THE BLUE HOUR AT ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE
American poet Carolyn Forché
Seldom does anyone get to enjoy a brilliantly original co-composition performed by such a progressive prodigious - youthful - set of musicians . A European premiere of a song cycle written by five top notch composers,Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider mostly from the New World, this was an exciting musical event.
It is great to hear a lovely Elgar symphony or a Mozart Mass or even a Bach sequence. Yet despite their glorious creativity these are all interpretations of long loved and revered music. On Earth was new.The music veered from one musical era to another so we heard echoes of Baroque Kyrie Eleison and slivers of jazz among notes of distinct Indie origin.
The always dull Victorian venue has surely never heard anything like it. No wonder there was a super-sombre warning of an improbable outbreak of fire. Men in his vis jackets might descend we were sternly told. But why not? Almost every other extraordinary thing did happen.
String instrumentalists from all over Cambridge University came together for a remarkable event.
And the work?’s inspiration poems by the sensationally successful American poet, Carolyn Forché.; On Earth.
Alphabetically,
Yes - as unlikey as this, in this song sequence, a dying soul makes her way towards her final moments, letter by letter. All she considers and leaves behind. L Leafcutter ants ,Library, Linen Lilac Litany, W wrapped in the world, X not equal to anything, Y, all about an unknown You ,Z for nothing , the end.
E for Enigmatic, it was.
The string players were consummate but surely it was the glorious mezzo soprano voice of Hannah Dienes-Williams that made it. How could she swoop and soar, laugh and even choke over a whole 26 chapter of emotion? The high point was surely when she opened up , around R and filled the vast vacuous chapel with her amazing effortlessly divine voice.
So although we were witnessing the death of a human being, her voice and the great poetry behind it ,this extraordinary original event propelled us to another , sublime, place.
