We had the first of our Rush Hour concerts – specially designed to showcase young composers and emerging musicans – last Wednesday. And what success that was!
A super enthusiastic audience made up of a number of Salon Music regulars plus a lot of the performers’ supporters were blown away by Zadie Loft‘s Roma Indicta, set to music by Jonty Lefroy Watts, sung by Mia Serracino-Inglott and accompanied by Declan Hickey on the guitar. And here they are, Zadie, Mia, Declan and Jonty, looking justifiably pleased with their night’s work.
Inspired by a year spent in Rome Zadie’s cycle of poems tracks the city’s ancient buildings and their inhabitants, pagan, Christian, biblical, modern. Jonty’s settings are by turns haunting and lyrical – the guitar part spare, yet every bell like note counting. And certainly both Mia and Declan did the piece – which is both challenging and moving – very proud.
Here are stanzas 3 & 4 – see below for the text and background.
3. Arch
For centuries, the Forum was the centre of day to day life in Rome, and perhaps the most celebrated meeting place in all history. Now it lies in ruin. Today the grandeur of the forum is evident only in several teetering columns, stacks of bricks and crumbling arches; and, carved into the rubble, people telling stories of a fallen empire.
tiny discs
arch across her acrobatic
back for his to pass his feet
are blister ing blocks
of blood and rub.
reddened by wear
she claws her tears
for publi c eyes.I
watch an d do the
same in night’s
faint scr eeching
4. ‘Tarpeia has her say’
The Vestal Virgins were a priesthood devoted to Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. After swearing to a life of faithful service and chastity, Vestal Virgins entered an institution that wielded much power over Roman public life and that was widely held in awe. Tarpeia was a Vestal Virgin whose story was immortalised in a frieze in the Roman forum. When Rome was besieged by the Sabines, Tarpeia hoped to exchange entry to the city for gold. Instead the Sabines crushed her with their shields and threw her from a steep cliff now known as the Tarpieian rock.
“Before a stage of twinkling spears”
“I linked my arms with Warning”
“to skip across the woody stone”
“and find the Sabines’ form.”
“A gusty breath displaced my side.”
“I searched through rocks and leaves”
“of fleeting partners on their way”
“to play the role of thieves.”
“A naked man with growing ears”
“was stumbling through the woods.”
“His ears took off in guilty sprints,”
“his bark was stained with blood.”
“His teeth removed, he built an arm”
“to pierce right through my own.”
“Its name, Betrayal; its leaden feet”
“were kicking my hollow bones.”
“Now plugholes of discarded clothes,”
“Betrayal and I emerged.”
“We laughed at showers of gold until”
“wasteful and engorged.”
“Like striking sand, my feet are held”
“in tablets carved by knives.”
“They killed me with their hands in groins,”
“now moist with splattered life.”
Roma Indicta was partnered by songs by Benjamin Britten – his setting of a series of folk songs – three songs by Gabriel Fauré and a rarely performed piece by Priaulx Rainier. Rainier was a South African composer who had considerable success after the war but whose works have now been largely forgotten. She died in 1986. She was however one of the first to write for guitar and voice, a pairing which would soon attract Britten, Berkeley and Tippett.
A really interesting evening – and we look forward to our next Rush Hour concert on November 7th featuring the work of William Jack – jazz cellist and guitarist – to launch his new CD. Book up now…
And, have you booked yet for the Portrait Players on September 24th? If not, go here…
Or for the Lior Solomons Wise jazz trio at the next Highgate Society Sunday lunchtime concert on September 29th? If not, go here…
Never underestimate a new generation of creative people. Remember Britten and Fauré were young once! I was reminded of that at the Rush Hour concert, both in the skilful guitar playing of Declan Hickey and the glorious voice of mezzo soprano Mia Serracino-Inglott – her low notes were magical – I even thought of contralto Kathleen Ferrier at times. And what a way to celebrate a young poet’s work, Zadie Loft’s poem set to music sympathetically by Jonty Lefroy Watt – I can see this being performed for years to come. Mary’s Portrait was especially moving, could even stand alone. As Zadie was in the audience that evening, it would have been nice to hear her read the first poem, Rome Upturned, as it was spoken, not sung to the guitar accompaniment. All in all ,a real triumph!