July 16^th

 

 

A very busy day, with Henry (aged 15 on work experience all week) and Ellen (aged 10 with us that day because of the teacher’s strike).

 

We managed to get a very wonderful Triparks element in the midst of a day that started with a performance of a new story/music show for children at Landscove School and that ended with a Japanese music meeting at Loddiswell.

 

We drove to Castle Drogo. The last castle to be built in England (apart from – of course – all those millions of sandcastles, castles made from blankets in the front room, castles and dens in woods…). I had arranged in advance that I would be coming and the National Trust seemed (what can you tell on the phone?) to be both pleased and interested. They advised that I get there well before 2pm as there was a large coach party of 70 foreign students arriving and they don’t usually cater for such big parties in one go.

 

We arrived at the castle, ready to play their three pianos. My plan was that I would play two of them and Henry the other one.  He played the best grand piano, as he is the ‘best’ pianist and anyhow, I prefer the slightly more rustic and cronky pianos.

 

We worked out the melody for CASTLE DROGO (sitting on the bench outside this large solid block of a place) and I decided that we would add (for each room) the name of the room (Library, Drawing Room and Boudoir) and then see if in addition we could add in the name of somebody also in that room at the time we worked.

 

We did achieve all of these things. The volunteers were very happy to see us and directed us to the library. A grand piano. The melody was slow and slightly dark (like the room, filled with inaccessible books – Henry asked if he could read any and was refused) and not very playful (like the first subbuteo game from 100 years ago set out on the table in the middle of the room). The steward in the room was Dora Cowland. She insisted that I say her name Dora in a Scottish way – more like Doora. Not a very inspiring tune really (it seemed to me) so I didn’t play for long. Dora interested in the idea we were working on.

 

Next to the Drawing Room. A bigger room filled with light and another grand piano. Henry worked on this one. I chatted to Maureen Fletcher, the steward here. ‘I’ve been here a long time’ she told me (what – in the drawing room? at Castle Drogo? On this earth?). She didn’t seem very impressed with us, even when I told her that we would put her name into the music. I worked out her melody and took it over to Henry, who was still working on ‘Castle Drogo Drawing Room’. He continued and I overheard Maureen telling other visitors that usually they don’t let people play the piano. I could tell the tone in her voice was that she didn’t really think that we (or Henry in this instance) could, and the problem for us (with regard to Maureen) was that we were exploring the name and the place in music and not playing what she might have been expecting (some Chopin or Oscar Peterson, or possibly a tune from Les Mis?). So what she (and the other visitors) were listening to was some live composition.

 

The rule that I have set myself has become more focussed since having Henry with me this week. That is that I don’t play anything else on the keyboard in the Dartmoor location except for the name of that place and subsequent variations/developments. So I set up the microphone and recorder first and then open the keyboard and sit down and play, so my relationship with that particular instrument is entirely based on the name of the place where I am playing. I realised (as Maureen and her group of NT visitors listened and chatted) that this has drawbacks as a performance piece.

 

After about 15 minutes, it was clear that Henry wanted some more time to develop his piece. So I left him there and went up to the Boudoir. Here there was an upright piano tastefully decorated with bits of sheet music. The steward was Dennis Knapp. He explained that he played a bit on his electric organ at home. I showed him my system and he was very interested, as were a few other visitors in the room. I decided to make the Boudoir a waltz. This seemed to work really well. Dennis came over and looked at the manuscript. I have a feeling that he might go home and play his name again on his own organ.

 

After a few minutes Don Balsom came in to replace Dennis. It was volunteer steward changeover time. Don was very chatty – we talked about teaching and how long he had been there (fifteen years – once a week or more) and how he grew up on Dartmoor and used to walk alone over the moor to the cinema as a child and that could never happen now. I added his name into the waltz also so I had a structure of:

 

Castle Drogo Boudoir Dennis Knapp Castle Drogo Boudoir Don Balsom (and repeat).

 

This little performance got some very positive response from Don and other visitors. Henry came up to join me and Ellen. He had finished his drawing room piece, so we then went back to the Drawing Room and he played it to me and we recorded it again. Maureen still seeming very unimpressed.

