Anne of Green Gables and Prince Edward Island
Lecture and World Premiere for Piano and Strings
In this concert and presentation, University of New England PhD researcher and composer Merri Bell will discuss Canadian author L.M. Montgomery, who is best known for the novel Anne of Green Gables. In addition to the seven books of the Anne series, Montgomery completed another thirteen books exploring the life and experience of young women in the early 19th century. Montgomery was also an extensive diarist revealing how much of the content of her books was adapted from her own life experiences. Merri’s research examines the construction of meaning in music and, through the creative practice of composition, demonstrates the ways in which music can relate to literary media. Montgomery’s novels and her personal journals are intertextually linked, and are a rich source of thematic material on which to base compositions, creating a new intertextual link. The result of the research is a folio of contemporary art music composed for acoustic instruments that represents the worlds created by Montgomery.
This event will feature the world premiere of Merri’s new composition for piano and strings, which responds to and paints a musical portrait of Prince Edward Island, the setting of the Anne series, as described by Montgomery in her many novels.
About Merri Bell
Merri Bell is a composer and a doctoral candidate in Music at the University of New England. She holds a Bachelor of Music with Honours (1st Class, UNE) and runs an active piano and music studio in Newcastle, NSW. With an interest in how we construct and ascribe contextual meaning to music and how we respond to it, Merri’s current research is focused on the intertextual relationship between music and literature.
Audience Information
Duration: 75 minutes (Including lecture, Q&A and music recital)
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Thursday 18 April at 6:30pm – LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE