As usual I took my “gig sketching” gear with me; but instead of pictures, I came home with two poems: here’s the first. Keep scrolling down; the photo is from a 2016 rehearsal in the same church, Mike Cottam in charge as on Saturday.
17th September 2022
(St Mary’s Haverfordwest, Symphonica Tywi concert)
Rows of dots, silent commanders of surge and swell;
Sixty pairs of eyes on them
And on just one pair of hands, a single baton…
The Man In Black, from his podium
Leaning into the every approaching crest of ink:
Musical helmsman, his body surely knowing
His orchestra’s every nuance –
Ride of woodwind hull, tensions of string rigging,
Drumskin sails bellying with bass;
And, further aft beyond those ancient columns,
St Mary’s stone masts which spread aloft
Her oak beam spars,
The steamy-breathed brass engine room
With its superheated high-reaching silver.
Conduct us well, Maestro: navigate our ears
Across your emotion-charted sea, compass heading often changing.
Helm hard over at each movement’s end:
Ready about cellos and basses as
The ship’s bell triangle signals watch change
For harp and keyboard.
Every page over, match you the tidal tempo
Until it’s time to set the spinnaker of crescendo –
Then, let fly all:
Finesse her head-to-wind standstill
As we cross the last bar.
© Christopher Jessop 2022
