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      • S+Bar/pf
      • 16 min

      Programme Note

      Commissioned by the Oxford Lieder Festival, The Thought Machine (August 2016) sets ten poems from Kate Wakeling's first collection of children's poetry, Moon Juice (2016) – an anthology "full of curious characters and strange situations ... musical, sometimes magical, and full of wonder at the weirdness of the world". On the one hand, the words and currents, the fantasy, of a child. On the other, the sophistication and tides, the fantasticality, of an adult. Cheryl has journeyed the Schumann road before (One Life Stand, 2011), and her way with subtexts, associations, parody and distillation – the notion of obeisance - has always been Schumannesque. At times Robert's Album for the Young or Scenes from Childhood seem but a step away from The Thought Machine. The creator as 'moonstruck maker of charades'. The trickiness of the vocal and piano writing is considerable. Especially, one notes, the attention to pedalling, prolonged depression of the damper (as well as sostenuto in New Moon) leading to a dancing resonance of overtones and misty images floating in and out of focus. Unexpected twists bring a smile, for one the 'optional egg shaker, or any other percussion instrument that rattles' allocated to soprano and baritone in the sixth song, Machine. For another the theatrical cues: "Baritone could act as if asleep in a car" (Night Journey); "Soprano could have been staring horribly at the baritone … making the baritone freeze" (Rita the Pirate). Shadow Boy touches magic, Comet, closing the cycle, thrills.

      The Thought Machine was given its first performance by Sophie Daneman, Mark Stone and Sholto Kynoch (dedicatees respectively of the second, third and sixth numbers), at the Holywell Music Room, 27 October 2016.

      © Ates Orga

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