Background
John's Story
Making it happen
April 1st, 2005.
I take Orlando to John's home for a first meeting. I'm wary about presenting Orlando with such complete lyrics, mindful of the need for composers to inhabit material fully, to 'possess' text, the better to flex their creativity. But I need not have worried. John and Orlando immediately start transforming my 'poem' into a song by taking the scissors to it. Besides, Orlando has taken much more of a determining role with the lyrics of Position Vacant - the carers' song he is composing that is also part of our Requiem. It's impressive the way he applies his craft to these situations, riding the balance of authorship and collaboration. But we're all doing this, I suppose.
July 8th, 2005.
John's Song gets a first outing at our Celebration Event at the hospice - Martin singing to piano accompaniment. They rehearse the song from scratch just an hour before the event. The performance is great. There are tears in the audience and John is visibly moved.
Sept 13th 2005.
We record John's Song at Angel Studios. Orlando has arranged the song for accordion, bass, bass clarinet and piano - an instrumentation that brings out John's Scottishness, particularly the pipey cry of the accordion. The music evokes a picture of John and Gina being rowed the length of a loch, tiny figures against a glittering blue surface, with a massive mountain behind - all very romantic and almost certainly too cheesy to pursue.
My friend Keith, from the hospice, has driven John all the way up here to Islington from Plumstead. Keith also has lung cancer, but that's another story.
Half way through the recording John has to leave. I've noticed his breathlessness and can see that he's anxious. Plan B was to rush him down the road to UCH Accident and Emergency should there have been a problem, but John has decided to leave now. He's right. The anxiety brought on by breathlessness creates more breathlessness, and more anxiety - a vicious circle - and there's no nebuliser in this studio.
