Albion Band in the Passion - LWT Southbank Show 1980-12-14 brand new transfer from TV tuner cassette recording
Cassette trade years ago, unknown lineage/JVC TD-W718 deck TO Adobe Audition CS6 < low freq noise reduction/FLAC
FLAC fingerprint file in Traders Little helper
First a little background:
In medieval York (in England) the Mystery Plays were an expression of civic piety on the Corpus Christi festival. The Creation to Last Judgement narrative was paraded through the streets on waggons as actors presented the great moments of Christian history at twelve playing stations designated by the city banners.
The word "mystery" means a "trade" or "craft" in medieval English. "Mystery" is also a religious truth or rite.
The Lord Mayor and Aldermen made the decision for the performance to take place, but the Guilds shouldered the economic and practical burdens of getting this show of up to 48 waggons on the road. This was both an act of worship and 'community theatre' for the entertainment of locals and visitors alike, honouring God, reflecting honour on York and allowing the Guilds to display their corporate identity.
The Plays survived the 1548 abolition of the Corpus Christi festival, but although episodes honouring the Virgin were cut to appease anti-Catholic opponents, the year 1569 saw the last medieval production. The final curtain was inevitable as, one by one, traditions associated with the old religion were removed from the calendar.
This programme featured the National Theatre's presentation of `The Passion'. This new version, adapted from the medieval mystery plays and directed by Bill Bryden featured Brian Glover as God (creating the universe from the height of a fork lift truck, while a shop steward supervises the building of Noah's Ark), audience participation, dancing and the music of the Albion Band. Melvyn Bragg (programme presenter) talks to some of the people involved in the project.
This collection of plays eventually renamed The Nativity - part 1 of the Mysteries as performed in 1984-85 and revived in 1999-2000 at the Cottesloe, the smallest of the 3 theatres in the National Theatre complex on the Southbank in London. During those runs, a further set of plays covering the events leading up to and the crucifiction itself - called The Passion (confusing eh!) with part 3 called Doomsday, which broadly covered the rising from the grave to the Last Judgement. Each part would be performed on a different day, with all three being performed on a Saturday in the morning, afternoon & evening - a veritable marathon of about 7 hours. In fact on Easter Monday 2000, after the morning performance of the Nativity, the band broke camp and relocated with the actors to a stage put up outside near Waterloo Bridge, for short performance - did the crucificion bit and then relocated back inside for the afternoon performance of the Passion! The music was performed by Home Service, augmented by additional musicians as necessary.
The concept of a Promenade Performance was used - as explained by Bill Brydon in track 6.
Important note - these are a collection of short plays, each performed originally by a different craftsmen's guild. I have therefore arranged this programme as best I can to separate each play segment into a different track. As a result, each track will have both dialogue and music, with intermittent interviews. Remember that this TV performance represented just 1 hour of the total 2 hours 30 minutes for that in the theatre. It is not at all logical to put each bit of speech and music/sound effect into a separate track.
Here is an example of the language used - the opening lines of the first Mystery Play
"I am gracyus and grete god withoutyn begynnyng
I am maker unmade all mightes es in me
I am lyfe and way unto welth wynnyng!"
During the programme, Jack Shepherd who played Lucifer, talks about the dialect used and the language, and the use of illiteration (that's lots of words beginning with the same letter) to stress the rhythm of the verse - oh yes, it's all in verse!
The music was put together by John Tams and Ashley Hutchings, which remained pretty well unchanged throughout the Home Service runs in 1984-5 and 1999-2000. I think just one song, Bill caddick's Don't be an Outlaw was replaced by another song, sung by Roger Wilson (in Morris On Band in 2003) in 1999 after the Abel & Cain play.
If there is enough interest, I may present in the same way, at some time in the future, my live recordings of the entire three play cycles . These contain the true theatrical experience, unamplified spoken word and the Home Service - at times turned up to 11!
Brand new transfer 2012-10-21
Track list
01 Opening dance
02 The creation
03 Noah's play
04 Sword dance
05 Mary & Joseph
06 Bill Brydon talks and Shepherd's play
07 Herod's play and murder of the innocents
08 God's epilogue
09 Finaldances