Saturday 17th June
7pm
Ringwood Meeting House and History Centre
£6

Songs for Wild Horses 2017 is a community songscape which will be premiered at the Ringwood Meeting House on Saturday 17 June as part of the New Forest Arts Festival.

Music is by Bob Burke, local musicians and singers inspired by the landscape of the New Forest and Thomas Hardy’s novella from 1872, Under the Greenwood Tree. A commission by Coda Music Trust with support from New Dimensions.

Taking inspiration from the landscape of the New Forest and Thomas Hardy’s novella from 1872, Under the Greenwood Tree, the music has been developed by Bob Burke, collaboratively with members of a new ensemble from Coda Music and the Coda Community Singing Group.

This suite of music has been composed, embracing the idea of “sound painting”, with instrumental elements of the composition built around collages of patterns which recall the pastoral avant-pop of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the modal compositions of Ludovico Einaudi, while the libretto takes Hardy’s lyrical descriptions of rural life in the Wessex region in the 1800s and works them into new, original songs which draw from the folk tradition and more contemporary songwriting styles.

Hear tales of the musicians who perform in the church, the blossoming love of Dick Dewy and Fancy Day, the sounds of the trees which accompany the forest-folk in their daily lives and the odd reference to drinking cider… Bring your singing voices – there might be a chorus or two!

Songs For Wild Horses 2017 is supported by New Dimensions and the New Forest National Park Authority.

Entry is £6 and tickets can be purchased from Coda Music Centre in person or telephone 01425 276161.

http://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/events/event/1558/songs_for_wild_horses