Severnside Composers Alliance

presents

December Voices

An entertainment

in words and music

Friday 6 December 2013, 7.30pm Bristol Music Club 76 St. Paul’s Road,

Clifton, Bristol BS8 1LP

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Severnside Composers Alliance presents

December Voices An entertainment in words and music Zarah Hible, Amanda Barclay & Fiona Fleet - sopranos Jolyon Laycock – baritone Andre Shlimon – reciter & piano Geoffrey Poole – piano Programme: Trevor Jones – A Christmas Triptych (Zarah Hible – mezzo soprano) Jolyon Laycock – Three sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Jolyon Laycock – baritone) Frank Harvey – The Oxen (Amanda Barclay & Fiona Fleet - sopranos) Andre Shlimon – Saturation Point (Andre Shlimon – reciter & pianist) INTERVAL Jolyon Laycock – Berliner Schnauze (Jolyon Laycock – baritone and reciter) Steven Kings – 4 songs from September Zen (Zarah Hible – mezzo soprano) Geoffrey Poole – Fünf Brecht Lieder (Jolyon Laycock - baritone) A Christmas Triptych Trevor Jones Text: Edward Storey Christmas Eve Birth Morning Epiphany A Christmas Triptych sets three poems by poet Edward Storey who lives in a bungalow adjacent to St Michael's chapel in Discoed, Wales. The chapel, now independent of any diocese, is only staffed for services once a month, with all services otherwise taken at St Andrews, Presteign. The poet describes his own private thoughts and prayers as he sits in the chapel with his wife Angela, absorbing images, and making sense of the Christmas and Epiphany stories. “Christmas Eve” is dedicated to Angela, whilst “Birth Morning” is prefaced with “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (St Luke. 2.19) (TJ)

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Three Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins Jolyon Laycock

The Windhover, Harry Ploughman, Tom’s Garland As a confirmed atheist, I am ambivalent about the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. I have huge admiration for his use of language, his extra-ordinary innovations in meter and poetic structure, and his audacious use of alliteration and vowel harmony. I share his ecstatic response to nature but, where Hopkins saw the grandeur of the natural world as evidence of the hand of a creator, I am compelled to see it as the result of a no less marvellous process of evolutionary change continuing for aeons of time. I chose three of Hopkins’ sonnets where the religious content is so obscured by metaphor and symbolism that one can at least concentrate on the surface imagery. The Windhover is dedicated “To Christ our Lord”, but it is possible to see it simply as a vivid description of a falcon stooping on its prey – an expression of the poet’s intense response to that event – an example of what Hopkins called “inscape”. The poem’s religious symbolism lies just beneath the surface. It is a metaphor of Christ’s suffering on the cross. The blood that springs from the body of the falcon’s prey is like the blood that sprang from Christ’s side. Ecstatic cries of “Ah, my dear…” and “my chevalier…” are invocations of Christ. Hopkin’s idea of “inscape” comes close to the Buddhist concept of Karma. All things in the natural world are intensely “themselves”. The falcon’s flight is a beautiful and noble sight, yet it culminates in the bloody and violent death of its prey. Ecstatic beauty and violent death are inextricably linked. The other two poems contain no obvious religious imagery. In “Harry Ploughman the ploughman’s body is a metaphor for the whole of society. His muscles “feature in flesh what deed he each must do”, that is to say they work together in harmony to achieve a common end. Hopkins breaks up the classical sonnet structure with “outriggers” – short phrases which echo the end of the previous line. They introduce a feeling of tenderness in contrast to the muscular rhythms of the main text. “Tom’s Garland” is almost the opposite of “Harry Ploughman”. This highly political outburst, dedicated to the unemployed, contemplates the evil social consequences of idleness. Man expresses his selfhood through work. Idleness is a denial of his essential essence. (JL) The Oxen. Frank Harvey

Text: Thomas Hardy

This setting of Thomas Hardy’s poem was written in the early 1980s when I was a school music teacher, for two very talented sixth formers. What was behind this description of a rural myth was a nostalgia for lost childhood innocence; I have tried to convey the melancholy atmosphere that I feel lies behind the poem. (FH)

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Saturation Point Words & music: Andre Shlimon

Saturation Point is an adaptation of a poem I wrote called October 11th: Saturation Point Passed, and the main impulse behind the text is media saturation and how it influences our thoughts and fantasies. Musically, the piece is a single extended movement that shifts in character with the text and includes both spoken word and singing, improvisation, and has strong folk / eastern and contemporary classical influences. (AS) Berliner Schnauze Text & concept: Jolyon Laycock

Music: Haydn, Alfred Lee, Beethoven, Norbert Schultze, Schubert

The phrase “Berliner Schnauze” is untranslatable. “Schnauze” literally means “snout” but this hardly conveys the implied sense of thrusting, aggressive optim-ism. Berliners are people with attitude – an attitude typified as much by the way the city has been re-generating itself since the fall of the wall in 1989, as by the hard-hitting political caricatures of artists like George Grosz and the satirical cabarets of the 1920s. Bad taste is an essential ingredient of “Schnauze”, a feature that the English-speaking world became familiar with in the musical “Cabaret”. I visited Berlin in 1999. It affected me deeply. The city was in a fever of re-generation. Parts of the wall were still there, covered in graffiti displayed now as “wall art”. I spent a whole day at the Check-Point Charlie museum gathering information. “Berliner Schnauze” is really a collection of eight shorter poems. None of the music is original. The first two, “Deutschland” and “Charlie”, are parodies of well-known songs. “Deutschland” is set to the music of the German national anthem, but the words are a parody of the hymn “Glorious things of thee are spoken”. Then comes “Monument” consisting of words set to the rhythm of the third movement of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. The brief spoken frag-ment “Wolfgang” is followed by a parody of the well-known war-time favourite “Lily Marlene”. Then come two longer poems, both of them original, spoken without music: “Alexander Platz” and “Reichstag”. The set reaches an elegiac conclusion with a parody of Schubert’s song “The Linden Tree”. (JL) September Zen Steven Kings September 3-22-7 Day to Day (text: Jules Laforgue/ Zen saying/ Theodore Roethke) September 5-23 The Deer and the Violets (text: Han Shan/Tennessee Williams) September 15-29 Understanding Nothing (text: Wu Tse-Tien/Edward Dahlberg) September 20-27 Happiness (text: Sogyal Rinpoche/Arnaud Desjardins)

