Join us for this exciting week-long project that will include harmony singing, percussion work, a massed choir and band, beginners and all levels of traditional harp, voice coaching, opportunities for improvisation and for solo performing, small group work… all culminating in a “snapshot” recording and performance.

3rd – 10th September 2011 Laurieston Hall, SW Scotland

In 1997 Tony Bonning and Ali Burns wrote a song cycle for community choirs called The Raven. Tony Bonning is a mythologist and writer with a special interest in creation myths from northern hemisphere cultures and in The Raven he took ideas from all these stories and wove them into a new creation story. His writings were set to music by Ali Burns and the piece was performed with community choirs all over Britain. Each time the cycle was performed the choir chose an extraordinary geological feature local to them and the story of how it came to be there was written into the cycle.

Although The Raven was recorded several times there was never a complete good recording made of it and in keeping with traditional myths and stories it was never written down, although hundreds of people learnt and sang it. Over the years many people have asked ‘Is there ever going to be a recording of The Raven?’ So here you are: Let’s record it.

Singers and instrumentalists are invited to join us here for a week of playing, improvising around and polishing of The Raven. Participants will be sent a learning pack of a script and CD of separate parts and tunes to listen to and learn a little before they arrive, so that the week is more about working together, creating and decorating rather than about learning from scratch. Written music can also be made available beforehand, but will not be used during the week. Towards the end of the week we’ll be joined by a sound engineer who’ll record the piece for posterity. The week will include a final night performance and participants will be sent a cd of the finished product. The aim is not to produce a perfect cd of The Raven but to make a record of it before it’s forgotten. Join us for what promises to be a memorable and special week.

Level of experience needed
This is not a difficult piece of music but whilst each line of singing is very simple and accessible there is a beautiful complexity when the layers of song and spoken text are put together. It’s possible to join the project as an inexperienced singer and take part in the percussion or harp work and/or the easy massed pieces. However there will also be opportunities for small group work, solos, for vocal and instrumental improvisation, for readers and for percussion work as well as harp at any level. It’s more important to be good at listening and working in a group and to have a sense of presence than to have vast experience of singing. Bring yourself and your talents and we’ll make the space for something extraordinary to happen. If you’re not sure how you’d fit in and would like a chat about it then phone Ali: 01556 503 646

Laurieston Hall is a well-run venue set in an area of rolling countryside: forest , farmland, lochs and wilderness. It is also home to a community and many of its members are involved in running the events that take place there. As well as the musical focus of the week there will also be time to enjoy walks; swimming, canoeing and rowing on the loch; an idyllic wood-fired sauna set by its own pond; wood fires – indoor and out; the huge walled vegetable garden; and to brush against the lives of the 25 adults and children who have made Laurieston Hall their home. The food at Laurieston Hall is home-cooked and vegetarian and special diets are catered for. It is a wheelchair-accessible venue.