Pfeiffertag. Musarc Folk Meet on a Midsummer Day until Dusk IV
Saturday 24 June 2023 6.30–9.30pm St Paul’s Bow Common Burdett Road London E3 4AR New works and music by Ashmi Thapar, Jan Hendrickse, Neil Luck + Lin Chiwei, Olivier Messiaen and Terry Riley Poetry by Anna Schabel, Amy Teh, Carol Mancke, Chrys Papaioannou, Ian Blake, Jeni Be, Joanna Ward, Judith Lösing, ´ Paul Martin Łukasz Kopec, and Rebecca Faulkner Foraging leaves by Derk Ringers, Mark Couzens, Neil Luck and Paul Martin Food by Anna Schabel, Agnieszka Cybul, Alice Watson, Belen Duran, DanKnight, Derk Ringers, and Helene Lomenech Glockenspiel Darius Paymai
* Doors and bar open 6.30pm Performances 7–9.30pm Doors and bar close 10.30pm
Pfeiffertag (Piper’s Day) is Musarc’s fourth Folk Meet on a Midsummer Day Until Dusk. Doors open at 6.30pm to a space flooded by afternoon light. As evening falls, audience and singers attune to the darkness, their senses seeking out different, smaller sounds and other objects in the changing atmosphere of the auditorium. The event ends by candlelight, just after sunset. The programme this year brings together works Musarc has traditionally performed on the occasion – including a solfège version of Terry Riley’s In C (Riley was born 88 years ago on the concert day), Olivier Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium and Lin Chiwei’s Tape Music, Score for Musarc (2015) – with new works by long-standing collaborators and members of the ensemble. Composer and flautist Jan Hendrickse has written a new piece for choir and overtone flutes which he has been making with the choir from pvc pipe and wooden dowels. Neil Luck’s LIEF is a meditation on the efficacy of leaves and grasses as instruments – a new folk tradition, part lecture, part conversation. Ashmi Thapar has written a number poem for the choir that changes according to which hymns were sung during morning worship that day. The ensemble, which has been engaging in forms of social writing since 2016, has written a new text to be performed with the audience in a congregational reading. Pfeiffertag takes place in one of the country’s most beautiful modernist churches. The performance starts at 7pm. The setting is informal and convivial. Breaks between performances offer time to talk and eat. There is no fixed stage, and the performance arrangements will change as the evening progresses. The audience is invited to move around, stand or sit on the floor. Blankets will be provided in addition to benches. The bar and food stall will be open all evening. There will be no artificial lighting in the space. The audience will be given candles to illuminate the auditorium as darkness falls. The concert is expected to finish after sunset, which on the day is around 9.30pm. Pfeiffertag has been conceived by Joseph Kohlmaier, Musarc’s Artistic Director, in collaboration with the ensemble and artists. Patricia Auchterlonie is Director of Music for the programme. We would like to thank St Paul’s for being so generous and welcoming.