 

We left and had our picnic on the tables which were supposed to be for the restaurant only. A small girl rolled down the hill in front of us. The NT women at the main desk were very pleased that we had achieved what we set out to achieve and looked forward to hearing the results.

 

We drove back down towards Moretonhampstead. As we arrived at the first road junction there was a long wait. A big hold up. Two buses (holding all the foreign students expected at 2pm – and it was already 2.45) and a lorry were completely stuck. One of the bus drivers was doing some road traffic guidance in a useful but grumpy way. We had to go via Chagford and I dread to think how long it would be till the traffic mess was cleared. I don’t think the bus drivers were supposed to go that way. The lanes are too small. Henry navigated us our unexpected diversion with aplomb.

July 15^th

 

Tuesday – a day for exploring some churches and spaces on the East of Dartmoor working with Henry (with me on work experience for the week, staying over at my house as he lives 25 miles away). Henry plays piano and guitar and loves Chopin and the Beatles.

 

I phoned up Castle Drogo and had a good chat about the project and arranged to go there the following day. The National Trust seemed very positive that I should come along and play their three pianos. I can’t think why I had not considered Castle Drogo earlier, as I visited it nearly two years ago and enjoyed playing the pianos then. In fact after that particular occasion I had the idea of playing all the NT keyboards and making a CD of new tunes for the N Trust to market. Nothing more has come of this until now.

 

 

I drove and Henry navigated. We first visited Hennock Church. Open and swallows in the porch. A big harmonium and an electric keyboard. I played the harmonium. It was really hard work, massive pedalling for very little sonic effect. There was a note on the side that said

 

To Use Foot-Blowers

1)    Push in handle

2)    Raise handle to top of slot and secure it there with bolt

3)    Open foot blowers

 

I did all this, but it made not much difference. But it seems as if this technical fault was manifested in other ways aswell. (However we didn’t discover that till we got to Christow – next on the journey.) I played Hennock and added in the tune for Henry Tozer as he was the person I found there.

 

Henry then played the Technics electric keyboard. Henry stuck to the request of only white notes, but couldn’t resist an Ab (or was it a G#) at various moments during his playing. He plays very differently from me. A more florid and romantic style. Mine seems smaller and more folksy by comparison.

 

We recorded both keyboard pieces and the swallows in the porch. We left the mic and MD in the porch and left it on so that the swallows would come in and out. As we waited while the recording was taking place we noticed a woman tending a grave. She was using bright coloured flowers and talking to herself bent over.

 

We then drove on in the hot sun to Christow. Slightly longer route than was expected.

 

Sat outside the church on one of those benches that surround the tree. Ate a sandwich and listened back to the previous recording. It was not good. Damaged. Not a problem with the mic? New batteries? I blew in the machine and thereafter it seemed to work fine.

 

Christow had an organ only. It was locked. We searched for the key and thought we found it at one point, but it was for a display case.

I like the idea of looking for the key. Searching for the key. What is the key for Dartmoor.

So after searching a while we sat in the porch (no swallows) with melodica (Hugh) and guitar (Henry) and played the Christow tune. We added in St James and then also the mysterious names on a gravestone right in front of the main entrance. They were for Nicholas Burell and Wall (?) Burell who dies in 1639. This gravestone won’t last much longer if people keep standing on it to enter the church. The words are being worn away. The porch was surprisingly dark.

 

Our piece was a combination of Christow, St James, Nicholas Burell and Wall Burell.

Henry added a tierce de Picardy (making the last chord of a tune in the minor into a major chord). This meant he turned A minor to A Major. This meant a C# a black note. He couldn’t help himself.

 

 

We had planned on three or 4 churches before getting to Moretonhampstead to meet with Med theatre, and it seemed we would only have time for one more village – Bridford – especially as it had potentially two churches.

 

A locked organ and cronky piano. You know my preference anyway by now.

I played the BRIDFORD tune for a while and then Henry played his variation.

 

While Henry was playing I wrote this:

 

Bridford

 

Dale Forty

Very cronky piano

Another rood screen

No-one around

Swallows in the porch

Organ locked

Hot sun outside

Always the car heating up

Robert de Wordolby 1311

Strong smell of lilies

 

Does every porch have swallows?

Does every swallow see a porch and see a home?

Swallows the religious birds.

Shitting on the steps.

