A Cry was Heard BY EMILY WHITE
Across the week that everything stopped in March 2020, I was meant to be performing in three countries; I was heading for my busiest year yet. Like everyone I have had a lot of time since then to reflect and think about the life of a musician during the pandemic. As well as concern for everyone at risk from the illness, as a musician two things about the situation struck me; firstly, that all that travel was inconsistent with my environmental concerns, and secondly that playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow on my doorstep was the first time my neighbours had ever heard me play. I have lived in Dursley near North Nibley since 2004 and yet fly to other countries to share my music instead of doing so in my own community. This is partly because it feels like a compliment to be invited to perform far away and hard to resist the temptation, despite the exhaustion. But I would like to re-think that idea, and maybe it is possible to value local music-making and local musicians in the same way that we now value locallysourced food and crafts. (The prospective difficulties looming with Brexit red tape are of course making it harder to travel anyway.)
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Facing the prospect of a very empty diary I thought to make a start by putting on a concert in my own area. It was also a chance to offer work to my colleagues who I have missed playing with so acutely during these many months. At the time of writing, the concert will be called A Cry was Heard, to be performed on 1 August 2021 at St. Martin’s Church, North Nibley, Gloucestershire. It will feature Auf dem Gebirge (From the Mountains a cry was heard) by Schutz, with the countertenor Guy James who grew up in my hometown of Dursley coming home to sing for us. Martyn Sanderson and Dave Todd will join me on sackbuts in that piece and Martyn will also fly around on the sackbut in a Castello Sonata for trombone and violin. I choose to perform improvised divisions and Bassano-composed ornamentation on Palestrina’s Io son Ferito, continuing the exploration of improvised ornamentation that I had begun during lockdown, examples of which can be found on my YOUTUBE channel. Once we have paid the musicians all profits will go to the HELP MUSICIANS fund, which offers support to us all when we need it.
