Celebrate Rural Community Life! You Can Quote Us On That.
Charles Paxton March 3rd, 2008
Christopher Gibbs demonstrating a music workshop at QUOTE Music Festival
The Cumberland and Westmorland On The Edge (CWOTE or QUOTE) Music festival at Queen Katherine’s School on Saturday night (Feb. 24) was very well-conceived, organized, performed and attended celebration of rural community life. In all it was a five star multi-media event with a refreshing variety of performance: instrumental, singing, acting, video and even some live opinion poll social research to continue the never-ending story of rural community life. These elements came at us thick and fast in an efficient, aesthetically pleasant and intellectually stimulating rapid fire sequence of programming with no time-wasting in between. Martin Buck, technical specialist for MusicLinks skillfully set-up and manned the light and sound. Courtesy refreshments in the interval served to fortify the audience. One element followed another, eased along with cohesive instrumental segues. We learned from David Ashworth’s introductory speech that this show was part of a broader program of community-based self exploration, spanning 18 months, in which local people from representative rural communities recorded oral histories, filmed news articles and participated in multimedia workshops “to shed light on - and to celebrate - the lives and stories of people living locally in rural areas”, according to Andy Halsey, Director of MusicLinks - the contemporary music strand of the Kendal based charity- The Westmorland Music Council. In the course of this community-based research “we have also attempted to shed some light on local history, contemporary issues, and attitudes with a view to creating a musical/multimedia/dramatic overview of daily life in the villages.” Amongst the representative villages that participated were Arnside Witherslack, Selside and Pennybridge. There was also an awesome orchestral performance of The Bobbin Mill suite in three movements by members of Queen Katherine’s School Music Group, an insight into a music workshop experience and excellent orchestrated, semi-improvised arrangements of two folk songs by The Westmorland Youth Orchestra. More about all these in the following account. The hall was packed for the 7 p.m. kick-off, and that is always a gladdening sight. The large crowd were welcomed by a fine five-minute piano improvisation by the very gifted Christopher Gibbs, Lakeland composer who teaches piano and composition at Grange-over-sands and at Cartmel Music Centre. Then followed a projected sequence of old photographs with voice-overs transporting us mentally back to “the good old days” of yesteryear. I felt an unexpected pricking of fear and regret at my sense of the fragility of local cultural and historical knowledge as the show unfolded, if it weren’t for these local voices delivering local history to us now, how else would it be passed on? How many voices are now forever silenced and how much local knowledge has already been lost in so many rural communities? On this subject, the forthcoming Easter holidays may be a great time to talk with your folks about their old photos, an archivist at The Bowes Museum recently urged us to use a very soft pencil (6B) to write on the back of the pics, so if they get separated from the albums, names, dates and circumstances can be preserved. Seeing an old photo removed from its context is a bit like hearing a song in a foreign language, it’s stripped of much of its meaning. The child members of Arnside Bright Sparks, (aged 6-11) treated us to a six-minute projected film in which we saw old pictures with explanations from the children and a song and dance titled ‘Stormy night’ that dealt with issues important to them such as flooding and the legend about a dragon in a castle and walks upon Arnside ‘Knott’. The dance was very ably choreographed by Pippa Coleman.
Selside school members celebrating village life!
Then a short and sweet piano overture from Chris Gibbs introduced Selside School’s superb dramatization titled The Painter of Magical Pictures. We greatly enjoyed the concept of changes in village life being viewed through the eyes of a soaring buzzard (a great idea for an overview of village life!) and a painter from the past who wakens in the present to paint three scenes from the past and three from the present, these enacted with enthusiasm and vigor by the children, accompanied by a song that they wrote for the project. It was very spirited and entertaining stuff!
Eyes shining with the pleasure of public performance, a Selside student gives us a buzzard’s eye view of village life!
