A commission by Adrienne Morgan about life and living with breast cancer.
For SATB choir with piano accompaniment
Background
Alison Willis was commissioned by London Concert Choir member Adrienne Morgan to write a choral piece celebrating life, love, togetherness and hope. Adrienne was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, and incurable, metastatic breast cancer in 2010. However, she lives well with the disease – thanks to progress in research – and has a passion for life.
As a medical research scientist she now works on breast cancer, and since her diagnosis has been a Patient Advocate for breast cancer charities.
The idea for the commission arose from a conversation with friends, when Adrienne, a feminist and atheist, commented that most choral music she had sung had been religious and composed by men. She wanted a secular work, to be written by an up-and-coming female composer, and having sought the advice of Mark Forkgen she approached Alison Willis.
Subtitled ‘An Affirmation’, the piece emphasises the sustaining power of friends and family for those living with breast cancer – indeed it was Adrienne’s friends and family who captured her remarkable personality in the words of the second movement.
Adrienne’s sister is Baroness Delyth Morgan, fellow member of LCC and Chief Executive of Breast Cancer Now. Delyth leads the charity in its mission that if we all act now, by 2050 everyone who develops breast cancer will live.
After the premiere, the piece will be made available to other choirs to buy, with the proceeds being donated to Breast Cancer Now.
The Composer
Alison Willis is an award-winning composer with a particular interest in re-imagining historical sources, issues-based work and collaborative working, whose works are gaining an international reputation. Her music has been described as “intensely moving”, “beautiful yet pragmatic” and “saying what you have to say and then stopping.”
Recent works include two songs for mezzo and piano, premiered at King’s Place (October 2017); Go and Catch a Falling Star, premiered by Sound Riot in Nashville (February 2018); Magnificat, premiered by The Cantus Ensemble (July 17), and Dawn. Brussels. October 12th 1915 for double choir, alto solo, organ and trumpet, premiered at the Brandenburg Festival (JAM) March 2017.
JOURNEYS, a piece reflecting the ongoing Refugee Crisis, written in collaboration with Chiltern Youth Chamber Orchestra and commissioned by Making Music’s Adopt a Composer scheme 2015/16 (in association with PRS, SAM and BBC Radio 3) was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in January 2017.
Other works include War Songs in collaboration with poet Chloe Stopa-Hunt, premiered at the Brandenburg Choral Festival (JAM), London 2015, and Rookwood Canticle with poet Matt Haw, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (Britten in Oxford 2013, JAM Writing for Voices project).
Her choral work Gustate et Videte, part of a larger choral commission for Vespers (premiered at Bristol Cathedral in May 2017), has recently been recorded by Bristol Cathedral Choir as part of the Old Hispanic Office Project (Bristol University).
Future projects include an American premiere of The Gift To Sing (May 2018) and a schools project as Composer in Residence with Hampshire Music Service exploring War Art in association with Compton Verney Art Gallery.
The Music
Alison writes:
The piece was always conceived as three movements (slow, fast, slow) to work in combination but also as stand-alone pieces. The first movement sets the scene, saying that we are all one in searching for a better future, and is to be sung ‘with a sense of inevitability’.
The most challenging to write was the second movement. We struggled to find a suitable text and ended up crowdsourcing comments from Adrienne’s family and friends which were then edited into a libretto by Charlotte Morgan, Adrienne’s niece. The title ‘Caredig a bendigedig’ reflects Adrienne’s Welsh heritage. The words, whilst inspired by Adrienne, refer to a kind of ‘Everywoman’ and it was really important that they should be heard clearly. They are therefore set split between different sections of the choir, punctuated with the whole choir singing ‘A light not yet ready to go out’ which subsequently became the title of the piece. The slow central section refers to the darkest moments of living with a cancer diagnosis.
The final movement quotes from a wonderful passage in The Epic of Gilgamesh, a poem from ancient Mesopotamia, about the concerns of humanity, and ends with the words ‘Let every day be full of joy!’.
Movement I: As now we join in singing
Text from the Unitarian Hymn
We would be one as now we join in singing,
Our song of love, to give ourselves anew
To the search for greater understanding
Of who we are and what in us is true.
We are all one in building for tomorrow
A kinder world than we have known today,
We will be one in searching for that future
Which gives us heart,
So we may
Join our voices, all as one in singing,
Together now to find a better way,
We are all one as now we join in singing
For a kinder world than we have known today.
Movement II: Caredig a bendigedig (Kind and wonderful)
Lyrics crowdsourced!
Caredig a bendigedig
She’s
Adventurous and mischievous, finding ecstasy in life.
Courageous and rebellious, always lively, funny, loving, wise.
Witty, clever, caring, fun, loyal, giving, singing, strong,
Meticulous, spontaneous, the enemy of ignorance,
Relentless and tenacious, always colourful and curious,
A light not yet ready to go out,
A light not yet ready to go out.
Caredig a bendigedig
She’s
Generous and resilient, finding ecstasy in life,
Intelligent, irreverent, sister, aunty, daughter, wife.
Principled and passionate, indiscreet, articulate,
Logical and rational, creative and musical,
Interesting and interested,
Inspirational, sensational, often unconventional,
A light not yet ready to go out,
A light not yet ready to go out.
Yet in the darkest moments, private pain.
Angry that she has to suffer again and again,
But she never gives up, stays ever strong,
Brave yet vulnerable, still full of song,
Through love she carries on.
Caredig a bendigedig
She’s
Adventurous and mischievous, finding ecstasy in life.
Courageous and rebellious, always lively, funny, loving, wise.
Witty, clever, caring, fun, loyal, giving, singing, strong,
Meticulous, spontaneous, the enemy of ignorance,
A teacher always learning, ever curious and enquiring,
A light not yet ready to go out,
A light not yet ready to go out.
Caredig a bendigedig
Caredig a bendigedig
Movement III: Our dearest possession
Text from Nikolai Ostrovsky (adapted), Robert Green Ingersoll and the Epic of Gilgamesh
Our dearest possession is life.
It is given to us but once.
The time to be happy is now.
Until the end comes let every day be full of joy.
Let music and dancing fill your home,
Savour your food, wear bright clothes,
Love the child that holds your hand.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes,
For these alone are the concerns of humanity.
Our dearest possession is life,
It is given to us but once.
The time to be happy is now.
Until the end comes let every day be full of joy!
