27/03/2025 RNCM Chamber Choir with Clod Ensemble

Paul Clark Prayer from On The High Road (2019)◊
Katherine Lee Buddhist Prayer (2025)
Lyrics adapted from traditional Buddhist Prayers
Paul Clark She Weepeth Sore in the Night from Silver Swan (1999)
Rob Hughes April Showers (2025)
Lyrics by Geoffrey Chaucer
Jacob Jackson Muchos Bewegungen (2025)
Lyrics draw from across tonight’s programme
Paul Clark Coloro from An Anatomie in Four Quarters (2011)^~
Lyrics adapted from anon. c17th Italian poems
Paul Clark Snow (2018)
Lyrics by Peggy Shaw

Interval
 
Paul Clark Goodbye from On The High Road (2019)^#
Lyrics by Paul Clark and Peggy Shaw
Paul Clark Sweet Mimosa from Zero (2013)^
Lyrics by Paul Clark and Peggy Shaw
Ella Laughton Oddicatref (2025)
Lyrics anon. traditional Welsh lyric
Felix Do Oh if a Tree Could Wander (2025)
Lyrics extract from a poem by Rumi
Paul Clark The Old Language (2013)
Lyrics extract from Drone, unpublished text by Alice Oswald
Trad arr Paul Clark 10,000 miles from On The High Road (2019)*
Lyrics adapted from a traditional folk lyric

Louise Wood voice◊
Jacob Parker voice^~
Isaac Bentley voice^#
Nyah Branch voice^
Thomas McCarthy voice*
Aaron Breeze keyboard

Stuart Overington chamber choir director
Rosina Flueckiger conductor

RNCM Chamber Choir

Ivy Blackmoor, Eve Codman, Rosalind Hardie, Katie Shepperdson, Grace Wexler, Maddy Wickham-Brown sopranos

Persie Bell, Eibhlin Eddy, Kamea Nemeth, Heledd Richardson, Mollie Swain, Louise Wood altos

Isaac Bentley, Nico Shaw, Oscar Fairclough, Oliver Mollett, Jacob Parker, Oli Barber tenors

Ben Finnie, Alex Peart, Harry Priestley, Lewis Reardon, Colin Wu, Alex Yehorychev basses

Paul Clark Composer
Suzy Willson Choreographer and Director
Hansjörg Schmidt Lighting Designer
Sarah Blenkinsop Design Associate

Roxanne Peak-Payne Executive Producer
Richard Collins Head of Programming
Matt Whitham Programming Manager
Harriet Lane Programming Co-ordinator
Edgar Divver Assistant Orchestra and Ensembles Manager
Liam Whittaker Technical Manager
Stephen Guy Sound and Video Manager
Tina Blatt Stage Manager
Jennifer Jackson Rehearsal Director

Prayer (from On The High Road, 2019)
By Paul Clark 

Oh the air is in full flight
and we’ll be here all night
all day and all night
now the air is in flight 

Now the still light
now the same breath
all the day and all night Oh
now the air is in full flight
still light 

Now the air is in flight
and we’ll be here all night
now the still life
now the same breath
all day and all night
the air is in full flight
still life 

Buddhist Prayer (2025)
By Katherine Lee, adapted from traditional Buddhist Prayers

Void is void, with nothing to void;
What is voided is already non-existent, and non-existence is also non-existent.
When non-existence is no more, there is tranquil stillness,
And in this stillness, desire does not arise.
When desire no longer arises, true stillness is realised.
True permanence responds to the Dao; true permanence aligns with nature.
It constantly responds with stillness, constantly pure and serene.

She Weepeth Sore in the Night (from Silver Swan, 1999)
By Paul Clark (after John Smith) 

She weepeth sore in the night
And her tears are on her cheeks
Her priest sighs
And her virgins are afflicted
And among all her lovers
There are none to comfort her          

(from Lamentations 1:2.)   

April Showers (2025)
By Rob Hughes, lyrics by Geoffry Chaucer 

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
  When April with its sweet-smelling showers
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
  Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
  And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
  By which power the flower is created;

Muchos Bewegungen (2025)
By Jacob S Jackson, lyrics drawn from across the programme 

These lyrics are drawn from lines in all of the other songs performed this evening translated into several languages.

Coloro (from An Anatomie in Four Quarters, 2011)
By Paul Clark, lyrics from anon. c17th Italian poems

Those who while alive did harm are of benefit after death and good fortune draws advantages from death itself. The voiceless remains teach us, and even though they are without a life, they prevent us from dying. Here the souls of the dead speak to us with the eloquence of the wise Dr Tulp. Listener, also learn your soul while you go on your way. Believe that even in the smallest things God is hidden.  