Queen Katherine’s School orchestra performing The Bobbin Mill
If you have ever doubted the power of music to transport you, then you need to hear The Bobbin Mill as performed by Queen Katherine’s School orchestra. They played magnificently! In this dramatic, evocative and largely improvised suite (the second movement was inspired by a Cumbrian folk-song) we were whisked from our 21st Century circumstances back to the 19th Century to the old bobbin mill at Backbarrow, centre of working life for many people in times past. In three movements that convey distinct phases of the workers’ day, we are transported through space-time, first at misty dawn we are newly woken, groggy, with the other mill workers and greeted by the stirrings of the new day, then to a steady beat we trudge resigned, on foot, to a dull but necessary work greeted by a bell that inaugurates the work-day drudgery. Then the mood changes again to one of lively and purposeful activity as the third movement depicts the energetic, rhythmical, mechanical workings of the mill itself and its workers. In this delightfully animated section I envisioned slightly quirky engines (a la Heath-Robinson), I loved it.
After generous refreshments we were returned to village issues, this time as represented by the Witherslack youth group Monkey Business in a preview of a film that will act as centre-piece for a full-blown performance in partnership with Dean Barwick Primary School to take place on March 14th, at Witherslack Village Hall. Here the importance of the village shop and post office as community heart was very poignantly emphasized.
Where schools are concerned, does bigger mean better? Red cards answer in the negative.
To follow this, the audience were then led through an interesting live opinion poll by David Ashworth of Music Links. First the audience practiced displaying either a red or green card in response to several mathematical challenges. Green means ‘yes’ and red means ‘no’. Fortunately, as my hands were full of camera, I could hide my unfamiliarity with long division mental arithmetic. Then a series of questions on topics significant to rural community life were posed simultaneously, upon the projector and orally by David. It was very interesting to see the audience responding with enthusiasm and it was a valuable opportunity for local people, particularly children who aren’t used to being asked for an opinion on such matters, to express opinions on topics ranging from the need for a village Post Office/shop and pot hole repair to the re-legalization of fox hunting. From my viewpoint beside the grand piano, the majority vote seemed to indicate a healthy preference for pot-hole repair on minor roads and for the retention of village Post Offices, a widespread belief that school size was no yardstick by which quality of education should be measured, and mixed feelings on the fox hunting issue, with red and green cards being waved with considerable conviction in some quarters whilst abstention was noticeable in others. In response to the question, “Do you think it’s important to preserve local history?” the audience’s answer was an unequivocal sea of green cards.
More support for rural public transport would be welcomed.
After the poll we were treated to a delightful musical drama performance from the Penny Bridge Sparks group. It was a totally charming exploration of nocturnal village life! The music was an original composition of rare quality by Alan Fitzgerald, a talented composer who works at Sandside Lodge and with special needs children. He took four of them with him to Mexico recently and he’s clearly doing much to open up and enrich their world. In this drama we saw emphasized the children’s natural connection with wildlife that is one of the joys of rural life.
Penny Bridge Bright Sparks children metamorphose into creatures of the night that dance to a hauntingly beautiful music.
Kids camping against a beautiful painted backdrop gradually metamorphose into creatures of the night that dance to a hauntingly beautiful music. The music that accompanied this campfire-lit transmogrification reinforced the connection between the free imagination, young expression and the magic of nature. It was a powerfully moving production. Penny Bridge Bright Sparks group is supported by the school and meets on Saturdays from 1:00 -3:00 p.m. It costs £3.50 per session and newcomers are always welcome.
Then we were offered a brief, but interesting insight into a music workshop experience with Chris Gibbs and some student volunteers. If there had been a bit more time, we would have seen him working his magic on some audience members too. That’s something we can look forward to at a later date perhaps.
Mr. Gibbs and members of The Westmorland Youth Orchestra
After that and back on the piano again, Mr. Gibbs also accompanied excellent orchestrated, semi-improvised arrangements of two folk songs by The Westmorland Youth Orchestra. That was a very nice finale and wrapped up the show in style at about 9:15. If you are interested in your children participating in any of the youth groups: Matchbox, Monkey Business or Bright Sparks, please don’t hesitate to call MusicLinks for information on 01539 742626. For more on QUOTE see the MusicLinks website