Confusion, Reflection, Joy: A Radio Drama in Sonata Form

Three movements, each exploring our location at Dartington Hall as
somewhere where time slips between different years, decades, centuries. In
August, when musicians gather for the Summer School, as you wander around
the medley of medieval and modernist buildings, different music seeps out
of every door and window. The musicians and audiences bring and share
memories of their visits here over the years, and make new ones.

Participants in the Summer School's Radio Drama course, run by Soundart
Radio, walked, listened and collected. Their studio was the whole of the
Dartington Estate, their script was words found on gravestones amongst the
ancient yew trees, and their scores were signs around the buildings. Many
fragments were then pulled together into three movements. Confusion
explores the problems of collective music making in a Covid wary
environment. Reflection provides space to mourn and remember. Finally, Joy
brings together old memories and new music with attempts at happiness.

Dartington Summer School began in 1948 and has only been cancelled once, in
2020. The planned events would have coincided with Beethoven's 250th
anniversary, and a new work, "Joy" was commissioned for choir and string
quartet. In 2021, amongst sudden changes, partial closures and socially
distanced outdoor music, Joy was rehearsed and performed for the first
time. Snippets of Joy, by John Barber and Hazel Gould, pop up here, as well
as many other half formed performances, captured whilst wandering around
the site.