Daddy Where Have They Gone? From a New Musical by Bella Barlow

Christmas song home demo in a retro mood from long, long ago. Wishing everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

ONE DECEMBER NIGHT
© Woodstock Taylor 1995
This recording © 2004

one december night
if i remember right
it's all so long ago
there were christmas smells
and cathedral bells
and warmth to make you glow
there were angel chimes
there were pantomimes
and chocolates galore
presents round the tree
pleasant fantasies
i always wanted more

one more dance around the year now
one more chance to put it right
one more fanciful idea
that we could learn to love tonight
we could learn to love tonight

in the crowded bar
where the rowdies are
we drink away the cold
drink away the past
try to make it last
i must be getting old
and the music plays
songs of yesterday
they always make me cry
all that glitters is
only bitterness
without a reason why

across the park a light is burning
in the window of a home
and in the dark i fight the yearning
for the things i'll never own

one more dance around the year now
one more chance to put it right
one more fanciful idea
that we could learn to love tonight
we could learn to love tonight

once upon a time
in a nursery rhyme
we sang goodwill to men
embers in the grate
was it worth the wait
cause here we go again
give to charity
fight disparity
the caring time is here
the expense of it
the suspense of it
will santa come this year

one more dance around the year now
one more chance to put it right
one more fanciful idea
that we could learn to love tonight
we could learn to love tonight

one december night

One December Night

Við Gengum Tvö - cover

QIQI is designed for young audiences of all ages. It is related to works such as Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf or Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by Stoppard and Previn. It reflects on a changing world but it seeks communicate to audiences everywhere beyond the confines of language and avoiding translation and subtitles.
 
QIQI, involves 5 actors, a dancer and a choir with a 70-piece orchestra. The title reflects the stories told by 5 actors. It was devised with and directed by Claudio Valdés-Kuri and premiered in Mexico, February 2010.
 
Quichote (Rodrigo Tripp) is the creation of the 17th century author Cervantes;
Ibeji are Yoruban twin deities (Fabrina Melón and Edwin Calderón);
Quetzalcoatl (Gastón Yanes) is the plumed serpent from Meso-American mythology;
Iambe (Xóchitl Galindres) is the Greek Goddess of laughter;
The Moon is represented by a choir (Coro Femenino del COMEN, dir. Edgar Gutiérez) and a dancer (Erika Méndez);
The Sun is represented by the orchestra conductor (Luis Manuel Garcia);
 
All their stories are told without words. They are not replaced by mime, but through a pretend language (something akin to the tradition of commedia dell´arte or the grammelot deployed Dario Fo and Franco Raime) and the music. Composer Paul Barker and director Claudio Valdés Kuri worked similarly in their last collaboration, El Gallo, an opera for six actors and two string quartets without words. El Gallo also told stories through music and theatre without real words. 

Movement 1
Overture and Quichote’s Story
Entr'acte; Song of the Moon: First Quarter 
Quichote’s Story (continuation)

Movement 2
Iambe’s Story
Iambe’s Story (continuation)
Entr'acte; Song of the Moon: Second Quarter 

Movement 3
Ibeji’s Story
Entr'acte; Song of the Moon: Third Quarter 
Ibeji’s Story (continuation 1)
Ibeji’s Story (continuation 2)

Movement 4
Quetzalcoatl’s Story

Movement 5
Celebration
Postlude: Song of the Moon: Fourth Quarter

Recorded at premiere, 25 Feb 2020, Toluca, Mexico

02. Quichote 1

7 DIRTY SONNETS

Dirty Tricks, from 1997, was an opera inspired to director Chris Newell by the acrimonious Virgin Atlantic vs British Airways dispute. Stephen Chance wrote a libretto in iambic pentameter to underline the mock-heroic tone. The music was predominantly a cappella for six male voices alongside a single soprano. The only instrument in the opera was an electric bass guitar, which played Interludes in the form of Sonnets. 7 Dirty Sonnets is a recomposition of them for piano. 

Each sonnet is in the musical structure of the poetic form. For instance, each has fourteen musical phrases (either 4+4+4+2, or 8+6) which explore rhythms which explore iambic pentameter in different ways.

Paul Barker, June 2000 rev. September 2023

Dirty Sonnet 2

SONGS BETWEEN WORDS: 48 a cappella songs for one to any number of voices, all without text. Excerpts recorded on Entre Palabras (Quindecim 134) byLourdes Ambriz, Maria Huesca and Benito Navarro

18. Echo

'Sway' performed by Kat Hattersley and In The Pink jazz band
www.kathattersley.com

Sway

Composer, pianist, conductor, theatre director, teacher

02. Quichote 1

Paul Alan Barker

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