Signs saying to keep them out of the church

Henry playing in the background

 

Henry walking

Wind and streams

First wild strawberries

Bitter

From where the dogs might pee

 

 

I recorded the swallows in the porch and Henry was still playing. This mix of sounds was very good.

We then walked around the village, tried the chapel (locked), sat in the village garden, smelt the marjoram, recorded the brook and the squeaky gate. I put the headphones on Henry and asked him to walk in front of me and he had a few minutes of amplified aural Bridford.

 

Drove to Moretonhampstead. Didn’t stop at a Tor, though it looked inviting. Some discussions as to the route.

 

Moretonampstead – went to visit Mark Beeston in Med Theatre.

 

Had a very good chat with him and a cup of tea. Mark revealed that he had wanted to be a composer as a child. I suggested that we search out his early ideas and he thought that he would probably have them somewhere.

 

I explained what I was doing and told Mark about the D minorness of Dartmoor as revealed by the tunes so far uncovered. He said that chimed with him; he always thought of Dartmoor as a D minor sound. Maybe this related to Mahler (9^th symphony). Something about a funeral march and going through the fog. I felt very excited that the clear D minorness of the tunes was vindicated in this way, although what that really means I do not know.

 

I asked about the profile of music in Dartmoor. He said Baring Gould, the Dartmoor Music Festival at S Zeal and the Wren Trust. Other than that not much. Someone called Stanbrooke wrote a piece called High Willhays and Gillian Webster has written many pieces for Med Theatre. Also the Broom Dance

 

Interesting theory that an area (unless very geographically isolated – eg a small island) needs a degree of self-consciousness about it, in order to get a culturally distinctive identity. This has not happened musically in Dartmoor, although it is now what Seth Lakeman is doing

 

Interesting that Mark’s research into writing looked at the mystery plays from Ashburton and the Robin Hood from Chagford. He also told us about John Ford the playwright and the poet William Brown (1620 ish) who adapted classical models to Dartmoor.

 

He also said we should get in touch with Tom Greeves a local historian who would have loads more to say if we wanted it.

 

 

Finally visited the tourist information centre and had a friendly brief encounter with the attendant/sales person in it about this residency and a map and a book. Like all people connected to the National Park, the woman there seemed very friendly and wanting to help.

 

 

Fiction

 

Something in this day made me think of the fiction that I have not invented this musical/sonic way of mapping Dartmoor, but have uncovered the fact that somebody else did this.

I think it is probably a woman and probably from the first half of the 19^th Century and she is a daughter of a vicar in Dartmoor, who learned the piano as a child. One time had this idea of tunes relating to places and wrote about it and I discovered this writing and then begin with (Val Harrison’s – the Historic Buildings officer approach) a process of speculative reconstruction.

 

I think her name might be Sally Meddon, but now I am going to research her in earnest. 

Dartmoor Trip – June 23, 24, 25

 

A walk with Volkhardt, carrying between us two melodicas, a tripod (with the wrong connection on the top as it turned out, so just extra weight training) a video camera, a mini-disc recorder, microphones, two cameras, cake made by Volkardts daughter, a stove, sleeping bags, notebooks, a tent, water, water purifying tablets, japanese umeboshi, hats, walking boots and more.

 

Our route over two and a half days was:

 

Meldon Reservoir

West Okement River

Stunted Oaks at Black-a-tor copse

Lints Tor

Great Kneeset

Head of West Okement

Head of East Dart

Kit’s Rocks (camping)

Broad Marsh

Sandy Hole Pass

Waterfall

Grey Wethers Stone Circles

Teignhead Farm (camping)

Teignhead

Whitehorse Hill

Hangingstone Hill

Okement Hill

Fordsland Ledge

High Willhays

Yes Tor

Longstone Hill

Meldon Reservoir

 

We stopped and balanced stones, played tunes, talked, bathed in the streams, camped as near as we could to the source of all the water, heard constant skylarks and stonechats (our companions all the way), heard constant Volkhardt talking, made a film, found an adder (Volkhardt picked it up to show me) found a very deep bog and retreated our steps (Broad Marsh).

