Music
SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE Queen‘s Hall. Edinburgh Sat 4 Oct: Strathclyde Surte. Royal Concert Hall. Glasgow. Wed 9 Oct
APOCALYPSE
CCA. Glasgow. 8—9 Oct
The end of the world may or may not be nigh. but an ambitious new multimedia project will delve into images of the end from the Bible to JFK. The common link in these fiery tales of doom and disaster is the soundtrack. From the Book of Revelations onward. the end- game has been played out to the sound of the trumpet.
Mark O‘Keeffe. principal trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. had been mulling over that image when he went along to see Theatre Cryptic’s Black Over Red with the Latvian Radio Choir a couple of years ago. Blown away by the mix of music and theatre. he approached Cathie Boyd to discuss a project built around the trumpet.
‘I got together with Cathie and the composer for the project. Anthea Haddow. and it's amazing to look back on the first meeting we had, and then see how it has developed from that. The original concept was the ‘Book of Revelations‘,
because trumpet occurs so The end is nigh for O'Keeffe .3 . .' : _: ." " often in the Bible. . ; ' :w a "
‘We homed in on the image of the seven angels with their trumpets. and it grew from there. Anthea '" n.1, w :w'.‘ ‘il .' w '\ z " did an awful lot of research on the internet on ideas about the apocalypse and the end of the world, ' z «- : v r :f' w: ' ' I: - and she can report definitively that there are a lot of weirdoes out there.‘ " i- z ' t:
As the project developed, it was shaped into a successful multimedia proposal for the Scottish Arts Council‘s Creative Scotland Awards 2003. The creative team includes the three principals plus sound designer Kenny MacLeod and media artist Guy Van Belle.
‘One thing I should say is that it‘s not a religious work at all. We have taken material from the Bible, but also from other sources, including President Kennedy. It‘s more about our imagined versions of what the end of the world might be.
‘The Biblical imagery is central. though. The seven angels and seven soundings of the trumpet provide the structure, and we try to represent the music visually through movement and projected images.‘ (Kenny Mathieson)
siMPLE KID Edinburgh Venue. Sat 4 Oct
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