What things that tear me away from myself! How can you raise your bold head, miserable humanity, while our life depends on the corpses of others?

Snow (excerpt from sound installation Snow, 2018)
By Paul Clark, lyrics by Peggy Shaw and Suzy Willson 

Of course I couldn’t get away from you. Even from under here – I can see you far away through the darkness. This time you are inside a tiny snow globe. There is a tiny noh theatre beside a tree with tiny oranges growing in the snow. Eagles fly above – in the shadow of an active volcano.
On the wooden stage
Colours, fabrics, fans all move together
The past crystallised in delicate patterns of movement.
Look very carefully…
There you are. A demon hiding underneath a kimono at the back of the stage. The points of horns sticking through the fabric.
Impossible to hide from me now. I see you
When you lift your face and look me in the eye
You are angry, tormented, dangerous
And when you look at the floor you seem so full of sad
I feel for you but this compassion feels more like stupidity. Or weakness.

          Beat the blocks 

You begin to dance
Serpent, dragon.  Sharp teeth, metallic eyes
There is no calming your fury.

Beat the blocks 

And now it’s me who is dancing
Or is it you
It’s so hot
I’m looking for my edges.
Weaving together thousands of years
Ancestors dancing in every cell, in every gesture
Emptying space
Ending the silence
Returning things to how they were meant to be
Dancing as the night falls

You slowly lift one hand to cover your eye and then the other.
(This time you are crying)
Beat the blocks.
You hurry off the stage and are gone. 

Goodbye (from On The High Road, 2019)
By Paul Clark, lyrics by Paul Clark and Peggy Shaw

Goodbye! Au revoir, my dears
Goodbye! Fair you well for a while – a long while

I know you’ll remember me
Although I’ll be travelling miles and miles

Miles and miles –
I’ll be travelling miles and miles
away from you my Love

Who will kiss your little feet?
In the night time my dear
Who will kiss your rosy cheek
While I’m away?

There with the sun and the wind in my hair
There I’ll be someone absurd
and I won’t speak a word of the lin-go
Bingo 

Ten miles from fools
then twelve miles from schools
and fifteen and twenty
and fifty one hundred
and fifty a thousand and on    

the sea will freeze the rocks will melt a-way
the sky will burn
if I ever return
No I’ll not return 

Sweet Mimosa (from Zero, 2013)
By Paul Clark, lyrics by Paul Clark and Peggy Shaw

Slipper Orchid on my mind
Tansy’s having wild Thyme
Wasting my time in the sun
Me and Solomon’s seal
Look at Queen Ann’s lace
Love lies bleeding on her face
Sweet mimosa cries
Milkweed dies
There’s a sea rush at the top
Ragged Robin’s gonna drop
Sweet mimosa cries
Milkweed dies

Oddicatref (2025)
By Ella Laughton, lyric anon. traditional Welsh

Where?
Under the trees, over the moors
Striding forwards
Don’t leave, as brothers of the same time
River
Came down to the valley
Through the strength and power of God

Oh if a Tree Could Wander (2025)
By Felix Do, lyric extract from If a Tree Could Wander by Rumi (13th Century)

Oh, if a tree could wander
and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows
(and not the pain of saws!)
For would the sun not wander
away in every night.
How could at every morning
the world be lighted up?
And if the ocean’s water
would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened
by streams and gentle rain?
The drop that left its homeland,
the sea, and then returned?
It found an oyster waiting
and grew into a pearl.

The Old Language (2025)
By Paul Clark, lyrics extract from Drone, unpublished text by Alice Oswald

It’s the Old Language
I learned it all by mouth
It isn’t me who sings
It’s the passing of thousands of little noticed things

It isn’t me who sings
It’s the warbling water
So terrified in its see through clothes
You’d think it moves by a network of nerves.

10,000 miles from On The High Road (2019)
Trad arr. Paul Clark. Lyrics adapted from a traditional folk lyric

Oh fair you well my dear I must be gone
and leave you for a while
I’ll go away but I’ll come back again
Though I’m going ten thousand miles

Ten thou-sand miles away that is too far
to leave me here alone
to leave me here to sigh and weep at home
where you’ll never hear my moans

Your moans, my love, from there I’ll never hear
and likewise not your cries
I’ll go away but I’ll come back again
when you’re free of your friends 

Oh all those friends, I never should have taken
they grew so lofty and so high
oh I’ll stay true til all the seas run dry
And the stars fall from the sky

The stars will never fall down from the sky
Nor rocks will melt the sun
I never will prove false to the one I love
‘Til all those things be done

See that rock
Down down there
They’ll change their colour blue

See that crow
Right up there
He’ll change his colour grey

See that star
Bright up there
she’ll change her colour white