Programmealtham Wilpshire Great Harwood Ramsgreave Hapton Brownhill Huncoat Rishton
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A MUSICAL CELEBRATION OF 200 YEARS OF THE CANAL! Barrowford Stonyhurst Newchurch in Pendle Barrow Fence Hurst Green A RHAPSODY TOSabden THE Nelson Brockhall Higham Village LEEDS & LIVERPOOL CANAL Whalley Brierfield Billington Simonstone Padiham Langho ProgrammeAltham Wilpshire Great Harwood Ramsgreave Hapton Brownhill Huncoat Rishton Church Oswaldtwistle Guide Crawshawbooth Lumb Waterside Rossendale Haslingden Rawtenstall Newchurch Darwen Hoddlesden Waterfoot Helmshore Cowpe Edenfield SUPER SLOW WAY: A RHAPSODY TO THE LEEDS & LIVERPOOL CANAL CONTENTS 3 Foreword 12 Biographies Laurie Peake, Super Slow Way 12 Ian McMillan, Words and Narration Richard Parry, Canal & River Trust 13 Ian Stephens, Composer 14 Clark Rundell, Conductor 4 A Rhapsody to Leeds 14 Ian Brownbill, Producer 15 Amanda Roocroft, Solo Soprano & Liverpool Canal 15 Jonathan Aasgaard, Solo Cello 16 Kuljit Bhamra, Solo Tabla 16 Farmeen Akhtar, Narrator 17 Lisa Parry, Narrator 17 Super Slow Way Chamber Choir 18 Children’s Voices of Blackburn 19 Blackburn People’s Choir 19 Brighouse and Rastrick Band superslowway.org.uk Foreword 3 LAURIE PEAKE The Leeds & Liverpool Canal was the artery that fed the Industrial Revolution, forever changing the lives and landscape of the north of England. Its history spans 200 years and, like its meandering path through the countryside, there have been many twists and turns along the way. Super Slow Way: A Rhapsody to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is a celebration of the history, people and stories of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal through music, using a series of poems specially written by celebrated Yorkshire poet Ian McMillan. The canal was ofcially opened in Blackburn in October 1816 when, for the frst time, the journey could be made from the coalfelds of Yorkshire, through the weaving mills of Lancashire to the port of Liverpool, bringing work and industry to the towns along the way, making them centres of the Industrial Revolution and the towns we see today. The Rhapsody represents a coming together of different forms that perfectly reflects the communities and stories along the canal over the past 200 years, celebrating this great ‘super slow way’ that transported the huge barges of cotton and coal, which made Blackburn a lynchpin of the Industrial Revolution and the great town that it became. Super Slow Way, with the support of Canal & River Trust and Blackburn with Darwen Council, hopes to bring art to the banks of the canal, a beautiful stretch of water, which stands as an apt metaphor for the space and time we need to connect and create. Laurie Peake Director, Super Slow Way RICHARD The Canal & River Trust is delighted to be the lead partner in the Super Slow Way PARRY programme, generously funded by Arts Council England. Our goal is to fnd new ways to celebrate the transforming role of our great canal system and in particular to use this programme to introduce the communities of Pennine Lancashire to the creative potential of the Leeds & Liverpool canal, in its Bicentenary year. The Rhapsody is one of the many amazing and diverse projects that the Super Slow Way programme has enabled, to inspire and engage with all the people who live, work and play along this remarkable stretch of canal. Richard Parry Chief Executive, Canal & River Trust 4 A Rhapsody to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal 1. Towpath Chant 3. Super Slow Way: The Year Turns Towpath The canal, always the canal, Narrow as my My diary and my almanac Lifepath My song and my story Towpath My book Thin The year Towpath The year turns Muddy as my The year turns its back on me Heartpath The year Towpath The year turns Slip The year turns its face to me And still the year turns Towpath Enless as my The canal, always the canal Workpath My diary and my almanac Towpath My song and my story Rain My book Towpath A single leaf spins in the air Freezing as my And lands on the water Mindpath With an autumn sound Towpath Pain A single bird fies over the water And hangs in the air Towpath With a shiver like winter Empty as my Soulpath A single cloud refects in the water Towpath Fragile as air Smell With a promise of spring Towpath A single fsh, dead in the water You are just my Mouth gaping air Worldpath In the hard heat of summer Towpath Hell The year The year turns The year turns its back on me Fantasy on Canal Ballads The year turns 2. The year turns its face to me Instrumental And