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September Zen is one twelfth of an unlikely project to set to music all 365 texts from a calendar I was once given, which included a Zen-like aphorism for each day of the year. The texts came from many different sources: philosophers, religious figures, authors, politicians, artists, even Winnie the Pooh! What they have in common is a meditative focus on everyday objects, situations and ideas, through which the profound reality of the world becomes evident. Each month of the Zen year is being set for different performing forces, with the complete September requiring soprano, tenor and bass soloists as well as a four-part choir and piano. Tonight's selection is for soprano and piano alone. (SK)

Fünf Brecht Leider Geoffrey Poole

Text: Berthold Brecht

These songs, for baritone and piano, acknowledge the classic Brechtian Weill/Hindemith style of directness and political engagement, while ranging further. 1. Uber die Lust des Beginnens - in non-synchronous tempi, a celebration of fresh beginnings, the new book, the clean shirt, the glance, the revving engine, "and you too, New Thought!" 2. Finnland 1940 - accompanied by his guitar, Brecht the peasant protests at those who can afford to waste bread. "You can understand how I detest their war" 3. Der Pflaumenbaum - punk Schubert serves as a metaphor for blighted youth. The plum tree is railed in (for its own safety, of course), and can't grow for sun deprivation. But it is a plum tree nonetheless - you can tell by the leaf. 4. Abgesang - to a relentless cerebral accompaniment, the Last Inscription. “The planet has burst; creation bred destruction. As a way of living together we thought up Capitalism: thinking of Physics we surpassed it - a way of dying together.” 5. Alles wandelt sich - a sort of cabaret number: everything changes; water mixed with wine can't be unmixed; what's done is done. You can always make a fresh start, even with your dying breath. The set was commissioned by Leeds 20th-century Music Festival with funds from Yorkshire Arts Association for its first performance by Phillip O'Reilly (Baritone) and Graham Barber (Piano) at The Clothworkers Hall, Leeds on 3 March 1983. The poems are used by permission from Suhrkamp Verlag and the Brecht Estate, and in translation by John Willett. (GP)

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Texts:

A Christmas Triptych – Edward Storey

(reproduced by kind permission of the poet)

Christmas Eve We went alone in the dark to the cold church, knelt on the bare stones. For what? There were no angels, no shepherds or wise-men arriving, no sign of animals. There was no manger either. Mary wept by a cross in a stained-glass window. But we spoke our words and let the silence follow, two minds as one, knowing the moment we had gone for was already there. It was the Child who was waiting. We presented our gifts - love, gratitude, prayer, then walked into the night led by a star.

Birth Morning

All but one of night's stars had stopped shining. The only glisten was on grass and hedgerow. All but one that had dropped unknown into a barn and stayed, waiting for Spring. It is still there in the hay, bright as a halo, watched over by cattle and a young couple, anxious as parents are for their first-born. Beside them an ass, waiting for Easter. Epiphany For half the winter we have watched the [road waiting for the arrival of the Wise Men. But shadows deceive and distance does not [prove a destination is almost within reach. We thought we saw them once, poised like three crosses on a hill. But it was all an illusion. The star moved away, the shadows faded. Each year we hope they will return before the stable is empty, the Child gone. If not, in these dark days, to whom will they bring their offerings?

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Three sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Windhover

I caught this morning morning's minion, king- dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bowbend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, ― the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! And the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! No wonder of it: sheer plod makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold vermillion. Harry Ploughman

Hard as hurdle arms, with a broth of goldfish flue Breathed round; the rack of ribs; the scooped flank; lank Rope-over thigh; knee-nave; and barrelled shank - Head and foot, shoulder and shank - By a grey eye’s heed steered well, one crew, fall to; Stand at stress. Each limb’s barrowy brawn, his thew That onewhere curdled, onewhere sucked or sank - Soared or sank -, Though as a beechbole firm, finds his, as at a roll-call, rank And features, in flesh, what deed he each must do - His sinew-service where do. He leans to it, Harry bends, look. Back, elbow, and liquid waist In him, all quail to the wallowing o’ the plough: ‘s cheek crimsons; curls Wag or crossbridle, in a wind lifted, windlaced - See his wind-lilylocks-laced; Churlsgrace, too, child of Amansstrength, how it hangs or hurls Them – broad in bluff hide his frowning feet lashed! raced With, along them, cragiron under and cold furls - With-a-fountain’s shining-shot furls.

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Tom’s Garland

upon the Unemployed

Tom ― garlanded with squat and surly steel Tom; then Tom's fallowbootfellow piles pick By him and rips out rockfire homeforth ― sturdy Dick; Tom Heart-at-ease, Tom Navvy: he is all for his meal Sure, 's bed now. Low be it: lustily he his low lot (feel That ne'er need hunger, Tom; Tom seldom sick, Seldomer heartsore; that treads through, prickproof, thick Thousands of thorns, thoughts) swings though. Commonweal Little I reck ho! lacklevel in, if all had bread: What! Country is honour enough in all us ― lordly head, With heaven's lights high hung round, or, mother-ground That mammocks, mighty foot. But no way sped, Nor mind nor mainstrength; gold go garlanded With, perilous, O no; nor yet plod safe shod sound; Undenizened, beyond bound Of earth's glory, earth's ease, all; no one, nowhere, In wide the world's weal; rare gold, bold steel, bare In both; care, but share care ― This, by Despair, bred Hangdog dull; by Rage, Manwolf, worse; and their packs infest the age.