 

Some writings en route

 

23/6/08 – 2.30pm on the W Okement

 

Walking a Straight Line

 

Walking to the source of all the water

Stunted oak

Two toads

Insect eating plants

Sweaty back

Great Kneeset straight ahead

A great view

Kneeset – from Israel

From the bible

Makes me think of my knees

Go on a straight line

Up the river he said.

 

 

I played the tune of Black-a-tor copse on the soprano melodica

BEACD A FAD CABEE

 

Recorded the stream

 

Then up on Lint’s Tor (a beautiful place in mid-afternoon sun) strange faces in the rocks and first discovering Volkhardt’s stone balancing.

 

Lint’s Tor

 

Take a stone on to the top of a Tor

A meditation

Find a stone

Take it up

Set it

Re-set it

All the time the skylarks sing

Up and down

Rain threatening

Wind up

A meditation

‘If the wind wasn’t such a problem, I’d have it set by now’

All the time the skylarks sing

Sheep bleat humanlike

All around

A meditation

Sun out and yet grey still threatens

I’ll play the tune again

 

 

The tune for Lint’s Tor

 

EBGFE F A D

(The melody for TOR is FAD – a d minor triad, it’s becoming a fixture of Dartmoor it seems the D minor-ness, occasional G Major and sometimes when the B dominates a kind of locrian mode.

 

Instructions for

A Performance Piece For Dartmoor

 

Find a Tor                                   

 

Sculptor                                                Musician

Choose a rock                                                Make a tune for the Tor

Carry it or roll it to the right place            Play it around the Tor

Balance it                                                As the stone is balanced

 

 

Good steep walking up to Great Kneeset in the grey and then a mass of bog, at the source of allthe water. We missed Cranmere Pool – with all the mythology attached I somehow thought this appropriate. Very hard walking and now tired, walking away from the sun and the greyness. The first hard ground we came to (Kit’s Rocks) – so therefore the nearest we could camp to the source of the Dart – we camped. Just by the E Dart, cows in the distance sometimes disguising themselves as two people. On this last stretch of the day’s walk we kept seeing other walkers, some ven kite-flying and some in big groups, but in fact they were all cattle, tricking us in the light and tiredness.

We had a meal, put up the tent, slept. First night not so good for me (second night not so good for V). Bathed in the Dart, ate breakfast, packed up, then down the Dart till Sandy Hole Pass. Here we stopped for filming and rest and playing and I wrote this.

 

Dartdown

 

Snipe in the night

Like an insect buzzing

Camping as near to the source of the Dart

As we could without sinking

Kit rocks

Sound of the water

Wake to skylarks

Always skylarks

Bathe naked in the cold Dart

Peaty water

Boil it for tea

Pack and leave

Down through Broad Marsh

An appropriate name

Halfway through, but a blanket of moss

Atop an eternity of swamp

Deeper than Volhardt’s stick

It would suck you in.

So a retreat and around

Watched by cows

And talking of could we drown

And boundaries

And shell holes

And cattle

Down to Sandy Hole Pass

 

 

Tunes for Kit Rocks – DBF BACDE

And Broad Marsh            BDAAD FADEA

 

 

At Sandy Hole Pass we stopped and Volkhardt balanced a stone and thought he found his spot for a straight line of balanced stones so a potential film with me playing music and he balancing. This was when we found we had the wrong attachment for the tripod, so set the camera in some moss on top of the hill. During the next hour Volkhardt balanced nine stones (three on the West side of the dart and six to the East) and I played both melodicas and moved and spoke (using a radio mike). I started by playing the Sandy Hole Pass melody

(EAGDD AAEE BAEE) and then developed from there.

I ended with a tune and a rhythm for the shape of the final balanced stones

GGA   EG  AB  D  D

 

My meditation (recorded) was about what Volkhardt was doing with the stones finding, rolling, moving, balancing, holding, kissing, leaving…

 

Another about the stone chat and Volkhardt

Stonechat

Volkhardt

Stone chart

Stone art

Hard stone

Stone tune

Tone song…

 

I’ll revisit it from the film and check.

 

We finished after 70 minutes. A massive helicopter (a ‘banana’ Volkhardt later told me) flew low over at one point and knocked one of the balanced stones into the river.

Sometimes I ‘played Volkhardt setting a stone’ sometimes I played the valley.

