Confusion, Reflection, Joy: A Radio Drama in Sonata Form

Three movements, each exploring our location at Dartington Hall as

somewhere where time slips between different years, decades, centuries. In

August, when musicians gather for the Summer School, as you wander around

the medley of medieval and modernist buildings, different music seeps out

of every door and window. The musicians and audiences bring and share

memories of their visits here over the years, and make new ones.

Participants in the Summer School's Radio Drama course, run by Soundart

Radio, walked, listened and collected. Their studio was the whole of the

Dartington Estate, their script was words found on gravestones amongst the

ancient yew trees, and their scores were signs around the buildings. Many

fragments were then pulled together into three movements. Confusion

explores the problems of collective music making in a Covid wary

environment. Reflection provides space to mourn and remember. Finally, Joy

brings together old memories and new music with attempts at happiness.

Dartington Summer School began in 1948 and has only been cancelled once, in

2020. The planned events would have coincided with Beethoven's 250th

anniversary, and a new work, "Joy" was commissioned for choir and string

quartet. In 2021, amongst sudden changes, partial closures and socially

distanced outdoor music, Joy was rehearsed and performed for the first

time. Snippets of Joy, by John Barber and Hazel Gould, pop up here, as well

as many other half formed performances, captured whilst wandering around

the site.

Special thanks to Sara Mohr-Pietsch.