called Forever, and No Time At All.
Music therapy research recommends certain guidelines to help babies relax — that it is the same tempo as the mother’s heartbeat (around 70bpm), uses a steady beat, repetition, consistent volume, simple harmony and melody, and gentle soft instruments. My lullabies have tried to work within these parameters as much as possible, whilst also ensuring I create a cohesive, interesting album for the general listener.
This body of work moves even further away from my jazz roots, and uses the repetition and simplicity of post-classical music, and the atmosphere of ambient electronics (thanks to producer Luke Howard). The pieces are played gently on piano, at times with felt on the strings, and overdubs on celeste, as a little hat tip to the traditional lullaby sound.
Rachel Power, in her excellent book Motherhood and Creativity, describes the phenomenon of a mother working on her creative practice as akin to “writing with a taxi sitting outside with its meter running”. This is exactly what it felt like for me in creating this project. Time becomes so very precious with a baby. Most of the lullabies were initially composed whilst holding my son in one hand, and the piano keys and pencil in the other hand. Melodies were refined using the voice memo function on my phone whilst singing to my son in his bassinette. A couple of hours at a friend’s place with their piano enabled completion of a piece or two. During recording, I expressed breast-milk whilst between takes. Labouring over chord progressions, take choices, song order, and artwork for days on end was no longer a luxury I could afford. But perhaps relinquishing this time makes no difference to the end product, or indeed, makes it better — it makes you skip the anxiety and self-doubt, and gets to the heart of what you want to say.
Music that babies hear in the womb reminds them of this special safe place after they are born. After my son Will’s birth, he became overwhelmed and upset. It was incredibly moving to feel Will’s body relax in my arms, and hear his crying cease as we started to play my previous solo album to him; a series of songs I practiced and performed often when he was in utero. Listening to my album whilst pregnant may have a powerful impact on other babies once they are born, too.
As I travel through life with my little one, it feels as though I have known Will forever — but also for no time at all (hence my album title). Who knows what the future may bring for us. Whether time moves fast or slow, whether things are difficult or easy or a bit of both, and whether there is space in our lives for more musical creations or not, I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to give birth not only to Will, but to this musical response.
Melbourne pianist/composer Nat Bartsch premieres unique Lullaby Project at 11am and 7pm May 18 in the Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre. Her album Forever, and No Time At All, is released on ABC Classics and Nat will perform it live with Luke Howard on electronics and Sophia Exiner (known as Phia) on celeste.
UPDATE 23 AUGUST 2019: Nat Bartsch will perform this music at Tempo Rubato on 27 August.
Images supplied.
