A COMPOSER'S BLOG
Tony Haynes, composer/creative director of the Grand Union Orchestra, tells the inside story of his music for the orchestra, its musicians and colourful history.
88: The First 9/11
On Tuesday September 11th 1973, the democratically-elected socialist government of Chile was overthrown in an army-led coup in the capital Santiago, with the support of Nixon and the CIA. The popular President, Salvador Allende, was murdered, and General Augusto Pinochet installed as Dictator. His authoritarian rule continued for 17 years.
As I write, this is the 50th anniversary of the Coup, and for me it has an even greater poignancy: it was exactly 40 years ago that Vladimir Vega, enforced Chilean exile, joined Grand Union Music Theatre for our seminal touring show Strange Migration. He remained a core member of the Company, and one of its most significant artists, for the next 30 years until his untimely death at the age of 60 in 2013 – so this is the also the 10th anniversary of that sad event.
The Coup and its aftermath
In the days that followed the Coup, most of Allende’s supporters and those sympathetic to his ideals were rounded up; the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died in mysterious circumstances, while the popular singer/songwriter Victor Jara had his hands cut off before being killed. Countless numbers simply ‘disappeared’, while thousands of others were thrown into prison.
Among them was a twenty-year-old student activist Vladimir Vega. Like many of his peers, he used his time in jail to master the traditional instruments of South America – panpipes, kena, charango, cuatro – and develop an extensive knowledge of his country’s rich folklore. In the spirit of Victor Jara – whose ‘Nueva Canción’ movement had played a great part in supporting the reforming ideals of Allende and his party – Andean folk music and contemporary songs based on it came to embody a form of resistance to the régime of the new leader, General Pinochet.
Five or six years after the Coup – in response to agitation from the UN, human rights leaders and the international trade union movement – an amnesty was declared, allowing the luckier ones to be released into exile in different countries around the world. Vladimir settled in London, which is where I first met him in 1983. They naturally brought their musical heritage and traditional songs with them, but Vladimir also took the view that his responsibility was to make his life here as an artist, and to fashion a new identity as a British musician. For this he gained enormous respect for his courage, humanity and persistence.
What he couldn’t leave behind, of course, was the traumatic memory of his experience in Chile in the 1970s, and his deep concern and compassion for all those who suffered worse than he did. Expressing this became the centre of his art, what he always wrote about. For better or worse, many artists successfully exorcise their demons in this way, but others risk simply torturing themselves further.
Vladimir Vega and the Grand Union Orchestra
Shortly after his death, I wrote an obituary of Vladimir (Post 26), paying tribute to him as an independent artist, with details of our collaboration and his work with the Grand Union Orchestra over the years. There are other references and links to his songs and performances in that article.
The performance I have chosen here to illustrate our work together, and commemorate this significant anniversary, comes from On Liberation Street, which focused on three international conflicts involving a generation after the end of the Second World War (1973/74), but this is just one of several large-scale pieces in the Grand Union repertoire based around Vladimir’s own experience, brought to life through his artistry.
WHEN WE LEFT (music by Tony Haynes, lyrics by Vladimir Vega and David Bradford)
There are two solo voices and a girls’/women’s chorus, all Vladimir’s instruments are featured, with student percussion and brass ensembles and two jazz soloists to enhance the narrative. Imagine the high voice is a kind of shaman, indigenous spirit of the Andes or a mythical condor hovering above, observing the gathering of migrants and blessing their journey; an aeroplane, the silver bird, blue sky and brilliant ocean dominate the imagery. While the texture or harmony changes, however, each of the melodies follows the same notes and contours before gradually coming down to earth; Vladimir’s verses of course are grounded in a harsh reality throughout.
Synopsis and Lyrics
00’.15” Panpipes solo
02’.05” Narrator: the Coup and its aftermath
03’ 35” From high in the absolute stillness of the sky
My dream looks down and sees an aeroplane
Poised on the tarmac like a silver bird
Shimmering in the heat it seems to be
Already in flight over a brilliant ocean
05’ 05” Between sea and sky I travel leaving behind
Faces, a multitude shouting in silence
Break the chains give us liberty
Behind we left the dead, behind we left the night
When we left, when we left
05’ 40” Yo no quiero mi tierra herida e oscura
Yo no quiero mi tierra vestida de sangre
06’ 05” Who are these crowds strolling towards the aeroplane
Between high mountains and a brilliant ocean?
Bruise-torn bone-snapped flesh-burnt they seem to be
Assembling here beneath this silver bird
As for a journey to the far edge of a blue sky
07’ 15” Behind we left benighted land
And three thousand people who will never return
Twelve bells rang from the church
Twelve hundred men left for dead
Rivers of flesh meandering from the mountains to the sea
When we left, when we left
07’ 55” Yo no quiero mi tierra herida e oscura
Yo no quiero mi tierra vestida de sangre
08’ 15” The vanished disappeared and dead they seem to be
Now gathered up and climbing through a blue sky
Bright marvellous wings the silver bird
Tucks up his long shanks like an aeroplane
Brass-tongued his cry echoing a brilliant ocean
09’ 05” Charango and strings
10’ 05” Let us who look up at the circling aeroplanes
Hauling their migrant cargoes through a blue sky
Hold fast to their names, their memories, let them be
Welcome as travellers over brilliant oceans
To sing out winter in our streets like birds of silver
10’ 40” Instrumental section (alto sax and trumpet solos)
14’ 00” Kena solo
14’ 50’ I never wanted to see my land hurt and in darkness
I never wanted to see my land shrouded in blood
15’ 30” Come summer, call them back home again my silver bird
O lightning bird winged like an aeroplane
Call them back home again where they shall surely be
Named and restored once more beneath a blue sky
Honoured in cities by this brilliant ocean
For more on this subject, go to Post 26 In Memoriam Vladimir Vega where you will also find more music and songs, and a fuller account of Vladimir’s work with the Grand Union. Here, for example,is an earlier version of When We Left, fascinating because it also introduces images and archive photos from Vladimir Vega’s own collection:
Afterword
As I was writing this Post and reviewing past shows, I realised how much When We Left encapsulates the work and spirit of the Grand Union Orchestra and my compositional approach in writing for its amazingly diverse artists. It is as much about theatre as music, and expresses historical, political and social issues, through the imagination and artistry of those who have experienced their impact at first hand, or part of whose heritage or life experience they form. The appearance of magical, mythical, mystical figures is very much part of this.
For me, this potent combination is the very essence of art, and the root of its unique capacity to excite, move and heal audiences and participants alike.
A COMPOSER'S BLOG 