Remains of Elmet, my theatre collaboration with performer Victoria Bernath, will be premiered at the York Spring Festival of New Music on Wednesday 8th May 2013. The half-hour long work was commissioned by Terry Holmes, for the inaugural Terry Holmes Composer/Performer Award 2012/13.
Subtitled ‘A Pennine Sequence’, Remains of Elmet (1979) is a collection of poems by Ted Hughes based on photographs by Fay Godwin of the West Yorkshire of Hughes’s upbringing, which together address themes of decay and regeneration: social, physical, and psychological. Setting five poems from the collection, this new work will give a theatrical twist to the traditional concerto form. A resonance chamber of wordless voices and a staged block of instrumentalists will challenge the dual nature of the mercurial soloist: a viola-vocalist who traces a fragile path through the work’s cyclical development.
The upturned face of this land
The mad singing in the hills
The prophetic mouth of the rain
The work is a concerto for a singing viola player, 24 instruments (subdivided into a solo string quartet and four groups), and 2 SATB choirs. The performers for the premiere are the University of York Chamber Orchestra and The 24 choir. The work is unconducted, although there is a small role for Conductor, which will be played by Jonathan Brigg. There are several theatrical elements; suffice to say, the work is a piece of total ‘music-theatre’ in that it will be something to be seen as well as heard.
The light, opening younger, fresher wings
Holds this land up again like an offering
Heavy with the dream of a people.
The performance takes place in the second half of the opening concert of the 2013 York Spring Festival of New Music, in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York. The first half of the concert features the University of York Chamber Orchestra, conducted by John Stringer, in Stravinsky’s Movements for Piano and Orchestra, with soloist Joseph Houston, and Concerto in E flat “Dumbarton Oaks”, along with Webern’s 5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10.
Victoria and I are grateful to Faber and Faber Ltd and The Ted Hughes Estate for giving their permission to use the text for this work.