Fragments of red: the last song

The responses

the ledger in a dusty lodge
grandfather’s spidery entries
the cover twitching
notes inside from monastery
and Turkish blue

chained library in a cathedral
what was valuable?
medical texts
and Saxon riddles sewn together
through the passion

a legal room of tomes towering
and a still court plane tree
a clerk puzzled
by melodies
he cannot place

these words wrapped in music
hidden in shelves
and boxes webbed and smoked
vibrate to the palm
walk of holy week

no one believes any more
but the tune sung
by the absent librarian
is answered

pieces all over the world

Bridget Khursheed

Thoughts on drones

I need to read over music at the Fragment of Reds event on the 5th April - the original music gleaned from notation in the Missal fragment. - so I have been researching the use of drones.

Official publicity photo for Fragments of Red

And there is some extant troubadour tradition to suggest how this might be achieved:

for example, in a study http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-220-early-music-fall-2010/assignments/MIT21M_220F10_assn_p1a.pdf the anonymous writer (all very mysterious - no name to cite!) makes these observations:

The most striking differences between these interpretations lie in their instrumentation and accompanimental [sic] patterns...

• a woman sings over a persistent hurdy-gurdy drone, with a lute (the long-necked saz) accenting certain syllables and playing interludes between verses. Between the third and fourth verses is a lengthy interlude involving hurdy-gurdy, lute, and percussion – this is motivic and does not imitate the melody of the singer.
• this piece features a soprano ...who is doubled throughout by a fiddle, with a lute that is most audible between verses.
• [The next example's] interesting performance includes a rebec drone, over which the full 
• melody is played first by a lute and then by a flute. While the flute plays, a man recites two verses of the poem, in English translation, following which the flute and lute play the melody together with nakers and a rebec drone. 
• As for the concluding performance..there is simply a solo female voice. 

So I get to play around with my stresses this week. I don't have a live musician or music to follow me so it is question of my working my words into the chant. I am reading a sequence that is deliberately fragmentary...and I already know that I won't feel precious about recreating it exactly as the printer version suggests. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

(Maybe 4 minutes of vertigo...)

More on the writing Fragments project here http://fragmentsinwords.tumblr.com/ and there will be more opportunities to experience the poetry and art produced later in 2014.

Fragments update

Fragments of Red is less than 2 weeks away.

The final details of the performance schedule are being ironed out. Today I sat on the grass at Melrose Abbey - a surprise in itself - with artist Jane Gaze, Gordon Turnbull of The Flow and Tim Fitzpatrick of The Red Field. The poetry that the writing Fragments team have worked on will form part of the event once we get to Melrose Parish Church. And we have been thinking of ways to do this. Maybe with me reading over music. It will be an interesting challenge and I want to use the poems in a slightly non-conventional way.

The audience will also be able to experience the Hawick Missal itself presented alongside our responses in poetry and art. And then into the night.

Today however thoughts were also on the will it/will it not be here question of the scaffolding.

A beautiful day today in the Borders. This project has been a real pleasure to work on and I can't wait until the performance itself now. More here http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/places/events/event_detail.htm?eventid=42074#.UzCRhvl_vtI.

...enjoy an evening of song and a procession of music, text and imagery along a path of shimmering red light.

Fragments update

The writing Fragments project has entered its next phase with the introduction of poets to writers (on a very wet day in Melrose). Both our meetings have hit on key Scottish holidays - St Andrew's Day and Burns Night - which I feel must be auspicious.

This time there wasn't much chance to wander round the abbey given the weather. Most of the time was devoted to a reading of the new work being developed for the project.

There will be further details posted on the writing Fragments blog itself here http://fragmentsinwords.tumblr.com/ but it looks like the first chance to get to grips with the responses will be on the 5th April 2014 as part of the Fragments of Red event at Melrose http://www.fragmentsproject.co.uk/#!fragments-of-red/c1fca.

Call for poetry: Fragments and the Hawick Missal

Fragments: music, movement, and memory in a Borders landscape is a two year arts and music project based in the Scottish Borders and inspired by the discovery of the Hawick Missal fragment, a 12th century medieval manuscript. The Project aims to reconnect with the fragment’s original aspiration and explore the very simple but compelling idea of the expression of the divine in the 21st century.

The project is seeking writers interested in contributing responses to the story of the Missal fragment, its music and the object itself. The resulting work will be published on the Fragments website and a selection chosen for an illustrated book that will be displayed and archived with the Missal fragment itself in the Heritage Hub in Hawick.

The creative writing project kicks off with a workshop on 30th November 2013 in Hawick and Melrose learning more from experts about the Missal fragment and Abbey life; a further workshop in mid-January will allow writers to refine plans and meet the illustrators of their work. A third meeting will review and finalise work received. It is considered essential that participating writers attend workshops. (Transport will be provided between Hawick and Melrose at the November meeting; but bring a packed lunch.)

The deadline for completed work is the end of February 2014.

If you are interested in taking part in this unique project, contact Bridget Khursheed on bk [at] khursheed.co.uk

More information is available here: http://www.fragmentsproject.co.uk/

About the Project
The project is creating new art and music through a network of composers, musicians, singers, community groups and other collaborators and individuals throughout the Scottish Borders.

Central to the project is a series of three public events, which each feature a newly commissioned piece of music, all directly inspired by the original music of the Missal fragment.  The first two events in the trilogy took place at Jedburgh and Kelso Abbeys over the summer of 2013 and featured music from a young composer Sean Doherty and the award winning international composer Michael Nyman.  The project will reach its conclusion with the final event in the trilogy, entitled Fragments of Red: the last song, at Melrose Abbey in April 2014.

The project is a partnership between Historic Scotland and the Heritage Hub in Hawick supported with funding from Creative Scotland.