Ecological Alarm
Texts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Sonnet 43 by Shakespeare adapted by Cathy Milliken Song text and musical material to Wall Song in part by the choirs, shaped by Cathy Milliken
Regard our small earth. Regard our waste, regard our exploitation. Regard our blue earth turning brown with dust, regard our oceans smothered with plastic, The wild-fires, the storms and changes in our seasons. Regard nature and find her beautiful; set her free. Monitor the nests of birds, check the harvest, breathe nature’s sweet air. Set her free. Nature Aria
Introduction Prologue So just to say, make yourselves at home, We come of good will and not to offend You won’t have to laugh or do anything strange, Nor will we use force to decide how to end. No need to fear swords! There’ll be music and song, No need to fear lions! Let’s have the tongs and the bones. Fairy Rondel Brrr. Brrrrrr. Philomel, with melody, Lulla, Lulla, Lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby.
These are forgeries of jealousy… With thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport. Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain, As in revenge have sucked up from the sea Contagious fogs Garbage, much refuse, and diseases. Listen! Much garbage, refuse, seething plastic, plastic! The moon, Pale in her anger, washes the air… That diseases have spread. When a cruel long winter has frozen the earth, And nature imprison’d seeks in vain to be free.
Walls Regarding walls: do they protect? Think of any tall wall, any stone wall, any ugly loamy rough cast wall; Any signature wall – Dividing neighbours,
east and west, land and sea, north and south. Keeping us inside, impenetrable. Now think of a wall with a chink to blink through. A miracle! Walk through! Look at the stars, look at the moon. Wall Song Stone, stone on stone. Stone in stone, set in stone. CITY LIT INCLUSIVE CHOIR Stopped, stranded I am. lost, blocked and trapped… stuck…not good! hard stone, cant climb over, cant move … not good! a million bricks in my way, shivering, I am. standing before walls. I want to go out! I want to see further! I want to join friends! Let me out, let me out. feels like home, all things woolly and soft looks like home all things cheery, in place Tucked in I am. embraced warm embraced safe. Freedom is green. SING TOWER HAMLETS Our fortress, closed doors, strong haven, our home, Protected, blanketed, surrounded with warmth. Gathered together, at ease, guard down, We can dream, safe and sound”.
Trapped in this prison, Hiding from fear, Alone and enclosed, Let us out! Let us out! We want to be free to breathe peaceful air Why can’t we move forward; no entry they say We’ve felt loneliness, heartache, fear and despair Let’s stand and push, a million bricks in our way O thou, oh wall, O sweet O lovely wall, Show me thy chink to blink through with mine eye. And through wall’s chink may I my love seek… Lit by the moon and by the stars.
Past the wit of a man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was – there is no man can tell what. Methought I was – and methought I had – but Man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, Man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, Not his heart to report what my dream was.
Love and Absence
Imagination
Oh Vile Wall
Regarding imagination. Regard imagination as a thing, as a creature untamed. See how it splurts, stutters, stumbles, refuses to move, hobbles, hiccups, Then forms, flies. Watch it expand, dive, swoop, hurtle as it bodies forth. What is your favourite place, – describe it! Write it!
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see, For all the day they view things unrespected; But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee, And, darkly bright, are bright in dark directed. Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright, (…) How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made By looking on thee in the living day, (…) And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
Oh wicked wall, through who, I see no bliss, Curst be thy stones for thus deceiving me O wicked wall, such a strict judge! No chink, no word to convey loves wings. Alas! Alas!
Visions Regarding visions: Without which we do not smile or desire? Regarding visions: We do dream. We do wish. We do desire and let the mind wander and play-act into the unknown. We may not know the vision we have created; We may not follow the visions of the poet’s pen. But dreams must play on, they must! Michael’s Vision I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream,
Imagination (Insertion of texts by the Audience) And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing. A local habitation and a name. Imagination, imagination bodies forth.
Regarding absence: The hot knife’s thrust of the nights darkness. The blinding haze of the bright day’s indifference. Regarding love: To be, to act, to love or not. Impossible love? Who can tell? All days are nights to see till I see thee, And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me. Nights bright, bright days (from Sonnet 43)
Epilogue If we shadows have offended, Think but this and all is mended; That you have but slumbered here While these visions did appear… So good night unto you all, Sweet friends to bed until we call, Give us your hands if we be friends; And we all shall restore amends.
WHAT’S IN THE BAG? BIOGRAPHIES London Sinfonietta London Sinfonietta is one of the world’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Formed in 1968, we have commissioned over 450 works and premiered hundreds more. Our ethos is to experiment constantly, challenging perceptions, stretching our audiences’ imaginations, and often working with them as creators of our events. We hold a leading position in education work. We believe that arts participation is transformational and relevant to all, and we enact these values through our schools’ programme Sound Out, the free, online composition programme, Composition Challenges, and unparalleled training opportunities for young performers and conductors. We have broken new ground by launching a new digital Channel, featuring videos and podcasts about new music, in addition to a significant back-catalogue of recordings dating back over 50 years. Michael Cox* flute Melinda Maxwell oboe Emma Burgess clarinet Lois Au bassoon Timothy Ellis horn Ryan Linham trumpet Byron Fulcher* trombone Jonathan Morton* violin Hilaryjane Parker violin Paul Silverthorne* viola Tim Gill* cello Markus van Horn double bass Joe Richards percussion Clíodna Shanahan piano Huw Davies electric guitar *London Sinfonietta Principal Player
BIOGRAPHIES Cathy Milliken composer Born in Brisbane and based in Berlin, Milliken is a versatile performer and member of Ensemble Extrakte Berlin. Milliken is known for her improvisations using oboe and voice. Her commissioners include Southbank Centre, Staatsoper Berlin, Donaueschinger Musiktage and Musica Viva. International participatory compositions include Umculo Festival, Future Labo, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and Munich Biennale. Recipient of the Prix Italia and the APRA AMCOS/AMC Art Music Award, Milliken was also Associate Composer of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra from 2018-20. Helena Rasker soloist Dutch contralto Helena Rasker’s career encompasses the operatic stage, the concert platform and the recital hall across a vast and expanding repertoire. She has enjoyed working with many notable conductors including Sir Antonio Pappano; Sir George Benjamin, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jaap van Zweden; Laurence Cummings, Marc Albrecht and Yannick Nézet-Seguin. Michael Schiefel soloist Inspired by a desire to join the emerging post-Wall jazz scene, Michael Schiefel moved to Berlin in the early 1990s to study at the city’s renowned University of the Arts. Since then, he has dazzled his fans at home and abroad with an array of solo and band projects that have yielded a dozen albums over the past decade. Jonathan Stockhammer conductor In just a few years, Stockhammer has made a name for himself in the worlds of opera, symphonic repertoire, and contemporary music. As a superb communicator, he has a great talent not only for presenting concerts but also for working on an equal footing with a variety of performers – whether they are young musicians and rappers or stars such as Imogen Heap or the Pet Shop Boys.
Cathy Milliken