THE WORM FORGIVES THE PLOUGH
The Worm Forgives the Plough burrows deep into the rhythms of the farm’s subterranean foundations; unfolding, reimagining and celebrating the complex layers of substrate below us, the organisms that live there and the relationship between the human body, traditional rural land practices and local environmental and social ecosystems. The music was composed by translating data from individual earth worms, including their weight, length and girth, as well as their movements across a blank piece of sheet music, into a musical score, The Worm Forgives the Plough, is a subterranean sonorous symphony, evoking the image of a pastoral explosion from the inside of the earth.
In early February 2024, I went over to Seamas Carey’s house with an old take away tub of 14 worms that I had dug up from the farm that I work on. I had labelled the tub WORMS, filled it with soil and stabbed breathing holes into the lid. Seamas looked concerned. I reassured him that I didn’t know what I was doing while pulled out a set of kitchen scales and a metal ruler out of my bag.
We created a system of data collection: weighing and measuring the worms length and girth and plotting the data into
a rudimentary chart. Seamas suggested that we also did an emotional assessment on the worms - were they happy or sad? What sort of mood were they in? This was more difficult to assess because in general they all seemed fine although a few surprised us. We also released the worms onto blank musical paper and followed them with a pen to map their shape and movement directly into the lines of the musical staves. We drew up a general key to translate this information into which would dictate which instrument a worm would take: the heavier a worm the deeper instrument it would be assigned etc.
Afterwards I freed the worms into Seamas’s garden and Seamas went off with all the data. I asked him to compose a piece of music using the data as a guide that incapsulates the theme of a pastoral explosion from the inside of the earth, a subterranean sonorous symphony; a community of lungless lumps flung.
The Worm Forgives the Plough live at Falmouth Worm Charming Championships, 2024
Performed by most southerly brass band on the British mainland, St Keverne Band.
Commissioned by Falmouth Art Gallery as part of ‘Ammeth, Farming in Cornwall', Falmouth Art Gallery, 2024
Composed by Seamas Carey.
Musical score organised by Freddie Hodkin and James Burns.
Sound engineer by Ciaran Clarke and Russell Clarke.
Sound mixing by Ciaran Clarke.
Video production by Neal Megaw Editing and colouring by Neal Megaw.
Book printed by Bracken Books
Photos by Georgia Gendall and Dom Moore