We ate lunch, more tinned fish and raw onion and home-made bread, and drank tea and coffee and (probably unwisely for me) had a celebratory mouthful of pear schnapps (from Volkhardt’s hip flask). I think this and a combination of little sleep, carrying the tent (it was my turn) and playing the melodica for an hour then gave me a headache which lasted the rest of the day even with aspirin.

 

Next walking stil down the E Dart and V now excited about various stone projects. He kept stopping and finding and was buzzing. I alked ahead of him and waited by a stream where I was filling up the water bottles. He arrived carrying a snake. It was a beautiful adder. He put it down and we watched it. We talked about picking up the snake and the lack of smell and the beauty of the animal. It slithered away.

 

We now went north, met two other walkers with tents.

Up to The Grey Wethers – double stone circle repaired.

Lay down in the middle and played melodicas together. Very good.

The Grey Wethers tune

FAE GDED BEFAEDE

 

Interesting that it has  repeated motif (FAE) within the whole melody and the fact that there were two stone circles. There was anpther man there in wellies who was taking photographs, I think he might have been annoyed with us, lying in the middle with our bright rucksacks, lying down playing strange Japanese instruments to the skylarks. He didn’t say anything. V talked about how although he loves stones and stone setting and dry-stone-walling, he feels nothing/little for stone circles.

 

We walked on to Teignhead Farm. Disused.

Evidently popular for campers.

Headache bad so stopped.

Washed feet in the stream.

Saw extraordinary clapper bridge and stone flagging/road.

Ate soup, had a fire, slept early.

 

Last Match

 

Morning

Grey, scuddy rain,

Midges without.

Warm drink

Ate the remains of the cake

Packed up and left

Upthe Teign

Up and up

Water from the Teign stream

Clear, but still adding the chlorine

Up to High Willhays

Hat and gloves

Hot and sweat

Windy blowing the rucksack cover away and down

Running after it (down and up)

Yes Tor

Hidden lunch

Last match struck

Coffee, tuna, black bread, onion

Down the stretch to meldon

Dog chasing sheep

Volkhardt chasing dog

Car still there

Footsore

 

 

Drove Volkhardt to Exeter. We drank tea and smoothie and watched half of the Sandy Hole Pass film and talked about what to do next.

I was tired and bumped into the back of a car at a roundabout in Kingsteinton on the way home fortunately no damage.

 

Final thoughts:

 

Adder

Bog blanket

Headaches

Lints Tor

Dart Valley

Double Stone Circle

Farm and Fire

Wooden valley

No-one around

New tunes, old sounds

Snipe in the night

Doormouse, frog, toad

Skylark

Stonechat

Clear water

Naked bathe

Helicopter

Footsore

13 June

 

A short day, but full and varied.

 

Meeting with Willem in the National Park office plus arranging education visits and talking about the Arts document that Willem is producing.Then also a discussion about music and Dartmoor. Arranging school visits. And a brief update on my idea for a web/console piece.

 

Discovered about the existence of a Dartmoor cattle grid piece!

 

Chat with Jo Rumble and she gave me stuff from Val and we discussed one or 2 old age groups to be involved. So final week now looking very busy.

 

Like the idea (from the Thurlow book) of the parish map as a document for making music around.

 

Next to Buckland In The Moor arrived at 12.10pm– harmonium and key – very good, no-one around. Went into the church, light and airy, a locked harmonium! Very unusual. AND an electric organ (with the bright coloured green, red and yellow levers). This one had a home made dust cover and a mains lead and a socket on the wall, but I couldn’t get it to work.

 

Having had experience of getting into churches with my Dad as a child I hunted around for the harmonium key and eventually found it.

 

BUCKLAND

 

Buckland in the moor

A mothering church

In the week before Father’s day

 

Harmonium

Harmonium locked

That can’t be.

Where’s the harmonium key?

 

Organs are often locked

I found a locked piano the other day

In Moretonhampstead

So I recorded the clock instead

It went in and out

Of phase with itself.

 

I found the harmonium key

Hidden at the back of the church

On a peg

Behind a curtain

Next to the bell ropes

A bent up legge

A home-made key

 

Now I can play

Back to the rood screen

A long melody

17 notes, the same ending as

Widecombe in the Moor.

