Ragadawn
Outdoor sunrise performance
DATE: 2016 - ongoing
Duration: 55 mins
Caroline Bergvall: concept, texts, lead speaking voice
Gavin Bryars: composer vocal sequences
Peyee Chen: singer, soprano
Rebecca Horrox (2019): programming, live musician
Jeph Vander (2019): sound engineer, site-specific set-ups
OVERVIEW
Ragadawn is a sunrise vocal performance to be performed outdoors from the last hours of night until the very early morning. A multisensory composition for two voices, multiple recorded languages and electronic drones to accompany and celebrate the slow rising of day.
It draws on ancient and contemporary musical and literary sunrise traditions, while also addressing the linguistic territories of the UK and EU.
Language and languages, song and speech, sites and sounds, breath patterns, electronic frequencies and passing noise are all at work in this project. Ragadawn recalls the large rhythmic patterns that connect all beings both to nature and society, and the awakening of mind and body. It is a powerful and moving voicework performance which fights off contemporary isolation and reconnects audiences to time, place and each other.
GEOGRAPHIES
Ragadawn travels sonically, linguistically, geographically and transhistorically. Along the latitudes to follow the lengthening sunrise. And symbolically to activate the histories and movements of ancient lyrical poetry: a reminder of the rich and diverse influence of Middle Eastern song and poetry on the development of lyric poetry in Southern European territories through to far northern Gaelic and Nordic territories.
2018 – 2020
In 2018 we performed at two extraordinary sites: on the northermost coast of the Scottish Isles and in the harbour of France’s largest Southern city. Ragadawn 57°5 ’: Gaelic College, Isle of Skye: 25 August, 5:14am. Production partners: Atlas Arts/ Isle of Skye. Photos, performance and collective breakfast: Sophie Gerrard. Ragadawn 43°2’ : Mucem, Marseille: 5-6 October, 6.30 am. Venue partners: Actoral festival. Performing between the medieval fortress and the contemporary museum. Photo during perf. Marc Antoine Serra. After the performance/packing-up: team members. So far last performance, 9 March 2019, Western coast of Ireland, Galway 53°2’, a terrible storm forced us inside for the first time, large windows see the fierce dawn in, 2 days before European pandemic lockdown. Partners: Galway City of Culture 2019.
Since 2016, the live electronic dawn chorus of languages has been taken care of by various wonderful musicians: Ben Corrigan, Verity Susman, Rebbecca Horrox. The evening version 2021, will be installed by Jamie Hamilton.
Gaelic College, Isle of Skye
Mucem, Marseille
TWILIGHT
The change from dark to dusk to light, the transformation of shadows into outlines into shapes, all this brings about a complex range of experience explores both the celebratory and wondrous rise of day but also the hidden anxieties and rising sorrow it can provoke. Ragadawn tunes in to the ambiguity present with the rising of day.
The texts written and performed by Caroline Bergvall function as physical and rhythmic connective elements. Spoken lines are created as repetition patterns and vocalised breath rhythms. Working with composer Gavin Bryars and his long-standing interest in early european languages and medieval vocal forms has ensured that the song sequences also provide a luminous cross-historical vocal strand sung by Peyee Chen.
DAWN CHORUS OF LANGUAGES
At the heart of Ragadawn is the process of revitalizing connections between poetic forms as well as minority or migratory languages active in Europe. Anciently rooted languages, as well those present through more recent settlements.
Pre-recorded interviews with bilingual poets, language artists and speakers across Europe are integrated into the performance as its rich and interconnected dawn chorus of voices. They are developed into a chorus of polylinguistic voices.
2021: This process is revisited for the project’s new night performance version.
2016-2019: Punjabi – Southend | Romanche – Geneva | Berber – Paris | Farsi – Copenhagen | Andalus-Arabic – Library Research | Medieval Hebrew – Library | Galician – Santiago de Compostela | Arabic (North Africa) – Paris | Ladino – London | Provençal – Aix en Provence | Occitan – Toulouse | Sicilian – London | Anglo-Saxon – London | Welsh – Liverpool | Scottish Gaelic – Skye | Icelandic – Manchester | Groendlandic – Copenhagen | Nightingale – Stodmarsh | Irish – London |
2016
Tilbury Estuary
Red Cross Museum, Geneva
PAST EVENTS
46°2′ N
Geneva
9 & 10 Sept 2016
56°4′ N
Tilbury Docks
23 Sept 2016
57°5′ N
Isle of Skye
25 August 2018
43°2′ N
Marseilles
5 & 6 October 2018
SOLSTICE 2015
A first version of the piece was initiated in June 2015 as a commission from the MAMCO museum, Geneva. Also performed at SALT festival, Bodø, Northern Norway.
In 2016, the work was expanded. Gavin Bryars joined the project; language recordings began. It premiered as Ragadawn in Geneva & Southend, Sept 2016.
These early versions (2015/16) were devised and produced with Artistic Collaborator, Swiss dramaturg Michèle Pralong. UK support (2016) from Michelle Hirshhorn-Smith, Dea Vanagan & Emma Wilcox.
