Flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor celebrates the late composer Jocelyn Morlock with the release of Artemis Sleeps
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The sudden passing of Vancouver-based composer and teacher Jocelyn Morlock in 2023 was mourned across Canadian and international classical music circles.
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With the posthumous release of her work Artemis Sleeps, close collaborator and flautist Mark Takeshi McGregor further expands the recorded legacy of his late friend and former roommate’s musical genius.
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A UBC sessional instructor and former Vancouver Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence celebrated for works such as the Juno-winning symphonic My Name Is Amanda Todd had an affinity for writing for the flute. And the short title piece on the new recording showcases her understanding of the instrument’s capacity to express emotion with the intensity of the human voice.
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“Jocelyn had two albums to her credit in her lifetime, and this is the first since she passed,” said McGregor. “Anything she wrote for flute, I played as well as a number of her chamber and symphonic works. She was really prolific, and a lot of her music hasn’t been recorded, so this was a really good opportunity to share it as well as a fitting way to pay tribute to our friendship.”
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Artemis Sleeps came about when McGregor and a number of Morlock’s friends were updating her website after she died. Going through her music, they discovered several pieces that hadn’t been performed or recorded. So, the plan to put out the seven pieces on the recording was hatched.
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“It was an emotional experience and a pleasure to return to, as every time I hear or perform a piece of hers I feel like we are reconnecting,” he said. “There were three instruments that she kept coming back to through her career: human voice, cello, and the flute.”
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Besides the human voice, Morlock’s website notes that her “love of birdsong would shape her instrumental writing with melodies that were virtuosic, capricious, and delicate.” McGregor says you can hear this on the new recording.
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“It’s a stereotype rooted in a lot of truth that the flute and birdsong have been united for centuries now, and Jocelyn loved birds and having the sound of their songs entering her apartment as she was working,” he said. “The piece Unfurl gives the flute this unprecedented virtuosic role that enters the virtuosity of birdsong. It’s one of the hardest pieces I’ve ever played.”
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Another of Morlock’s passions was Balinese gamelan percussion orchestras. In earlier years, she had been a member of UBC’s Gamelan Gita Asmara, and her love of rhythm was appreciated by VSO Principal Percussionist Vern Griffiths, who got to know Morlock when she was the inaugural composer-in-residence.
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“Jocelyn, Mark and I were all students at UBC together and I played so much of her music with the VSO as well as the new music ensemble Standing Wave and various shows for Music On Main,” said Griffiths. “Many composers will think ‘everything has been written’ and try to find something new, which can result in what some criticize as ‘squeaking and farting.’ Jocelyn had her own musical language that wasn’t like that, but was so very good but also approachable.”
