Water, Reeling and Kin
- Instrumentation
- Cello Ensemble, Narrator
- Composed
- 2025
- Duration
- 11'
- Publisher
- Self Published
Purchase or download
About this piece
A ten- to eleven-minute work for eight cellos and narrator, commissioned by Agassiz Music for the International Cello Festival of Canada with Canada Council support and premiered in Winnipeg on 31 October 2025 with the composer narrating. The spoken text, by Sunabacka's mother Joyce Clouston, traces the family's English Métis ancestors, Scottish and Orkney men and their First Nation wives in the Red River Settlement. The music draws on northern lights, water, rapids, wind and paddling, and quotes Métis fiddler Andy De Jarlis's 'Moccasin Reel', 'Jack Pine Trail' and 'Surveyors Reel'; Sunabacka chose cellos because the instrument spans the human voice and can imitate the fiddle central to Métis gatherings. Scores are available from the composer on request.
Technical overview
Cello octet with spoken narration; the ensemble imitates fiddle tunes while other parts play bass-line chording figures.