The Oxen Thomas Hardy

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock. "Now they are all on their knees," An elder said as we sat in a flock By the embers in hearthside ease. We pictured the meek mild creatures where They dwelt in their strawy pen, Nor did it occur to one of us there To doubt they were kneeling then. So fair a fancy few would weave In these years! Yet, I feel, If someone said on Christmas Eve, "Come; see the oxen kneel "In the lonely barton by yonder coomb Our childhood used to know," I should go with him in the gloom, Hoping it might be so.

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Saturation Point – Andre Shlimon There's water somewhere to wash away [bad news We're going to have to blow them up now 'cause they blew us up 'cause of that time when we blew them up when we were afraid they might blow us [up Man I'd like to blow someone up 'cause I saw a muslim with a beard sitting near a white guy with a tattoo looking at a negro with baggy trousers next to a jew with a hat jew with a flat hat, they all looked like cats Was buzzing with anticipation for my great [dream lover tremendous love of stomach knots hysterics and blues and rolling around in the park and touching and making love and kissing her stomach thighs for hours days lifetimes dreams all sunny and laughing and naked touching grappling But only stuck on a bus and my mind was [twisting and leaping and all these people around me were white guys and muslims and negroes and jews and greeks ('cause we mustn't forget the [greeks) who were all nations and bombs and planes [and rising oil prices and free-market speculators and refugees – illegal and immigrant – and rhetorical politicians sitting on the blanket coverage media's hands wringing their logical justified responses fingers on their love triggers itching to [drop some bombs

And me going crazy with all these westerners and talibans and crazed fanatics hiding in dustbins in the bus station trying to crash my bus through the financial times and only even getting the bus because my plane's grounded and my 5-million government cheque won't clear under threat of financial terror and only even having a plane because statistics said it was safer than the train All this rolling around passionate fantasy lovemaking in the park is wearing me out Perhaps a coffee over lunch instead, some [conversation have to keep your strength up these days There's water somewhere, there'll be water [somewhere to throw over my real lover in play to drown the ruins of past lovers, to settle [the dust there's water in the air, plenty of air over [Delaware the president said he's going to be fair all this air making me lose my hair Oh what a wonderful time, sitting on my bus with all my brothers, waiting for the [bombs never knew I had so many brothers all these brothers and they still got more [bombs

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Berliner Schnauze – Jolyon Laycock

Deutschland 1

Curious things of thee are spoken, Berlin, city, jack-boot shod. In defeat thy back was broken. Border-guards in goose-step trod. By these blocks of concrete bounded2, Ideologies oppose. Western streets by wall surrounded. Iron-curtain hatred grows. Charlie

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Check-Point Charlie, that’s my name! Guard the border, that’s my game! Use these guns to wound or maim? Oh no! Fair and square with careful aim, and so Hold them steady in the frame. Warning shout, a spurt of flame; DDR4 will always claim its own. Shoot to kill! Oh what a shame! Now let Honecker5 proclaim: “Keep the population tame!” Old or young, or sick or lame you see, Men and women, they’re the same To me. Under orders, I disclaim, Martyrs all, in search of fame. Though two hundred victims came, Or more, not for me to take the blame. Monument

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1 Words: based on “Glorious things of thee are spoken” - John Newton, Olney Hymns (1779) Music: “Austria” – a Croatian folk melody arranged by Joseph Haydn (1797) 2 The Berlin wall, built in August 1961 3 Based on the music-hall song “Champagne Charlie” (1866) Music: Alfred Lee; Lyrics: George Leybourne. 4 Deutsche Demokratische Republik (1949-1989) – German Democratic Republic 5 Erich Honecker (1912-1994), General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and leader of the DDR (1971-1989).

Rudolf Urban who climbed the roof of Bernauerstraße building. Abseiling from the top, he was gunned to death and fell to the pavement below. Peter Fechter, in Zimmerstraße, shot, August sixty three; Two hundred and thirty died in foiled escapes to the west. Winfried Freudenberg tried to cross aboard a hot-air balloon at Zehlenberg, but she crashed to the ground and was killed, Eighth of March eighty-nine. If only she had waited nine more months. “Peace and progress and human rights - These three goals are linked insep-arably with each other. To achieve only one without paying full attention to all is an impossible aim” – Inspirational words from Andrei Sakharov7 for Willy Brandt8 and Mikhail Gorbachev9. In this world, nothing lasts for ever. Glasnost10 and Peristroika11 must bring down the wall. “Not to stop comrades from escaping; Just western propaganda; Anti-Fascist protect-tion barrier built by Russian troops in August, sixty one. Such a contemporary measure, as we prefer to call it, might pacify the people of Berlin for a time.” In Schauspielhaus 12, Berlin Philharmonic Or-chestra practising a Beethoven Sym-phonic work; number three in E flat; The Eroica; slow movement, called the Funeral March.

6 Music: Beethoven Symphony no. 3 in E flat major op.55; “The Eroica” 3rd movt. 7 Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) Russian dissident and advocate of civil liberties. 8 Willy Brandt (1913-1992) leader of the German Social Democratic Party (1964-1987) and chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (1969-1974). 9 Mikhail Gorbachov (1931- ) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1985-1991) 10 Glasnost – Openness (Russian) 11 Peristroika – Restructuring (Russian) 12 Schauspielhaus – Berlin concert hall.

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Of the wall, there is little left now; wounds healing, disappearing as time passes by. Rebuilding Potsdamerplatz, where the tower cranes can reach to the heavens, and the sky-scrapers rise thirty five storeys high, to the stars up above; and in remem-brance of those murdered millions of Jews, they will build a mighty Denkmaler Holo-caust 13 near the Leipzigerplatz. Wolfgang But spare a thought for Wolfgang! Just to [test The border guards, in August eighty-nine, His head towards the red and beastly east, In no-man’s land, across the painted line He lies, as people watch and wait. At least His guts and nuts are safely in the west. He knows quite well which is the best, and [worst, But wants to see who will arrest him first. Lily Marlene

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Underneath the search light, by the [Helmstedt Gate You could see us standing. So long we had [to wait! Listen and hear the song we sang By Prinzen Straße Übergang Geliebtes Mauerlein15, Geliebtes Mauerlein!”

