Strut + Maxine Doyle Workshop + Ocker translation of a Lutheran text
I'm super excited that from next Monday I'll be in a workshop with Maxine Doyle from Punchdrunk UK. I'm not exactly sure what the workshop will be, what outcomes we'll have, but I know that I'll be in my element; creating and extending abilities with a bunch of Perthian artists lead by a phenomenal director / choreographer. We've got a showing on the 15th of December; http://www.strutdance.org.au/opportunities/performances/maxine-doyle--showingsharing
Aerial shot of a William Forsythe work One Flat Thing Reproduced that Strut will be presenting in future.
I first knew of Punchdrunk years ago... I'm not sure how they came across my radar; perhaps whilst looking for other companies to be inspired by whilst I established Chronology Arts... but I remember being struck at just how awesome their art was.
Let me unpack that a bit; "awesome" is so ambiguous.
Punchdrunk have a reputation for innovative and highly impactful immersive experiences... they have approached performance in unique ways which extend the historic norms of the distance between audiences and performance art... not just physically but in a plethora of ways.
Maxine Doyle
In other news, my time at Gallop House is coming to an end pretty soon... about 4 weeks now I'll be outta here. I've really benefitted so much from my stay here, and those benefits will continue right into the future. It has changed the way I approach writing music.
I'm starting on this work for the Song Company now... it's due in March. It's a short work, 4 mins, from a Lutheran work "Out of the Deep I Cry to Thee".
Of the Deep
I'm a spiritual person, and although I don't believe in adhering to anything churchie - I prefer to experience things first hand and form my own beliefs (with some guidance sometimes) - I'm looking forward to setting this text and melody because I love Phrygian mode, I reckon Bach's harmonisation of it could do with some updating, as well as his rhythmic treatment (ooooh I can't wait to get stuck into some Phrygian polyphonic multi-tempi transcendent singing with The Song Company!!!) and start applying a few of the big lessons I've learnt whilst at Gallop to a professional setting.
Out of the deep I cry to thee;
O Lord God,
Hear my crying
Incline thy gracious ear to me
With prayer to thee applying
For if thou fix thy searching eye
On all sin and iniquity
Who, Lord, can stand before thee?
There is a sense to me that the person asking for help blames everyone else for putting them in "the deep". Let me do an Ocker translation with potential subtexts in [].
Out of the deep I cry to thee; - "I'm up to my ears in shit creek, I need some help" [this isn't necessarily on a personal level, but a self-centered reading would make it personal; is this about the the world at large or something I'm dealing with personally?]
O Lord God, - "mate" [who is a really powerful mate, like, the creator of all things]
Hear my crying - "listen to me" [crying can be sobbing or vehement verbalisation]
Incline thy gracious ear to me - "listen to me" [gracious implies big respect, our mate is so awesome that even their "ear" is gracious]
With prayer to thee applying - "I'm asking you" [I'm not too sure how else to interpret this]
For if thou fix thy searching eye - "If you take a good gander" [IN THE IMMORTAL SOULS!]
On all sin and iniquity - "at all the shitty things people do" [This could be "on all the scumbags of Earth, scumbags surrounding me, or just the naughty internal and external actions (internal action I mean thought, motivation etc, external action I mean things like putting knives in people and stealing goats) of people of earth entirely or of people surrounding me --> I believe it reads "the naughty internal and external actions of the people of earth" i.e wider community context]
Who, Lord, can stand before thee? - "who could even be in the same room as you?" [because you're just so pure and awesome, and I want you to be clear that I am part of your club, but Those Nasty Sinning Arseholes can't even have a cuppa with you because they'd be incapacitated even by your presence!, and I'm sure as soon as you know what jerks they are, you'll ensure they're not part of our club, or at least put them through some training so they do become part of the club!].
So I guess it's like; "mate, help me out, listen to me, if you check out and know about the dodgy things happening, I'm sure you'll do something about it (turf or change them) because those jerks can't stand up to you at all"...
Yeah - I reckon it's a recruitment/damnation song; which I'm not up for.... but I am up for crying for help from the deep and expressing that, so that's where I'll put my focus in my commission. If you reckon I've got my Ocker translation wrong in this work, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!