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The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft The Violin Player A radio play by Catherine Fargher Broadcast ABC radio National ‘AIRPLAY’ March 14th 2009 © Catherine Fargher 2009 PO Box 178 St Pauls NSW 2031 Email:[email protected] Ph/fax:02 93145121 Mob:0415442209 1 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft The Violin Player The Battle of the Somme 1918…A young man with a violin… Recreation leave and Mustard Gas … A great uncle lost…His diary discovered…A young man busking in Paris 1981…his great uncle’s violin stolen at a Paris station… A piecing together of song, sound and memory. A year ago I came into possession of the original diary of my Great-Uncle Philip, who fought and died at the Somme battlefields in France during WWI. He was 19 years old, and the early diary entries are those of a young man who is at first excited, then disillusioned, and finally destroyed by the war he has gone to fight. He was the victim of the Mustard Gas campaigns which were used by the Germans in WWI French campaigns, including the battle of the Somme and resulted in the death of thousands of young Australian men. His youth brought abruptly to an end in a way I can only try to understand from the diary entries and the space of hidden memories between the lines of the faintly written diary. The way our family knew Philip was through his violin. My brother and I inherited his fiddle, inlaid with mother of pearl in the fingerboard, and it had always been ‘Philips violin’. Getting Philip’s diary helped me to piece together the story of a young man on the cusp of adulthood, his pride as a soldier, and finally his disillusion and destruction. 19 years old. This is the age that I traveled to London, walked the London High Streets of 80’s Punk fashion, new romanticism and youth culture. Traveled to Paris to visit my brother who possessed Uncle Philip’s violin. Philips youthful adventures were in Cairo. Late night visits to the Pyramids and wild nights with soldier mates. I came home. Philip didn’t. And the fate of the violin? Did it travel with him to war? Or did it remain, covered with cloth, in his Westgarth home in Melbourne, waiting for his return? Were its laments the laments of a free spirit or a disillusioned soldier? When we played the violin, did we hear tunes from the trenches of the Somme? Character voices Martin – male 40’s Philip– soldier, male early 20’s – Interior and Exterior voice (journal reading and interaction with Martin) Greta – Female vocalist, incidental female voices. Incidental voices: theatre cast, soldiers, buskers. 2 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft The Violin Player SFX: A FEW LINES OF SUNG ‘BLUEBELLS OF SCOTLAND’, ACCOMPANIED BY VIOLIN. A BEAUTIFUL AND MELANCHOLIC VERSION, WITH A SENSE OF IMPENDING GRIEF. Greta - Female vocalist Oh where, tell me where is your highland laddie gone? Oh where, tell me where is your highland laddie gone? He’s gone wi’ streaming banners where noble deeds are done And it’s oh in my heart that I wish him safe at home… SFX: VIOLIN CHORD (G) SOUNDS WITH GUSTO, CUTS TO SOUNDS OF WILD RUSSIAN VIOLIN MUSIC, THE CLOSING TUNE OF ‘DIARY OF A MADMAN’ THE BELVOIR STREET PRODUCTION FROM 1990’S, FOLLOWED BY THUNDEROUS AUDIENCE APPLAUSE. CUT TO LAUGHTER, REPARTEE OF CAST AND CREW MEMBERS AND FOOTSTEPS AS THEY WALK BACK TO THEATRE DRESSING ROOMS. Cast member 1 Great show all. Cast member 2 Playing well tonight Marty! Cast member 1 See you in the foyer? Marty Be there in two …. SFX: CAST REVELRY FADES AS DRESSING ROOM DOOR CLOSING, FOOTSTEPS, CLICK OF VIOLIN CASE HINGES, HUMMING OF TUNE FROM THE SHOW. SOUNDS OF LETTING OUT THE BOW. HUMMING THE TUNE FURTHER, WRAPPING THE VIOLIN IN CLOTH, CLOSING THE CASE, THEN FOOTSTEPS OUT OF THE ROOM. SFX: AS THE NARRATOR TALKS, HE PLUCKS STRINGS PIZZICATO STYLE UNDER TEXT. That violin went with me to Russia for the tour… We were touring Gogol’s Diary Of A Madman SFX: GEORGIAN VIOLIN PIECE. CROWDS AND CLAPPING. It really traveled… been around the world… 3 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft To Paris … SFX: LOUD CACOPHANY OF BUSKERS AND ONLOOKERS AT POMPIDOU CENTRE. NARRATOR USING A SPRUIKERS VOICE CAN BE HEARD. Martin, (busker/spruiker voice) This shapely body you see before you is not just any body! She is a great beauty, has traveled around the world. More miles than Lola Montez! From the battlefields of the Somme to Paris’s Pompidou! Roll up for the Violin of the Century… a little Aussie beauty! SFX: BUSKER PLAYS SNIPPET OF WALTZING MATHILDA OR ROAD TO GUNDAGAI Martin, narrator …To war with Great Uncle Philip! All the way to the Somme. SFX: CUT TO SOUNDS OF SCHRAPNEL EXPLODING AND BUGLE PLAYING REVEILLE, CUT TO DRUNK SOLDIERS VOICE: Martin (as drunk soldier) Play ‘Bluebells of Scotland’, c’arn ya bastard, give the little fiddl’a stroke for me! SFX: FIRST BARS OF FIRST WORLD WAR SON ON FIDDLE. (‘LONG, LONG WINDING ROAD’ OR ‘THE SARGEANTS GOT YOUR RUM’) SFX: CUT TO BLUEBELLS OF SCOTLAND. Because that was the story, that the only tune Uncle Philip could play was the Bluebells of Scotland…it might not even be true! I should learn it. I have no idea whether he was a keen musician or had only the one tune. We knew Philip fought in WW1 at the Somme. But the way we remembered him was through his violin… SFX: VIOLIN AND VOCAL ARRANGMENT OF ‘BLUEBELLS OF SCOTLAND’. Greta – Female vocalist Oh what, tell me what does my your highland laddie wear? Oh what, tell me what does my your highland laddie wear? A bonnet with a lofty plume and on his breast a plaid And it’s oh in my heart that I lo’ed my highland lad… 4 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft SFX: SCHRAPNEL EXPLOSION, CUT TO PIZZICATO, STRING PLUCKING AND MOVING HANDS ON FINGERBOARD UNDER TEXT. Martin (Track 1-.03) It was always kept behind our Grandfather’s piano. Inherited it when I was 11. CUT TO PIZZICATO, STRING PLUCKING AND MOVING HANDS ON FINGERBOARD UNDER TEXT. (Track 1-.03) The violin had a great sound. It was probably English; there weren’t Chinese or Japanese models then. I don't know…a Stradivarius copy …that’s what my violin teacher said. Irwin …(pauses) Mozzler… mostly he said, “Bend Ze sump Martin! Bend Ze Sump!” SFX: CLANK OF MUSIC STAND, TUNING STRINGS AND METRONOME TICKING. Martin (as Irwin) Fingers on ze fingerboard! Bend ze sump Martin! Sure, Zis is good violin… stringy grained spruce top… very dark violin… like ze forest! Has been vell played… it has life. Long way from home, like me! And look at zis beautiful muzer of pearl inlay. Beautiful. Sink yourself lucky Martin. Now Practice! E minor scale! SFX: E MINOR SCALE BEGINS, I still have the card that my grandfather gave me for my birthday. “To Martin…may you enjoy having this violin as much as it’s original owner, your great uncle Philip…” SFX: SOUNDS OF A SUBURBAN MUSIC PRACTICE ROOM. Martin (echo as Grandfather) May you enjoy having this violin as much as it’s original owner, your great uncle Philip. SFX: TUNING THE VIOLIN. 5 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft Then he’d say, “Of course your great uncle Philip could only play one tune. …” Martin (echo as Grandfather) …play one tune …Bluebells of Scotland” SFX: SCREECHING OF BOW ACROSS STRINGS, NOT QUITE IN TUNE. EEKING OUT A TUNE OF ‘BLUEBELLS OF SCOTLAND’. A B C E E F D C. THEN IT SLOWS. SOME CHORDS PLAY: LONG LANGUOUS DOUBLE STOPS. FROM WITHIN THE CHORDS A PRESENCE BECOMES APPARENT. CUT TO A COUGHING SOUND, AS IF MAN IS CHOKING ON FUMES. SOUNDS OF AN OLD ARMY GREATCOAT BEING DUSTED OFF. THEN SOUNDS OF CIGGIE BEING LIT, AND A DEEP INHALE. Philip Little rotter! Never let the truth get in the way of a good tale. I was practically a Paganini. Always wondered what happened to it. Loved that violin. SFX: SOUNDS OF A SUBURBAN MUSIC PRACTICE ROOM. MARTIN PLAYING OPENING NOTES OF ‘THE BLUEBELLS OF SCOTLAND’. ARRANGEMENT ENDS WITH CHORDS AND DOUBLE STOPS. (THE SECOND LINE IS DELIVERED AT INDICATED BREAK.) Martin Then the next thing he’d say without fail, when the violin came out…. “Your great uncle Philip took his violin to the Somme, That’s where he fought. /On the Somme. ” Philip /The Somme, that’s where I fought. Pozieres, Strazeele. “Will they never fade or pass, the mud and the misty figures?” SOUNDS OF CIGGIE BEING LIT, AND A DEEP INHALE, THEN COUGH AS IF CHOKING ON DUST. THE PASSAGES ARE READ AS IF PHILIP IS LISTENING TO MARTIN, AND EACH PERSON IS MUSING ON THEIR OWN. Hope in our eyes SFX: INTERIOR SOUND MOTIF CUT TO SORTING OLD PHOTOS. 6 The Violin Player. Broadcast Draft Martin (track 1 2.52) There’s a photograph too… my grandmother kept it in a box, with all the other photos. All jumbled up. Looking at the picture… the tall Victorian stool… his thin eyebrows… the look in his eyes. There’s a look… the same as my Paris photos. Bright. Looking out into the world. It could be me sitting on that stool. SFX: PIZZICATO REVERBS FOR A SECOND AS IF PAST AND PRESENT HAS JOINED. INTERIOR SOUND MOTIF. (SOUNDS OF CIGGIE BEING LIT, AND A DEEP INHALE, THEN COUGH AS IF CHOKING ON DUST.) Martin I still keep my photos in a box like that, all jumbled up…past, present, future...all together.

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