13 Denkmaler Holocaust – Building of the Halocaust memorial finally began in 2003 and was completed in 2005. 14 Based on lyrics by Hans Leip (1893–1983) Music Norbert Schultze (1911-2002) 15 Beloved little wall!

Heinrich Heine Straße, Schlesische Tor, Schönefelder Chausee, she’s not there [anymore. Climb to the top of Fernsehtürm Or down the U-bahn like a worm Man sucht das Mauerlein16; Man sucht das Mauerlein. Köpenicker Straße, Puschkin Allee, Oberbaumbrücke across the river Spree; Wall art preserved for all to see In Mühlenstraße gallery. Anseht das Mauerlein!17 Anseht das Mauerlein! There’s an exhibition: art which once was [banned. Niederkirchner Straße, no Nazi high [command; Bornholmer Bridge to Moritz Platz: No gates reserved for diplomats;18 Es gibt kein Mauerlein!19 Es gibt kein Mauerlein! Templehof to Treptow, passing to and fro; Friedrichshain to Spandau, now all the [world can go. Kreutsberg across to Weißensee You’ll find it’s all been cleared away. Abschied dem Mauerlein!20 Abschied dem Mauerlein!

16 They search for the little wall. 17 Behold the little wall! 18 The wall had several crossing points, each designated by a letter in the NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha at Helmstedt, Charlie at Friedrichstrasse, & Bravo on the Autobahn. Charlie remained as a checkpoint for diplomats until October 1990 19 There is no little wall! 20 Farewell to the little wall!

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Alexander Platz

So take a walk on fractured pavement [cracks, Where down-at-heel bars play aimless [tracks Of muzak disco-rap, and artists squat in run-down culture halls that time forgot. Decaying, unexploited, derelict - These barren brown-field sites, as yet [unclaimed By multi-national corporations, bricked- Up doors and windows, rank with weeds, [untamed… In Alexander Platz old socialist Uplifting party slogans are replaced By neon advertising hoardings, braced On rooftops, but the social-realist Mosaic high up on lofty Congress Hall Can’t be erased, its simple message still With noble thoughts indoctrinating all Good German workers. Here a bill- Board “deine millionen chance”21 [exclaims, And tempts each passing proletarian To part with money. “Rekonstruktion Des Berolinahauses”22 there declaims A sign on crumbling concrete tower block, With scaffolding and rusting window [frames. In search of famous world-wide high-street [names, The shoppers everyday to Kaufhof 23 flock. Although the chanting anti-globalists Each summer sound their mouths off, run [amok Through smart commercial districts, [raising fists Against world debt, the rest of us just stock

21 “Your chance of a million!” German lotto slogan. 22 Reconstruction of buildings of the Beroliner district of East Berlin. 23 Shopping mall on Alexander Platz.

Up with desirable consumerist Commodities. In U-bahn24 - brutalist With tiles and girders - while some mangy [hound Stands guard, just like in London [underground, The homeless beg for pfennigs and [condemn The world. Commuters blame the [Communists, then shrug and search for mislaid shopping [lists, For life has been no cabaret25 for them. It’s tourists now who make this world go [around, This world go around26. A Kraut, a Yank, [a Frog, Or a Pom, a Jap or a Chink, a Wop or [a Wog, With clicking, snapping, popping, whirring [sound, In yellow trams of BVG27 invade The Stadt 28, and will not let the memory [fade, Nor ghastly, unimaginable past Be yet forgotten - laid to rest at last. But tell me, do I really have the right, Protected by my safe and silver sea, Such petty rhyming doggerel to write, Of things which happened not at all to me?

24 U-Bahn – Berlin underground trains. 25 “Life is a Cabaret” – song from the musical “Cabaret” (Kander/Ebb 1966) 26 “Money makes the world go around” – song from the musical “Cabaret” 27 Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe-AG – The Berlin Transport Company. 28 The city.

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Reichstag

No more adapted cars with clashing gears And screaming tyres career in freedom [dash, Where Mauerkunst29 concrete reared for [thirty years Through tortured streets like angry, [bleeding gash, Reminding them of daily shame and tears Of allied occupation, till, to mark The fall of wall, amid ecstatic cheers, Exultant cello suites of J.S. Bach, As Rostropovitch played, with healing [power, Above Pariser Platz unhindered soared, For joyous wall-top multitudes - each hour To mourn each fettered year. No traffic [roared Where now, in Ebert Straße, growing dark Hides cobble restoration work. Along Republik Platz excursion coaches park As Germans clamber down in droves to [throng And jostle, queuing on the steps. They pass Through X-ray search and claustrophobic `[crush Of Schindler’s lift30, then spiral up the [glass And girder dome31, and climb above the [rush Of dusk-fall lighted city – scrutinise From high Valhalla vantage, democratic

29 Wall-art 30 Strangely enough the Swiss firm of Schindler Management is one of the biggest European manufactrurers of lifts and elevators. The bad taste of this reference to Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List” (1993) which relates the escape of many Jews from Nazi Germany has been pointed out to me on a number of occasions. I make no apology. This is what “Schnauze” is all about. 31 The Reichstag was rebuilt in 1992 to a spect-acular design by the English architect Sir Norman Foster.

