OCTOBER 7, 2020 — SONGS WITHOUT WORDS | PAUSE ANIMATIONS
Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London, England)
Piano performance by Bretton Brown (Guildhall Vocal Studies tutor)
Animation by Lucy Harper
This project is about the desire to connect during a crisis when we are asked to be alone. The 25-minute animated sound work was composed at the start of the 2020 lockdown, and aims to encourage listeners to take a pause with meditative sounds and visuals, and include sound recordings made during the first months of the lockdown period.
The piece is built from a chain of classical songs — each begun by a pianist as expected, each breaking off the moment the singer should come in. The pauses that follow have been recorded by friends and family in 17 international cities, including Amsterdam, Hobart, Madrid, New York, Paris, and Sarajevo. These pauses symbolise the physical absence of others from our lives during lockdown, the unanswered questions of the piano like the one-sided conversations we imagine having with those unreachably far away.
Music was used from the following composers:
- Claude Debussy, Soupir (Sigh) from 3 poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé
- Hugo Wolf, Seufzer (Sigh) and Gebet (Prayer) from Mörike Lieder
- Franz Schubert, Ave Maria
- Joaquín Turina, Por mayo era, por mayo (May, it was in May)
- Ottorino Respighi, Egle (Aegle) from Deità silvane
- Émile Paladihe, Psyché
- Clara Schumann, Geheimes Flüstern (Secret Whisperings), Op. 23/3
- Hector Berlioz, Le spectre de la rose (The Spectre of the Rose) from Les nuits d’été
- Giacomo Puccini, Storiella d’amore (Love Story)
- Johannes Brahms, Sind es Schmerzen, sind es Freuden (Are they sorrows, are they joys?) from Die schöne Magalone
- Franz Liszt, Pace non trovo (I find no peace)
- Shen Yiwen, I had no time to hate from Three Emily Dickinson Songs
- Richard Strauss, Ruhe, meine Seele (Be still, my soul) Op. 27/1
- Gustav Mahler, Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world) from Rückert Lieder
- Joaquín Turina, Nunca olvida (Never forget) from Poema en forma de canciones
- Bernard Foccroulle, Your sweet smell of jasmine from Zauberland
- Joaquín Turina, El Pescador (The Fisherman), Op. 26/2
- Franz Schubert, Der Leiermann (The Hurdy-gurdy Man) from Winterreise
- Gabriel Fauré, L’hiver a cessé (Winter is over) from La bonne chanson
- Juliana Hall, The cricket sang from Night Dances
Excerpt from “The cricket sang,” from Night Dances by Juliana Hall. Music © Copyright 1987 Juliana Hall Music, and transferred 2017 to E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Inc. www.ecspublishing.com. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
- Franz Schubert, Nachtstück (Night Song), D672
- Claude Debussy, Recueillement (Meditation) from 5 poèmes de Baudelaire
- Richard Strauss, Morgen! (Tomorrow!), Op. 27/4
Pause Animations for Wellbeing – Our City Together / City of London
Pause Animations – ThriveLDN / World Mental Health Day Festival