But a much better tune

For all that that I could open the harmonium.

 

I recorded the tune,

Took a photograph

Put the key back on the peg

The bent up legge

Behind the curtain

 

Wrote a prayer for my Mum

Muriel

In the Mother’s prayer book.

Took a postcard without paying

I had no money

I’ll pay next time

 

 

Next to Leusdon – big restored church organ open but mains power hidden, so couldn’t fire it up so instead played melodica in the porch with the swallows flitting in and out, up to their nests in the ceiling. Big view from the porch. Leusdon is a Victorian Church and St John The Baptist is the patron saint. I hadn’t done a saint’s name in music before, but enjoyed this one. As I had been thinking of baptisms when I drove past the Dart at Spitchwick I remembered Nancy had recommended it as a good swimming spot, so, in the clouded afternoon and in the shade of the trees swam.

 

Swam in the Dart

Cold, cold chest

Under the trees

Next to the lovers

I splashed little

Spitchwick way

Such buzzing and blazing as I get out

Cold, cold and hot

I ate a pear

On my way

 

 

June 11

 

Driving and Churches

 

Drove first to North Bovey, where I had been previously in the week with Val, took a quick look at the thatched roof on the house and then into the church. Found the harmonium, wedged it underneath so it wouldn’t fall over and then started playing – using the North Bovey melody GADFA BAAED (and recording it). As I was playing it an elderly man and woman walked in and looked around, after a while, when I wasn’t playing, the man came over to me and said ‘you brought the church to life – thankyou.’ They then left. A woman then came in and began to do the flowers at the altar end of the church. I went to talk to her and asked her her name. She told me it was Catherine Smith, I told her I would put her name into music. So I added her name to the piece (CAFAEDBGE EFBFA = Catherine Smith) and played it, her name has a lovely mlody to it, light and flowing and more like the flowers than the heavy solidity of the church and the melody inherent in North Bovey. I went back and spoke with her again and she said I should play the main organ upstairs. I went and unlocked it, but didn’t enjoy it as much as the more cronky harmonium. Catherine Smith did though, she liked the sound of the whole church humming.

 

Outside and recoded the green and then the Bovey river.

 

The afternoon turned into a musical instrument journey.

Manaton (and Widecombe from earlier) only had church organs and both were locked.

 

In Lustleigh the Baptist Curch was closed (open 9.30-11.30 on Wednesday mornings, but I could see through the window a piano and a keyboard. Maybe I’ll go back.

The Anglican church had a locked organ.

The Gospel Hall was beautifully derelict – no sign of a keyboard.

The village hall locked and no piano (I asked in the shop)

Recorded both sides of the stream in Lustleigh.

 

Moretonhampstead – church piano locked (grand) and I’d like to play that one, but instead recorded the clock at the back of the church – it went in and out of phase with itself. While recordeing the clock my car key must have fallen ut of my pocket. Luckily when I went back an hour later (slightly worried) it was still there.

Baptist church locked.

Visited the library and picked up leaflets about George Parker Bidder the maths genius from Moreton

 

Chagford

Church open and very noisy automatic lighting system. Nice piano, so played the Chagford theme – CAAGFADD (the D minorness again) and as I was playing a male/female couple walked in. Visiting from California. Robin Hild was one and he and I chatted. I put his name into the theme. Robin Hild = DABBG ABED – he liked the combination of Chagford and his name.

 

Gidleigh

Driving to Gidleigh from Chagford the signposts always seemed to say 1 ¼ miles. As if I was locked in an Alice in Wonderland world. Maybe I should go back and see how many 1 ¼ mile signs to Gidleigh there are. Tiny lanes, high hedges, much reversing, especially with the school mini-bus. Nice newish looking small organ locked.

 

Finally  Throwleigh – scratched my car trying to park. Church open and blue organ. Very nice and good sound. Throwleigh tune FADABEEBGA. AS I was playing an older man and a younger man (father son I rather thought) came in, but I didn’t talk to them. I had a long drive back and needed to leave. I took a photo of the blue organ.

 

108 miles.

Lots of ideas

Lots of recordings.

June 10^th

 

Arrived at Parke early, and Val explained that she’d be bsuy for a while, so I had two very interesting and useful hours in the library with books and maps and chats and thoughts.

