MUSIC (UNPUBLISHED)

 

I am a self-taught composer. Among my early attempts are two student pieces (symphonies, even) that were sketchily performed by a scratch university orchestra and are best forgotten and a scarcely-started opera about the trial of Thomas Becket in Northampton Castle. Of the Becket opera, which was to be called ‘Labyrinth’, about a quarter was composed in piano score, and two scenes were orchestrated. I realised from the slow rate of composition that I would be fifty before I finished it; that was when I decided to stop work on it. None of it was performed. I switched to writing short informally commissioned pieces, including carols and a piece for clarinet and piano. Fortunately none of this apprentice music has been published.

 

I am very grateful to the conductors who were ready to give my early music an airing: Robert Bunting, Peter Macdonald, Graham Mayo and Freda Denyer. I also realise how lucky I was to have my 1967 setting of the Sussex Carol performed by a small college choir that featured the very young Emma Kirkby singing the soprano part. That was a sound I shan’t forget.

 

Recent pieces include;

 

The Virgin’s Lullaby  Carol for two-part female choir, broadcast on 25 December 1990 by Radio Sussex.  

 

Fanfare for Prince Charles  Arranged for trumpets, woodwind and snare drum, and performed in the presence of the Prince of Wales on 8 March, 1994. The Prince was heard to ask afterwards, ‘WHO wrote that?’ Subsequently extended and arranged for organ.

 

The Songs of Mary Magdalene  An Easter song cycle for two female voices and chamber orchestra, first version 1972, revised version 1997.

 

Cuckmere Suite  Suite for string orchestra, performed in the Chapel Royal, Brighton on 10 May 1999.

 

String Sextet  Four movements scored for two violins, two violas, cello and double bass.

 

Winfrith  Music drama scored for soloists, choir and chamber orchestra, performed in Brixworth Church, November 8—11, 2000, as part of the Millennium celebrations in Northamptonshire. Subsequently revised as a chamber opera.

 

 

 

 

 

 Poster by Chris Fiddes

 

 

The text was by John Urmson and Rodney Castleden, the music by Rodney Castleden. The director was Graham Padden, the musical director Graham Tear and the set designer Jack Tripp.

 

  Graham Padden      Graham Tear

 

  Jack Tripp

 

The cast included Martin Coles as Winfrith, Sue Roan as Leoba, Bryan Hall as The Dark Man, Brian Berrill as Pope Gregory & Eormenric, and Alec Hodgson as Lull.

 

 

    Martin Coles        Bryan Hall

 

The following programme notes, which I wrote for the Brixworth production, reveal quite a lot about the piece.

 

Winfrith - the Words

‘To present the events of Winfrith’s life in an evening’s music-drama has been a daunting undertaking. Winfrith lived a long and crowded life - he was about 80 years old when he died - and it would not have been sensible to try to tell the whole story; instead we have attempted to capture the essence of it. We highlight a few key events and explore Winfrith’s relationships with his cousin, follower and correspondent, the nun and later abbess Leoba, and his Bavarian follower Sturm.

 

Winfrith had dealings with so many people that we had to streamline the cast list and make the few represent the many. In this drama Winfrith negotiates with one pope; in fact his missionary work in Germany was conducted under five successive popes. In mid-life, he was awarded the title Boniface, but we felt it would be confusing to change his name between Acts One and Two; international celebrity though he was, the saint himself often experienced the awkwardness of explaining who he was in his letters: ‘Boniface, also known as Winfrith’.

 

We have made as much use as possible of original sources in order to catch the authentic voices of the eighth century. We were surprised how many letters to, from and about Winfrith have survived, and we drew freely from them. The very moving words sung by Leoba in Act 1, Most reverend Winfrith, are the exact words that she wrote in one of her letters to Winfrith.  Leoba is known to have written poetry, but little by her remains and The Song of Life and Death that we have given her to sing is in reality a translation of an anonymous medieval German poem. The hymn ‘Praise we now heaven’s keeper’ is closely based on the contemporary Song of Caedmon. ‘I shall rejoice in the heavenly city’ is a paraphrase of Exsultabo, the Gregorian chant composed in Winfrith’s memory.

 

To be sure of conveying both faith and affection in an authentically early medieval style, we have often given characters quotations from contemporary documents to speak or sing. For example, we give Leoba a particularly touching sentence drawn from a contemporary letter written, not by Leoba this time, but by Lull’s cousin Berthgyth to her brother: ‘We are bound for all time in true affection, and the love of you shall never leave my soul.’

 

Part of the Dark Man’s speech in Act 2 Scene 6, beginning ‘I am the rest that no man should dread’, has been lifted from the medieval mystery play Everyman. Winfrith may be seen as a modern mystery play, a millennial reflection on Everyman.

 

Winfrith himself was fond of composing puzzles and riddles: the two riddles we have given him to sing, ‘When it is earth I tread’ and ‘A curious wonderful creature’, were not written by Winfrith but they are genuine Anglo-Saxon examples. The riddles show the magical and visionary side of Anglo-Saxon culture, the willingness to be mystified and transported to a poetic and mysterious otherworld in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.

 

Winfrith - the Music

How to write music to suit an Anglo-Saxon story and a modern audience? - a difficult question. I decided not to attempt to write music in a fake early medieval style, but to use a style of my own, developed in part from within, from my own earlier music, in part from the demands of the libretto.