Chambered factions far below, their wise Deliberations mirrored in prismatic Facets of the central cone, which, bright And clear with energy-efficient blaze Of ecological supply of light, Expose to tourists’ penetrating gaze The tops of heads of federal deputies, While Reichstag rooks, already colonising Yet unfinished roof-top canopies Of nearby architectural wonders, rising To some unseen stimulus, still flock From their impromptu parliament to crowd The western-sinking orange sun, and block The blackening sky with swooping, [swirling cloud. The Linden Tree

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By Brunnen Straße tower There hangs a linden beam. I dreamt beneath its shadow, So clear and sweet a dream. I carved upon its surface With blade so sharp, each word Of peace and love and freedom, And prayed they would be heard. When cold-war winds were blowing, And politicians lied, From Lichtenberg to Pankow, How many people died? They’ve planted, near Spreebogen, A parliament of trees In mem’ry of the fallen. So get down on your knees! 33

32 Based on the poem “Der Lindenbaum” by Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) set to music by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) as part of the cycle “Der Winterreise” op.89 (1828) 33 The “Parlament der Bäume gegen Krieg und Gewalt” (Parliament of Trees against War and Violence) is a memorial for the people who died at the Berlin Wall started by the artist Ben Wagin in 1990. This installation of trees, memorial stones, original parts of the border

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From eastern sector stations Kalashnikovs have gone. The ring of laughter mingles With clang of Straßenbahn34. Denounced no more in darkness Of Stasi’s deepest night35, No more the shout of “Achtung! Heraus! Man geht hier nicht!”36 Now mini-skirted Frauleins, Bare midriffs gleaming white, In global-warming autumn, Beneath the street-lamps bright Of not-so-cold November, From thumping Techno bars, Spill out upon the pavement; Leap into waiting cars. By Brandenburger tower, There stands a linden tree. I drank beneath its branches, So strong and sweet, the tea. I filled each passing hour By gazing at the West, But now Unter den Linden37, I find at last my rest.

fortifications, pictures, and text was created by various artists. The names of 258 victims of the wall are inscribed on slabs of granite. 34 Tramcars 35 Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) – East German Ministry for State Security 36 “Attention! You can’t go that way!” 37 “Unter den Linden” is a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard in the centre of Berlin. It runs east-ward from the Brandenberg gate to the former Stadtschloss royal palace, now demolished.

September Zen

September 3-22-7

Day to Day38

Ah, what a day-to-day affair life is! Even if I learn the truths of Buddha, that too is to misuse the mind. I have to be free of preoccupations. I have to be normal. I learn by going where I have to go. September 5-23 The Deer and the Violets

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A wild deer is running among deserted mountains, happy with grass and pines. The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks September 15-29

Understanding Nothing40

The Dharma, incomparably profound and minutely subtle, is rarely encountered, even in hundreds and thousands of millions of aeons. It takes a long time to understand nothing. September 20-27

Happiness41

When you meditate, feel the self-esteem, the dignity and strong humility of the Buddha that you are. Terrible or not, difficult or not, the only thing that is beautiful, noble, religious and mystical is to be happy.

38 Jules Laforgue/Zen saying/Theodore Roethke 39 Han Shan/Tennessee Williams 40 (Wu Tse-Tien/Edward Dahlberg) 41 (Sogyal Rinpoche/Arnaud Desjardins)

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Fünf Lieder - Berthold Brecht

(Surhkamp Verlag, Frankfurt)

1. Uber die Lust des Beginnens

(On The Joy Of Beginning) O Lust des beginnens! O fruher Morgens! Erstes Gras, wenn vergessen scheint was [grün ist! O erste Seite des Buchs des erwarteten sehr [überraschende! Lies langsam allzuschnell wird die ungelesene Teil dirdunn! Und der erste Wasserguss in das verschweissete Gesicht! Das frische kuhle Hemd! O Beginn der Liebe. O Beginn der Blick! Der Wegirrt. O Beginn der Arbeit. Öl zu füllen, in die kalte Maschine! Erster Handgriff und erstes Summen Des anspringenden Motors! Und erster Zug Rauchs der die Lunge füllt! Und du, Neuer Gedenke! Oh joy of beginning! Oh early morning! First grass, when none remembers what [green looks like. Oh first page of the book long awaited, the [surprise of it! Read it slowly. All too soon the unread part will be gone for you! And the first splash of water on a sweaty face! The fresh cool shirt! Oh the beginning of love! Oh the beginning of the stray glance! Oh the beginning of work! Pouring oil into the cold machine! First touch and first hum Of the engine springing to life! And first drag of smoke filling the lungs! And you too, New thought!

2. Finland 1940

Mir, der ich von Bauern abstamme, Mir, widerstrebt es zu sehen wie brot wegge warfen wird! Brot! Wegewarfen; Widerstrebt es man versteht. Wie ich ihren Krieg hasse! Me! I who am descended from peasants Me! I detest seeing bread thrown away. Bread! Thrown away! How I detest it. You can understand How I hate their war! 3. Der Pflaumenbaum (The Plum Tree)

Im Hofe steht ein Pflaumenbaum, Der ist so klein, man glaubt es kaum. Er hat ein Gitter drum, So tritt ihn keiner um. Der Kleine kann nicht größer wer'n, Ja - größer wer'n, das möcht' er gern! 's ist keine Red davon: Er hat zu wenig Sonn. Dem Pflaumenbaum, man glaubt ihm [kaum, Weil er nie eine Pflaume hat. Doch er ist ein Pflaumenbaum: Man kennt es an dem Blatt. In the courtyard stands a plum tree, It's so small, you wouldn’t believe it. It has a fence around it, So no one can stomp on it. The little tree can't grow any bigger, Yes – to grow bigger, that’s what it wants! There’s nothing more to say. It gets too little sun. No one believes it's a plum tree Because it doesn't have a single plum. But it is a plum tree; You can tell by its leaf.

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4. Abgesang (Swansong)

Soll die letzte Tafel so lauten: (Die zerbrokene, die ohne Leser:) Der Planet wird zerbersten. Die er erzeugt hat, werden ihn vernichten. Zu-sammen zu leben, erdachten wir nur den Kapitalismus. Erdenkend die Physic, erdachten wir mehr: Das war es. Zusammen zu sterben. The last inscription must run thus: (That broken slab without readers): The planet is going to burst, Those it bred will destroy it. As a way of living together we merely thought up capitalism. Thinking of physics, we thought up something more -That was it: A way of dying together.

