Earthworm Music

Cheryl, left, with Mingyuan Ruanand and fellow accordionist Romano Viazzani at the premiere in St Martin-in-the-Fields

Former Visiting Fellow and composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad has premiered a new work for solo accordion inspired by her visits to the Natural History Museum. The subject matter? Earthworms! Cheryl writes, “I would frequently pop into the Natural History Museum after lunch whilst at Keble, and (strange though it may seem) enjoyed visiting the wormery in a big glass jar that was part of the 'Connected Planet' exhibition.”

The premiere of ‘Four Pieces about Earthworms’ took place at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, on 23 February 2024 with award-winning accordionist Mingyuan Ruan.

The four pieces, which are meant to be played with only very short breaks in between as a sort of suite, are available to listen to below, and include commentary by Cheryl Frances-Hoad.

The title rather says it all. This little piece basically has the two hands/manuals of the accordion playing the same notes, but with one hand slightly delayed — hopefully mimicking the way the segments of an earthworm stretch and contract as it, well, goes on its way!

I went to a lecture about how trees communicate with each other via fungal strands, and imagined an earthworm somehow observing this happening (some artistic licence involved here, admittedly).

Big chords which seem to breathe in and out, in and out.

Right opposite the wormery, there was a display case of tiny beetles, pinned to card. Again, going off on a rather non-academic flight of fancy, I imagined the earthworms observing them, and willing their escape. The rapid, rising scales at the very end of the piece represent their eventual flight to freedom.