still the year turns The canal, always the canal My diary and my almanac My song and my story My book 4. Interlude Solo Cello A Rhapsody to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal A Rhapsody to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal 5 5. Sunset Over The Canal 6. Narrative No.1 Tranquil, peaceful The canal is an artery Sunset over the water Through the heart of it. We all stand still A straight-as-it-can-be tear Watch the sun go down In the land’s green cloth. People talking The canal is a brand-new map See the fathers and daughters Of places no-one has seen before: Mothers and sons That towpath view, From across the town That tunnel vision. This used to be a place of work The canal is a statement Now it’s a place of play; Spoken in the language of money, Eat an ice cream, stroll along The full-stop of coins A fne end to the day In a tottering pile in a well-lit room. In the silence I hear ghosts This canal began with ideas. Drifting across the air It was the 18th Century Raise their voices in a song When anything seemed possible, Walking with us there: Anything at all, To those men in their tight waistcoats, ‘We are here, we are history Their highly-polished boots. Hear us as we graft; They needed to get lime Time’s a misty moving mystery From one side of the land to the next. We are what is left They needed to shift coal From the pits to the places Take your time, sun is setting That wanted black gold. Walk along the path; Routes were proposed, We are memory and forgetting Routes were argued over. Floating evening breath’ Voices were raised And no doubt, no doubt at all Birds fy so high People will have stormed out of rooms Swooping over the water And doors will have slammed shut. Sunset-flled sky Lights the old canal. 6 7. Canal Dream 8. The Water Was Frozen In his comfortable bed When my family frst came here This Georgian man is dreaming They sat in the house You can see his eyes twitching They stared at the walls And his legs are moving They could hear the neighbours talking As though he is in a race Hear the neighbours eating their tea To the place called Wealth. And grandad said His big whiskers Let’s go out His huge fobwatch I know it’s cold But let’s go out In his comfortable head We can’t sit here He is dreaming of canals So let’s go out Stretching all across the country And see what we can see Strolling on the water And the cargo is his money So we opened the creaking door The coal is gleaming hard cash Went out of the house Walked to the canal His big whiskers And the canal was frozen solid His huge fobwatch It was iced up and frozen stif His tight waistcoat And grandad said In his dream he said Look at the ducks ‘Build me a canal They seem so cold Made of shining gold Just look at the ducks Made of diamonds bright’ Walking on the ice The green felds parted, Hey look at the ducks And the canal ripped through. Just like the ones at home! His big whiskers Now my family love this place His huge fobwatch We walk on the path His tight waistcoat Beside the canal His sheer trousers And we see our neighbours walking We pop into their house for tea The freezing water bled Across the dream, under the sleeping And grandad said Soaking through the bulging bags Thank you ducks Of the money he was making; For being here And then he woke up smiling Yes, thank you ducks And then he woke up laughing For being there So thank you ducks His big whiskers For swimming and fying His huge fobwatch And fying and swimming His tight waistcoat And swimming and fying His sheer trousers All the way from there to here! His fat wallet His big fat wallet A Rhapsody to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal 7 9. Narrative No.2 10. The Week Held In Water The route was settled Monday And the digging began. We loaded up the coal In 1770, on the 5th of November And the water waited The frst sod cut by a gentleman The water stood. Who then passed the spade To some people Tuesday Who really knew how to dig. We moved away And the water rippled And this is the route the canal took. The water sang. Imagine spilled water Down a sheet of paper Wednesday Trickling like this: We were held From Leeds, a mighty city And the water rose Via Kirkstall, Armley, Esholt The water fell. And Shipley’s shining waters Through Keighley, Skipton, Silsden Thursday Gargrave to the border country We unloaded coal Where language changes subtly And the water gleamed Does it not? The water glowed Does it not? Friday Through Foulridge and Barrowford We loaded coal Over to Burnley And the water splashed Rolling through Rishton The water swayed.