{"id":118,"date":"2018-12-12T13:32:54","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T13:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsite.applesandsnakes.org\/?p=118"},"modified":"2018-12-14T15:24:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T15:24:37","slug":"the-power-of-music-aoife-mannix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/2018\/12\/12\/the-power-of-music-aoife-mannix\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Music: Aoife Mannix"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Walking Shadows\u2019<\/span><\/a> is the first libretto I\u2019ve ever written. \u00a0It was performed at St Martin in the Fields on October 30th 2018 alongside Mozart\u2019s Requiem, one of my favourite pieces of music. \u00a0It was composed by<\/span>Stephen McNeff<\/span><\/a> to mark the hundredth anniversary of the First World War.<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2018For me, the sound of the words is just as important as their meaning\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Apples and Snakes put me in touch with Stephen because he was looking for a poet to write the words to an Arts Council funded commission he planned to compose. \u00a0I\u2019ve always loved working with musicians as I believe that spoken word poetry lies somewhere between prose and the purely instrumental. For me, the sound of the words is just as important as their meaning. \u00a0When I first started writing poetry at around the age of eleven, I often wrote while listening to music and was inspired by pop lyrics.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written five shows that I\u2019ve performed with live music as well as writing poems inspired by music written for me. \u00a0I\u2019ve also performed at poetry nights where jazz musicians have improvised in the background. A libretto is somewhat different however in that it is more of a collaboration between the writer and composer. \u00a0At the end of the day, it is the music that is the heart and soul of the piece. The words serve to convey the emotional power of the singers. Part of the challenge is that when words are sung, a little goes a long way so emotional depth needs to be compressed into vivid imagery that lingers in the ears. \u00a0There also needs to be a clarity and simplicity that makes these images possible to sing. In other words, a great deal needs to be packed into a small space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018At the end of the day, it is the music that is the heart and soul of the piece. The words serve to convey the emotional power of the singers\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The scale of slaughter in World War One was so vast that Stephen and I felt we needed to find a personal way into exploring this centenary. \u00a0We decided to go to Belgium to visit the graves of British and Irish soldiers killed in World War I. This was made particularly poignant when we succeeded in finding the grave of Stephen\u2019s great uncle Eddie. \u00a0I also researched many personal letters written at the time as well as drawing on my experience as poet in residence for the Gosport Gallery\u2019s Artists Rifles exhibition. However it was this visceral experience of standing in the pouring rain on a grim February afternoon surrounded by the graves of so many young men that gave us a common language for discovering what story we wanted to tell.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018For me, poetry is about trying to say the unsayable\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Just as we were leaving I saw a teenage boy in a hoodie hurrying through the graves. \u00a0I knew it wasn\u2019t a ghost but it sent a shiver down my spine all the same. This became my starting point though it is captured towards the end of the piece when Millie sings of her boyfriend Eddie who was shot at dawn for being a traitor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018The cold is without pity. \u00a0It sneaks between the graves as light fades.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The stones are white with the promise of green moss, the trees stark<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

in their silence. \u00a0Suddenly I see him, a boy dashing through the rows<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

of headstones, his hood flapping in the wind, his arms outstretched.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I think for a moment it is our Eddie come back to life,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

but it\u2019s only some local farmer\u2019s lad taking a short cut home.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I hear his laughter, see again his pale handsome face,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

the cheeky wink, the forget-me-not eyes, the ghost<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

of all that is good in the world.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I felt a responsibility to try to capture the loss and suffering of the First World War in a way that was not sentimental but respectful to all those whose lives were shattered. \u00a0For me, poetry is about trying to say the unsayable. Sometimes music gives us a powerful insight and means of communicating where words cannot contain the pain of our experiences. \u00a0This is why I continue to write librettos as I love the connection with music and the opportunity to work with brilliant composers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aoife Mannix is the author of four collections of poetry and a novel. \u00a0She has been poet in residence for the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC Radio 4\u2019s Saturday Live. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0www.aoifemannix.co.uk<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

First published October 2018<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Walking Shadows\u2019 is the first libretto I\u2019ve ever written. \u00a0It was performed at St Martin in the Fields on October 30th 2018 alongside Mozart\u2019s Requiem, one of my favourite pieces of music. \u00a0It was composed byStephen McNeff to mark the hundredth anniversary of the First World War. \u2018For me, the sound of the words…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[23,24],"article_type":[9],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-as","tag-aoife-mannix","tag-walking-shadows","article_type-read"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":49,"label":"A+S"}],"post_tag":[{"value":23,"label":"Aoife Mannix"},{"value":24,"label":"Walking Shadows"}],"article_type":[{"value":9,"label":"Read"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AoifeandStephen-e1544801072219-1024x382.jpeg",1024,382,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"D237","author_link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/author\/d237\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":49,"name":"A+S","slug":"as","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":49,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":192,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":49,"category_count":192,"category_description":"","cat_name":"A+S","category_nicename":"as","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":23,"name":"Aoife Mannix","slug":"aoife-mannix","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"},{"term_id":24,"name":"Walking Shadows","slug":"walking-shadows","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":24,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}