The Big Music - Dundee Launch Success
The Big Music by Kirsty Gunn, Professor of Creative Writing in the English programme, will be officially published by Faber and Faber on 4th of July 2012.
The Dundee launch of The Big Music was held on 24th May. Introduced by Professor Christopher Whatley and Dr Jane Goldman, Kirsty Gunn read from the opening sections of her book - the video of Kirsty's reading is available to view. The event also included an exhibition of original art work by Merran Gunn, who also curated a collection of artefacts from "The Grey House", and a screening of a film by Gary Gowans, specially commissioned to coincide with the publication, featuring original music and the voice of the actor and University rector, Brian Cox. Kirsty Gunn said:
"Working with other artists and scholars on this project has given the writing a new dimension. I always saw The Big Music as not so much a novel as a sort of literary installation - like a room in an art gallery through which you might wander, moving through the space to emerge from it changed, altered by what you have seen there… Now that idea reaches its full expression in this interdisciplinary project at Dundee. My hope is that what we have presented here, at this event, will come to affect readers and visitors in a variety of ways that are mysterious and yet undeniable."
At the question and answer session, Kirsty explained the collaborative venture that was born out of The Big Music: text, music, art, film and the collection of The Big Music archive by Gail Low, and all participants explained their hand in the project. A dram or two and the sound of the pipes saw The Big Music well on its way.
A commemorative leaflet can be downloaded here.
Outreach Events
As part of the University's outreach, The Big Music travelled to Madras College, St Andrews, on the 18th of June for a public reading and a hands-on workshop on art, creative writing and a talk on the making of the film, the use of animated text for the film.
A further public discussion, chaired by Jim Stewart, considered The Big Music as novel and as collaborative venture.
About The Big Music
The Big Music tells the story of a world-famous Scottish piper who has come to the end of his life and is writing one final tune that tells the story of his family and history - one that is full of secrets and stories that up until now have always been kept private. Presented as a collection of found papers, appendices and notes, The Big Music tells the story of John Sutherland of ‘The Grey House’ who is dying and creating in the last days of his life a musical composition that will define it. Yet he has little idea of how his tune will echo or play out into the world – and as the book moves inevitably through its themes of death and birth, change and stasis, the sound of his solitary story comes to merge and connect with those around him.
Booker prizewinning author DBC Pierre has described The Big Music as "haunting and spacious". Gabriel Josipovici hailed it as "a remarkable achievement": a novel "which seeks to give voice to the bleak loneliness of the Scottish Highlands by forging a very precise narrative equivalent of the highest form of traditional bagpipe music".
Further Information
- Kirsty Gunn's University staff profile
- Kirsty Gunn's website
- Interview with Kirsty Gunn (The Scotsman)
Posted: 3 July 2012
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