Introduction.
After his great compositions for the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the Barry Guy New Orchestra, Barry Guy has written a large scale work for a new international ensemble.
Guy’s work, The Blue Shroud, is an homage to the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. It is for the people of the Spanish town, who were victims of the Nazi German air force bombardment during the Spanish Civil War.
Guy also wants us to remember the occasion in 2003, when the Guernica-tapestry at the UN Security Council was obscured by a blue drape as Colin Powell made the case for invading Iraq. The strength of art against the power of the military, government and the media.
Barry Guy uses the techniques of new music and jazz improvisation, as well as fragments of Baroque music and a poem by Irish writer Kerry Hardie. He has transformed the poem into moving songs for vocalist Savina Yannatou.
The Music.
“To me, The Blue Shroud is almost like a history of Western music.”
—Benjamin Dwyer
“Symbols of Guernica”
Kerry Hardie
The bull is raging through the fields of myth,
his gored head stark above a darkened ground,
the ploughshares have been hammered into blades,
debris of battle smashed and scattered round.
The warrior sprawls, a shattered sword
held in his severed hand, his severed life
is blossoming inside death—a single flower
become the emblem of all fields of strife—
A wailing woman curses the high gods
who press the buttons that deliver slaughter.
Helpless, she lays her child across her lap
and keens this daughter who will know no daughter.
A blinded bird of hope finds no way through,
too dense the camouflage of lies and smoke,
a dove without an olive in its beak,
its form become an ugly cartoon joke.
And there the blade-pierced horse that trumpets pain,
its tongue a brutal banner that’s unfurled
to rear and scream, a chaos of raw sound,
of noise that deafens in this silenced world.
The single bulb of torture keeps the faith,
wild theories drive the guns’ demented roar.
In cities now laid open to the sky,
unblinking, the relentless eye of war.
And though the light-bearer swoops close,
the lamp-of-home a steady fearless glow,
its flame can’t dim the torturer’s stark light,
nor penetrate the ruined world below,
where terrified, a woman stumbles through,
eyes lifted to a sky that roars and falls
onto her head in showers of rock and flame
and death-smoke hangs in oily blackened palls.
With arms upraised, a helpless figure drops,
the anguished head flung back in muted scream,
the ground beneath has given, nothing can halt
this ancient horror, this recurring dream.
I am joy, a weightless lark,
I rise like the spirit releasing.
I am in sunlight, wind and doubtful weather.
I crouch in a cat’s paw of grass.
The Films.
Barry Guy’s The Blue Shroud
Directed by Jonathan C. Creasy
Produced by J. Creasy, N. Guerin, M. Homburger, M. McDonnell
The Blue Shroud: Live in London
Directed by Jonathan C. Creasy
Produced by J. Creasy, N. Guerin, M. Homburger
Dreamsong Films and Maya Recordings have produced two forthcoming films on The Blue Shroud, both directed by Jonathan C. Creasy.
The first is a 60-minute documentary film delving into the history, context and composition of the piece, as well as the extraordinary personalities involved in bringing Guy’s music to life. The film was shot in Ireland (in the historic Aughavannagh Barracks), Switzerland and the UK. It is slated for release later in 2021.
The second is an 85-minute concert film of The Blue Shroud’s UK premiere at the 2019 EFG London Jazz Festival.
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