5. Alles Wandelt Sich (All things change)

Alles wandelt sich. Neu beginnen Kannst du mit dem letzten Atemzug. Aber was geschehen, ist geschehen. Und das Wasser Das du in den Wein gossest, kannst du Nicht mehr herausschütten. Was geschehen, ist geschehen. Das Wasser Das du in den Wein gossest, kannst du Nicht mehr herausschütten, aber Alles wandelt sich. Neu beginnen Kannst du mit dem letzten Atemzug. Was geschehen, ist geschehen! Everything changes. You can make A fresh start with your final breath. But what has happened has happened. And the water you once poured into the wine cannot be drained off again. What has happened has happened. The water you once poured into the wine cannot be Drained off again, but Everything changes. You can make A fresh start with your final breath. What has happened has happened!

Biographies: Writers and poets: Bertolt Brecht (1898 –1956), celebrated German poet, playwright, theatre director, and Marxist, made major contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production. His collaboration with the composer Kurt Weill began in 1927 with Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). His most famous works include Mother Courage and Her Children, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Brecht spent the years of the Weimar republic in Berlin until Hitler took power in 1933. Fearing persecution as a Marxist he left Germany and, after brief spells in Prague, Zurich and Paris, moved to Denmark and later to Sweden and Finland. In 1941 he emigrated to America but in 1947 he was compelled to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, although ironically he had never actually been a member of the Communist party. The day after his court appearance he returned to Europe, eventually taking up residence in East Berlin from 1949 until his death. He is known controversially to have supported the brutal measures taken by the East German government against the 1953 uprising and was awarded the Stalin Peace prize in 1954.

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Edward Dahlberg (1900 – 1977) was an American novelist, essayist and autobiographer. His first novel, Bottom Dogs, based on his childhood experiences in an orphanage and travels in the American West, was published in London with an introduction by D. H. Lawrence. In 1968, he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and in 1976 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Arnaud Desjardins (1925-2011) was a producer for the French broadcasting network ORTF from 1952 to 1974, and was one of the first high profile practitioners of Eastern religion in France. He worked on television documentaries with many spiritual traditions unknown to Europeans at the time, including Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, and Sufism. Hanshan was a legendary figure associated with a collection of poems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD) in the Taoist and Chan tradition. No one knows who he was, or when he lived and died.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born at Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, where his father worked as a master mason and builder. At the age of 16 Hardy helped his father with the architectural drawings for a restoration of Woodsford Castle. The owner, architect James Hicks, took him on as an apprentice. He later moved to London to work for prominent architect Arthur Blomfield where he began writing poetry. In 1870 Hardy was sent to plan a church restoration at St. Juliot in Cornwall. There he met Emma Gifford, sister-in-law of the vicar of St.Juliot. She encouraged him in his writing, and they were married in 1874. Novels such as Under the Greenwood Tree, A Pair of Blue Eyes, Far From the Madding Crowd Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Woodlanders and Tess of the d'Urbervilles take their inspiration from the various places in rural Wessex where the Hardies lived. His last novel Jude the Obscure (1896), catapulted Hardy into the midst of a storm of controversy. Hardy was bemused by the reaction his book caused, and for the rest of his life he focussed on poetry. Emma Hardy died in November 1912. Thomas was stricken with guilt and remorse, but the result was some of his best poetry, expressing his feelings for his wife of 38 years. (adapted from a text by David Ross) Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) was born at Stratford, Essex. He is regarded as one the Victorian era’s greatest poets. He attended Balliol College, Oxford, in 1863, where he studied Classics. In 1864, Hopkins read John Henry Newman’s Apologia pro via sua, which discussed the author’s reasons for converting to Catholicism. Hopkins decided to become a priest himself, and, in 1867, entered a Jesuit novitiate near London. He vowed to “write no more...unless

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it were by the wish of my superiors.” He burnt all of the poetry he had written to date and would not write poems again until 1875. Hopkins began to write again after a German ship, the Deutschland, was wrecked during a storm at the mouth of the river Thames. Many of the passengers, including five Franciscan nuns, died. Although conventional in theme, Hopkins’ poem “The Wreck of the Deutschland” introduced what he called “sprung rhythm”, a technique derived from his study of Anglo-Saxon poetry. In 1884, he became a professor of Greek at the Royal University College in Dublin. He died five years later from typhoid fever. Although his poems were never published during his lifetime, his friend poet Robert Bridges edited a volume of Hopkins’ Poems that first appeared in 1918. In addition to developing new rhythmic effects, Hopkins was also very interested in developing poetic language. He placed familiar words in new and surprising contexts, employed compound and unusual word combinations and rejuvenated forgotten words from Old English. Jules Laforgue (1860 – 1887) was an Franco-Uruguayan Symbolist poet. He was one of the first French poets to write in free verse.

Sogyal Rinpoche (1947 - ) is a Tibetan Dzogchen lama of the Nyingma tradition. He has been teaching for over 30 years and continues to travel widely in Europe, America, Australia and Asia. He is also the founder and spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of over 100 Buddhist centres and groups in 23 countries around the world, and the author of the best-selling book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Theodore Huebner Roethke (1908 – 1963) was an American poet whose work is characterized by its introspection, rhythm and natural imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book, The Waking, and he twice won the annual National Book Award for Poetry. In 2012, he was featured on a United States postage stamp as one of ten great 20th Century American poets. Edward Storey (1930- ) poet, dramatist and non–fiction writer, was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. Before becoming a full time writer in the late 1960s, Storey completed National Service and worked in adult education for the Peterborough City Education Authority. His first volume of poetry, North Bank Night, was published by Chatto & Windus in 1969. In one of his earlier works Portrait of the Fen Country (Robert Hale, 1971) Storey reflected upon his childhood understanding of the world as it was shaped by his fenland experience. In Fen Country Christmas (Robert Hale, 1995) he collected a number of stories, legends and fenland superstitions. He was a founder member of the John Clare

