Alewife Hearing

Alewife Hearing is a sound art piece inspired by the plight and perseverance of the Alewife Herring in its migration along the Mystic River and the Alewife Brook. The piece speaks of the river herrings' remarkable, annual upstream run from the sea to their freshwater birthplace to spawn. Alewife Hearing is the sound of an impassioned race for survival over centuries of an ever-changing habitat.

Joanna Hay’s free verse poem about the Alewives, read by actor John Shea, is woven with her violin improvisation, fragments of a 17th century hymn, and a contemporary fiddle tune. Watershed scientist, Andrew Hrycyna, calls this migratory river herring a “charismatic fish” and local historian Dee Morris remarks on the value of the herring to Native Americans and pilgrims for food and fertilizer. Each voice speaks to the importance of the herring as an indicator of a healthy Mystic River watershed. Medford’s shipbuilding legacy is heard in the bells between the voices and the fiddle tune finale reflects the ongoing continuum.The cough, snitch, gulp and bubble of the Alewives are the sounds of the underwater universe that co-exist inextricably with life in the skies and on terra firma.

Credits: Alewife Hearing: A poem by Joanna Thornewill Hay John Shea, voice actor Dee Morris, Medford historian Andrew Hrycyna, watershed scientist, Mystic River Watershed Association Joanna Hay, violin/viola performance Sound of the Alewives by Rodney A. Rountree Poulet Poulet Studios, Nantucket, Mass, Caleb Cressman recording engineer Ian Coss, Final Mix and recording of the sound of water from a drainage pipe at the Alewife Brook,

Music: Alewife Hearing violin improvisation (written by Joanna Hay) Psalm 24 from the Ainsworth Psaltery (early 17th century) La Farge, a fiddle tune by Caleb Cressman (2012)