 

Played the game of looking for a book and then seeing where this book led me.

 

Dartmoor – by Harvey and St Leger-Gordon 1953 (reprinted 1970)

P 179

The same lack of a legendary background is noticeable in the songs of the district. Rather perhaps it is reflected in the exceedingly meagre musical store. Apart from Widecombe Fair and the Tavistock Goosey Fair ditty – which is more or less a variation on the same theme – there is no outstanding Dartmoor song… During a 30 year residency in the locality [Widecombe] I have heard Widecombe fair once only.’

 

Found other stuff on superstition, birds, Baring Gould (and made me think I should get in touch with Wren, but haven’t yet, and now maybe not enough time).

 

Then started to think about the tunes of all the rivers and started to discover that there really is a D minor aspect to the moor, occasionally leavened by G major. Dart, Ply, Tavy, Walkham, Lyd, West and East Okement, Tor, Bovey and Yealm are all D minor tunes and Teign, Ashburn and Avon are G major ones.

 

Then met up with Val  (historic buildings officer) who took me on another journey. The first part of the journey chatting about my Spngline Day at the DNP away-day, and she speculating how it was in the west that we got places pre-maps (when the aborigines sang their maps)?

 

We went first to North Bovey for Val to look at a thatch restoration. She told me about the difference between combed wheat reed and water reed and the grants that you can get and how water reed is an alien. We saw some thatching going on as we drove by near Manaton. Val looked at the roof, she made some notes. Bats in the thatch. I asked for a copy of the grant application. I liked the words.

 

Before we left N Bovey I looked in the church and found a rickety open harmonium. I must come back

 

Thatch Grant Aid Scheme (Reduced)

 

The ridge shall be plain

Combed wheat reed be used

Two weeks notice be given

 

Record and sample the thatch

If removing the base coat

Don’t disturb protected bats

 

 

 

 

Next visited Bittleford Farm.

Emotionally complicated

Long-established farming family

Wants a new farm building

Soakaway

Replace a swimming pool

I need to get further away

 

Bittleford Dilemma

 

Request to build a new farm-building at Bittleford farm for the farmer now disabled who still takes part, to have a purpose built house for him, so his son can have the main farm.

Characters – farm couple in their early 50’s,

 Val (historic buildings officer)

 and me.

 

 

husband

I was in the wheelchair last year

But they gave me Campath – that’s used to treat leukaemia

Now I can hobble around a short distance

My son is 26 now

He runs the farm

We have a farmhand – aged 18

Lives in Liverton

My Mother and father in their 70’s

Still like to take a part

They still live here

I’ve worked here since I was 16

100 hours a week

I’ve done the property up

One day I was driving up and it seemed as if the cars were coming at me 2 abreast

MRI scan seven years ago

MS

I’d want my son to move into the farm house

As soon as possible

 

I told the architect I needed an undercover balcony

So I could be inside and outside at the same time

I need the light for my eyes

 

wife

We’re still very much part of the business

Sometimes you need two rooms as a carer

My Mum had MS

Every room’s on a different level

We need it all on one level

And more light

 

We still use every barn

Horses

Hay

Corn

Bales

 

I wouldn’t make anyone go into farming now

I do the late shift

My son does the early shift

 

Val wants to get further away, to look at the site from a distance, wife takes us.

 

I don’t want to tell you your job

 

Just started the blue-tongue vaccination

Got to bring them back in in three weeks for the next one

One cow to calf

Mum and Dad have gone down to the wool board today

That’s Corndon Tor

The public footpath goes down to Jordan

 

Val – to me as we leave

This is a hard one

Emotionally complicated

 

 

As we leave the farm

 

 

Sheep on the road

They like the shade

Deep shade

Deep road

 

Next to Widecombe to look at a wall falling down outside the church and to have some lunch.

 

Talked about what is the difference between ‘prospect’ and ‘aspect’ – we didn’t know.

 

Finally to Buckfastleigh to look at a proposed extension and the new Boots sign.

 

Extend the roof

Chimney on the end

Lean-to

Awkward arrangement

Glass structure

 

Boots want to put their ‘bespoke lozenge’ as a stuck out sign

 

Painted signs

Are preferable

To stuck on signs

Or plastic

 

 

Dartmoor Songline

 

For a sound artist and group of participants (3-15).

