Sedbergh Festival of Books & Drama 2009

Emily Dickinson (1830–1836) is one of the best-loved American poets. Her writing grew out of Puritan hymnody, and this performance builds on that link by setting Dickinson’s poems to English hymn tunes of the era. To the tunes, arranged for a small folk/jazz ensemble, are added electronic sounds, instrumental solos, digital transformation of the singing, etc. The sound of people and traffic outside the venue will be captured live and transformed, with computer processing and a surround-sound setup, into a sonic metaphor for the isolation Dickinson experienced and the extreme mental states which she explored in her work. The composition and first performance of the piece were supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Andi Chapple is a sound artist living in Sedbergh. Andi Chapple and Musicians is a group of singers and instrumentalists which has developed Andi’s ideas in a number of performances in the last eighteen months. See www.music.freakout.biz for more details.