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Society and of the Eastern Arts Association Literature panel. He moved to Wales in 1999 where he established the Discoed Michaelmas Wakes Festival of the Arts. A former contributor to BBC “Listening and Writing” programmes and “Time for Verse”, he was a founder member of Eastern Arts Association’s Literature Panel. Storey has published nine collections of poetry and several volumes of prose. His poems have been published in Acumen, The London Magazine, The Rialto and Spectator. He has worked as a tutor for the Arvon Foundation. is a member of Academi. (Writers in Wales Database) Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III (1911 – 1983) was an American playwright, author of many stage classics. After years of obscurity, he became suddenly famous with The Glass Menagerie (1944). This heralded a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, and Sweet Bird of Youth. Wu Tse-tien (c. 625 – 705), also known as Wu Zhao, and in English as Empress Consort Wu, was a Chinese sovereign, who ruled officially under the name of her self-proclaimed “Zhou Dynasty”, from 690 to 705. She had held previous imperial positions and had been a concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death she married his successor and 9th son, Emperor Gaozong and when he became ill she ruled as sovereign until 705, the only woman to rule China in her own right. Performers & composers: Amanda Barclay has sung for many years locally in the Wiltshire area. She was previously a member of The Wootton Bassett Light Operatic Society, Swindon Opera and the Oxford Touring Opera. Her roles included Anna in The Merry Widow, Saffi in The Gypsy Baron and Guinevere in Camelot. Amanda now sings mainly choral music and is a member of the Avebury Vocal Ensemble, the Dodecantus Ensemble and the Marlborough Choral Society. Recent performances include the Solo Soprano in Poulenc’s Gloria, Haydn’s Maria Theresa Mass and Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and Requiem. Fiona Fleet was born in Faversham, Kent where she grew up on a farm. She started to learn the piano at the age of ten before winning a place at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. She attended the Royal Academy of Music where she studied piano and majored in the flute with Gareth Morris while studying composition with John Gardner. After graduating she taught disabled students at the Lord Mayor Treloar’s School in Hampshire before heading up the Music departments at two secondary schools in London and then, for sixteen years, at St Joseph’s Catholic College, Swindon. She has played in the Finchley Chamber

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Orchestra, the Taizé Community Orchestra (France) and the Swindon Symphony Orchestra. Currently she is Musical Director of the Royal Wootton Bassett Choral Society and accompanist to the Lydiard Park Community Singers. She works freelance as a teacher, conductor and performer and in 2010 founded and became Musical Director of the Zaslavl Children’s Orchestra in Belarus; work which is closely related to her trusteeship of the Zaslowya Project. She has arranged, organised and taken part in many fund raising concerts. She is married to Andrew, a retired headteacher who currently works for an international charity. They have a son and two daughters and are members of the Methodist Church. Frank Harvey was born in Southampton in 1939. After studying the piano as a child he joined the Army as a musician. He trained as a clarinet pupil at the Royal Military School of Music, gaining valuable experience as a pianist in orchestral and chamber combinations and studying harmony and counterpoint with W. A. Bennett, a former organist of Rochester Cathedral. After leaving the Army he studied Music as a mature student at Southampton University under Professor Peter Evans, David Brown and Jonathan Harvey from whom he developed an interest in contemporary music and composition. Later studies for a Masters degree gave him an interest in music and philosophy. Influences on his style have included childhood memories of the Southampton blitz, absurd aspects of Army life and the perception of the world by autistic people as a bewildering, incomprehensible, and contradictory place. He has two autistic sons.

Zarah Hible grew up in Gloucestershire, read English Literature at Durham University, and undertook postgraduate vocal studies at Trinity College of Music where she received distinction for her Licentiate diploma, before completing her training at the APS Opera Studio in London. She is currently studying Bel Canto with Italian maestro Riccardo Serenelli. Opera performances include the trouser roles of Rinaldo (Handel’s Rinaldo) with director Harry Fehr and conductor Nicholas Kraemer, Hansel (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel) for Didsbury Arts Festival, Sesto (Mozart’s La Clamenza di Tito) for Giornata Opera, alongside the female roles of: Nancy (Britten’s Albert Herring) with conductor Stueart Bedford and director Bill Banks-Jones, both Dido (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas) and the première of Maria (Trevor Jones’ Maria Marten) for Pheonix Community Touring Opera, and covered the role of Hermia (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Co-Opera Co. Solo oratorio engagements have included Portsmouth Cathedral (Portsmouth Festival Chorus), St Martin-in-the-Fields (St Martin’s Voices), and Cirencester Parish Church (Cirencester Choral Society) and Worcester Cathedral. Solo concert work includes recitals with harpsichord at Handel House London, Handel arias with the European Baroque Consort in

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Athens, a solo opera gala for a wine awards ceremony in southern Spain, the première of Trevor Jones Border Songs (mezzo and string quartet) and opera galas for charities including Macmillan Cancer Support and The Prince’s Trust. Zarah is an active performer on the London church circuit and the professional singer’s scheme with the Philharmonia Chorus. She features on Blossom Street’s recent Naxos recording: Down by the Sea. Trevor Jones is a composer of choral, orchestral and chamber music as well as operas. He loves to compose for the voice, having written several choral works, three song cycles and three operas. He studied singing, percussion, organ and composition at Dartington with George Dineen, Helen Glatz, John Wellingham and Richard David Hames. Trevor writes texts on music in a spiritual context, writes his own libretti, poetry and conducts. He first composed music as a student when he wrote some experimental music for strings and other alternatively notated pieces. Composing pieces occasionally thereafter, he began composing seriously in 1988 when he wrote “Sinfonietta” and “Variations on Mr Isaac's Maggot” for strings. It was 2002 when he wrote a Requiem (unaccompanied) and some part-songs, and has continued ever since. Trevor has sung in cathedral choirs, chamber choirs, choral societies and also as a tenor soloist. His compositional style is conventional harmonically, facilitating melody as an important ingredient, and maintaining contrast with the dramatic and tender. At the heart of his music is the spiritual, binding everything together. Jolyon Laycock became SCA Chairman in May 2011. He was born in Bath in 1946 and studied for B.Mus and M.Phil in composition at the University of Nottingham. His composition teachers included Henri Pousseur and Cornelius Cardew. During the 1970s he pursued a freelance career as an experimental sound artist based at the Birmingham Arts Laboratory, and Spectro Arts Workshop, Newcastle. In 1979 he took up the post of Music and Dance Co-ordinator at the Arnolfini in Bristol, running a programme of contemporary music and dance regarded as one of the most innovative outside London. In 1990 he took up the post of Concert Director at the University of Bath and at the newly opened Michael Tippett Centre at Bath Spa University College where he founded the award-winning concert series “Rainbow over Bath”. He left the University of Bath in 2000 to concentrate on the completion of his book “A Changing Role for the Composer in Society”. In 2004 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Arts Management at Oxford Brookes University until 2010. In 2012 he won the EPSS Composers’ Competition with his setting of Philip Larkin’s poem The North Ship.