90-120 minutes required

Musical instruments can be used.

 

1)    Choose a short walk on Dartmoor (max 15 minutes) which has a variety of different sounds

2)    Talk to the group for a few minutes about listening Explain that the first time you go on the walk there will be no talking, only listening

3)    Go on the walk, listening

4)    Afterwards, discuss what you heard

5)    Go on the walk again – stopping at the interesting sound points and talking about them

6)    Afterwards discuss whether the group could add anything sonic to the natural landscape (singing, instruments…)

7)    Try some experiments (singing, playing, moving…) before going on the walk for a third time

    Go on the walk again, this time (if appropriate) adding in the new music to the existing soundscape, see how it feels, discuss it

9)    Afterwards discuss how this felt, make some changes, decide to do things differently

10) Finally, do the walk for the fourth time, this time adding in the new music (instruments, songs…)

11) Finish, go home, listen

June 3rd

 

DNP staff development get-together day.

 

Very interesting, up at Haytor, led by Living Options, I did a session on writing NP leaflets and a session on how accessible the new Haytor visitor centre is. I spent some time in the disabled loo with two other people working out if it had been designed correctly. I think these morning sessions were very well led, but I felt they were (even though they expressed a desire not to be) negative in tone in that we were at all times trying to see what could be better (in the leaflets and the newly opened buildings) and this meant that we were being critical.

 

My session in the afternoon was with Sue Goodfellow, Sarah?, Ally Kohler, David Lillington and Naomi Scufil.

 

I planned a walk around the outward bound centre grounds, rather than walking on to Haytor or further. It was about a 7 minute walk.

 

First of all I talked to the group for about ten minutes about listening, about the fact that this was an ‘experiment’ about the idea of trying to find a musical ‘key’ for the surroundings and how this could relate to the aboriginal notion of Songlines (an I mentioned the Bruce Chatwin book). I also talked about how we would write nothing down, and about song form (and how the songs we might create would not be in traditional ‘song form’ and finally about the Peter Hoeg book ‘The Quiet Child’ about how places and people have their own sound and their own music. But mostly this little talk was about LISTENING.

 

Next I explained that we would be doing this walk maybe 4 or 5 times, each time with a different challenge. The first time, to do the walk and not to speak, but just to listen and observe. Find spaces where the sounds are interesting, see if any words come to your head at those places. Stop and listen when you find things interesting.

 

We then did the walk.

 

This was probably the most interesting time we did the walk for me, because it seemed to generate so much thinking, talking and amazement. The group heard things (such as the sounds that trees make) in a way that they had never heard things before. I was rally interested that Naomi – the ornithologist, had never listened to trees before and heard the differences between birth and spruce as enormous. We had a long talk about the   that we heard and how we now thought of that walk as a sonic landscape and not (particularly) in visual terms.

 

We stopping and talking at certain points about the sounds and the locations of the sounds and what these make us think of for making our own sound walk.

 

After the second walk we then discussed at great length – especially interesting – about how what we might add (as a non-musical group, with some instruments we had not played before) to a wonderful natural soundscape that already existed.

 

WE then did the walk for a third time, this time finding words and song ideas and musical moments that we could add into the soundscape. Everyone contributed and we found polyphonic ideas and experimented with them.

 

Another long discussion before our final walk. We discussed whether we should try and stay where we were (in a glade) and play the music of the walk or whether we should still do the walk and play. We decided to do the walk and play, but first made some decisions (using hand chimes and voices) as to what we would play and where we would play it. This last walk was a wonderful mix of natural sounds and our own (mostly quite quiet) additions using voices and hand chimes. There was one great bit in a glade where we all played and spread out and then came back together and another bit where we were walking up the path and met other DNP staff coming back from their project. We were singing quietly and this could have been embarrassing, but in fact worked fine and we continued.

 

At the end everyone was elated. An incredible response.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve added Google Maps to the blog option.  If you have a Google account and create your own Google Maps, you can insert a link into any blog and the map will appear in the blog.  Haven’t tried it yet…

This is a test podcast from Hugh (well, posted by Richard…)  Chagford (plus robin)

Hugh’s main podcast (iTunes) is here.