 

The score builds itself on a scaffolding of simple themes. When situations recur, themes also reappear, circling round one another like shoals of fish, creating a fleeting impression of unity before flitting away to regroup elsewhere.

 

I have drawn on some real medieval music, such as the plainsong dedicated to Winfrith and probably written shortly after his martyrdom. The real Leoba will have heard this beautiful music. I quote it at various points, sometimes using the Latin words, sometimes an English paraphrase, ”I shall rejoice in the heavenly city, and I shall rejoice in my people; and there shall be no more weeping, no more crying.”

 

A few early dances also survive. The two dances in Act 1 are variations on  authentic medieval dance tunes dating from 1300. A handful of older pieces shows that secular music changed but slowly; a tenth century piece bears a striking resemblance to the original of the First Dance. These, then, are likely to be close to the sounds heard by Winfrith and Leoba just two centuries earlier.

 

 

Listening to a great deal of medieval music – a long-standing interest of mine - had its effect on the style of the music I composed for ‘Winfrith’. Shortness of phrase, economy of idea, and repetition with small but significant variations can create a hypnotic effect, working like a mantra; I recognize that these features have found their way into my score. Tentatively placing a twentieth century stethoscope on the heart of the eighth century, I arrived at a style that in a strange way is both new and familiar, bridging the thirteen centuries between then and now.

 

I am very aware of more recent influences too - Tippett, Britten, Wagner and Mozart. I owe the greatest debt to Tippett, not just as a composer, the great Liberator of twentieth century music that he was, but as a friend who encouraged me to be more adventurous, to take more risks. The score is dedicated to Michael Tippett’s memory.

 

Music has to be accessible, and to that end I deliberately use harmonic and melodic procedures familiar from nineteenth and twentieth century music. I compose in the middle ground - just as here I am writing for you in standard English - and I make no attempt to break the existing boundaries of the language of music. In every scene, my music exists to generate atmosphere, accentuate emotion, heighten drama, and explore the psychology interior to the action. I hope it achieves all this with the directness and immediacy of music you have known and loved for years. There may be more beneath the surface that you would detect on subsequent hearings, but above all I want this new music to be intelligible, enjoyable and uplifting at a single hearing.’ 

 

In 2014 The Winfrith Letters were published. This book, available online at Lulu.com, contains all the correspondence that passed between me and my co-writer John Urmson, and it gives a good idea of what the difficult process of creating a music drama is like.

 

 

 

Reviews of Winfrith:

    ‘Dark tale proves millennium highlight’

‘A dark and dramatic period of Christian history was played out in the dark and dramatic setting of Brixworth’s All Saints Church. The production of ‘Winfrith’ would not have disappointed anyone who expected a polished performance. To stage a musical version of the tale of Winfrith, a seventh century converter of German pagans, was an ambitious task well accomplished. Director Graham Padden should be proud.

 

Aided a by a setting strongly associated with Winfrith’s legend, the play charted a struggle between the saint, a force for change, and the mysterious Dark Man, who would deny him. Martin Coles as Winfrith demonstrated his character’s determination, vulnerability and a contradictory self-doubt. The awkwardness between him and Sue Roan’s Leoba as they struggled to reconcile their faith and attraction was a highlight. Bryan Hall’s Dark Man was sprightly, menacing, devious and charming.

 

John Urmson, Rodney Castleden and Graham Tear produced a script and music that drove the performance along with pace. Praise should go to Jack Tripp for the ingenious tree/church conversion. Winfrith lived up to its billing as a showpiece for Brixworth’s Millennium celebrations.’  DM, Harborough Mail.

 

‘That’s more like it. . .’

‘Talk of a project getting Millennium Commission funding and you can’t help thinking of the confusion down south with the Dome. But of course that does a great disservice to the many other activities that have been generated by the fact of the year 2000 and the prospect of Commission support. Spiritually there could have been no better way to forget about the Greenwich example than at Brixworth’s wonderful All Saints Church for the world premiere of the music drama Winfrith.

 

From an initial conversation between a couple of people with an interest in St Boniface [Rodney and John] grew an original piece of work which embraced the Brixworth community. Key soloists were brought in to lead the performance but it was definitely a work for the people by the people and never lost that spirit. Whether it was car parking, stewarding or being on stage there was just incredible passion for what was being achieved. An astonishing amount of effort has been put in beyond whatever the Commission grant allowed.

 

 

John Urmson and Rodney Castleden have come up with a gem, some splendid original music capturing the spirit of the time - brilliantly played by a fine group of musicians - and a fine retelling of the essence of the remarkable life of St Boniface, or Winfrith, in words and song. To this you can add a brilliant dance interlude, namely The Ballad of Sturm, which introduced some of the younger members of the community and the whole thing unfurled in the simple backdrop of the church with just a few key set features, all of which were of remarkable quality.

 

It’s very easy to commit a string of superlatives together on a page but the real test is the lasting impression - and having gone with an open mind but knowing nothing about Winfrith, a whole new area of history has been opened up. And when you consider what’s been spent on that tent by the Thames [the Millennium Dome], that makes the £15,000 they gave to Brixworth money well spent.’ Richard Howarth, Northampton Herald & Post.