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Geoffrey Poole is best known as a composer and educator, but has a considerable career as pianist, particularly presenting new music. For many years he was piano music reviewer for The Musical Times. He sustained a 34-year University career, first at Manchester until 2001 then in Bristol, becoming Professor in 2004. Retirement in 2009 allowed him to reappear as piano soloist and conductor. In 2011 he introduced several of his recent “I Ching” pieces in the Poole/Skempton Elektrostatic showcase in Colston Hall 2. His CD of 20 pieces written as a tribute by former pupils, “Joyous Lake” was issued by Prima Facie in 2012. He premiered his Mountain Book in Bristol in the PianoPiano 1 concert. His Zygotic Variations for symphonic winds was premiered in Ontario in May 2013.

Andre Shlimon began playing the piano at the age of 2, and performing publicly from the age of 6. At school he excelled in pottery, arithmetic and French cricket, though his heart always lay in music, which on his 13th birthday he vowed to make his life’s work. However, following the terrible reception in recital of his debut composition ‘Variations on the theme from Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers’, at the age of 18 he turned his back on music and moved to England and into science. He studied at the University of Bristol for 4 years, emerging with a Masters in Physics and a reputation as a talented young poet with an unfortunate tendency towards pomposity and high-mindedness in his poetry, and for making a complete ass of himself in front of girls he liked. In 1999, following a course of post-traumatic stress counselling, he was able to return to music and began post-graduate studies in performance piano and composition at Trinity College of Music, with Hilary Coates and Alwynne Pritchard. After graduation he disap-peared for several years. Amongst the many rumours of his whereabouts, the most plausible included his travelling extensively in Asia Minor as an itinerant shoemaker, and fronting a rock ‘n’ roll band in Cleveland, Ohio. He eventually resurfaced in Bristol where he returned to contemporary classical music, and where he remains active as a performer and composer. He no longer makes shoes. Steven Kings was born in Worcester in 1962. He studied composition with Robin Holloway and Hugh Wood at Cambridge University, and with George Nicholson and Alfred Nieman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His com-positions include “Snapshots” which won the Young Composers' Competition at the 1985 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. In 2002, red land spring was a prize winner in the Tong Piano Duet Competition, and was performed in Tokyo and London. His Haiku Mass, written for and performed by Bristol Choral Society, was shortlisted for a British Composer Award in 2003. His setting of the canticles in Greek, “Songs of Mary and Simeon”, was commissioned by the Worcester Cathedral Chamber Choir for the 2005 Three Choirs Festival. His

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String Quartet (2011) received two performances last year, given at Arnolfini by the Bristol Ensemble Quartet. His recently completed choral work, “Care-Charming Spells”, commissioned by Thornbury Choral Society for their 50th Anniversary was performed in May. SCA was formed in 2002 by a group of composers based in the Bristol and Bath area to promote performances of their own music and to stimulate a wider interest in the composition and performance of new music in the region. www.severnsidecomposersalliance.co.uk SCA Forthcoming events:

String Theory

Contemporary music for large string orchestra

conducted by Jolyon Laycock and Geoffrey Poole In association with the Bristol Ensemble and St. Mary Redcliffe & Temple School Saturday 5 April 2014 Cresswell Theatre, College Square, Bristol BS1 5TS Programme to include: Penderecki – Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima for 52 solo strings. (1960) John Cage – Atlas Eclipticalis – version string orchestra Plus works for string orchestra by Julian Dale, Frank Harvey, Jolyon Laycock, Julian Leeks, John Pitts and David Simmonds Voice and Instruments Sarah Leonard, soprano and Stephen Gutman piano with members of the Bristol Ensemble 22 May 2014 The Lantern, Colston Hall Programme to include: Trevor Jones - Easter Songs for soprano and piano: The Call (George Herbert); Grace for a Child (Robert Herrick); De Profundis (Thomas Campion); Song of Songs (Wilfred Owen) Sulyen Caradon - Elsewhere 3 poems by members of the Robert Graves circle for soprano, flute, bass clarinet and viola: The World of Nowhere (Alan Hodge); A Visit to the Dead (Norman Cameron), The Suicide in the Copse (Robert Graves) Jolyon Laycock – Dark Seas 6 poems of Philip Larkin for soprano, clarinet and piano Julian Leeks - The Remains of Our Lives for soprano, clarinet and piano (2009) John Cage – Aria George Crumb - Eleven Echoes of Autumn (Echoes I) (1965) for violin, alto flute, clarinet, and piano

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Clarinet in Close-up

CoMA/SCA collaboration featuring clarinettist Mary Barrett and the CoMA Bristol Ensemble 4 June 2014 The Lantern, Colston Hall Piano Triets – 3 is the Magic Number

Contemporary music for three pianists at one piano. 21 June 2014 The Lantern, Colston Hall

Supported by the Hinrichsen Foundation. We acknowledge the support of the Paragon Concert Society who administer funds left to them by the late Leo Baker.