Batonality Project

Schools' composition and performance workshops: May-October 2012

A special commission for schools in South Lakeland to write a new piece in celebration of the London Olympics.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for children in South Lakeland to be involved in creating a unique work inspired by the Olympic idea that will leave a legacy for future generations.

To celebrate London 2012, our Artistic Director Anthony Hewitt will cycle the length of Britain, from Land's End to John O'Groats. A concert grand piano will accompany him in a curtain sided van which will be used as a makeshift stage. At the end of each leg of his journey he will give a recital either on the van outdoors for isolated rural communities, or in a venue where he is invited to perform.

Ulverston International Music Festival will co-commission renowned composer Stephen Goss to write a new work for Anthony to perform on the tour including in Windermere on Sunday 20th May 2012 which marks the half-way point of Anthony's journey (the work will be premiered at the Swaledale Festival the day before). The work will be entitled 'Piano Cycle'; a set of studies for solo piano based on themes or rhythms from the five continents in the Olympic logo. This work will celebrate our cultural heritage by incorporating a folk melody or dance rhythm originating in England; 20th century English music has its roots in folk music, from Cyril Sharp through Vaughan Williams and John Ireland, and the work will embrace this tradition.

The Batonality concept

Under the guidance of composer Duncan Chapman (who will present composition and performance workshops) and pianist Anthony Hewitt, five schools from South Lakeland will each write a variation inspired by the English theme or folk element in Piano Cycle. The resulting five 'Batonality Variations' will be performed during the opening concert of the Ulverston International Music Festival's complete Beethoven Sonata cycle on October 19th 2012. The numerology is deliberate and relates to the five rings in the Olympic symbol - our marketing materials will reflect this in an effort to capture the attention of young people.

The 'Batonality' project is a symbolic musical relay. The 'baton' will be the manuscript scroll handed from school to school much like the Olympic torch, and at the end of its journey the complete manuscript with a set of five 'Batonality Variations' on a theme from 'Piano Cycle' will result in a new work composed by school children. The word Batonality is a word play on baton and tonality, a musical term referring to traditional harmony.

Our aim is to involve five schools spread over South Lakeland representing the whole of the area; central, north, south, east and west. The first school will receive the manuscript scroll (baton) at the outdoor performance on Lake Windermere as part of Anthony Hewitt's Land's End to John O'Groats tour on May 20th 2012, and the children will set about under the guidance of a composer to create the first variation. The children will pass the manuscript scroll (baton) on to the next school who will write the 2nd variation until the process is completed with the fifth school.

Each school's variation will also be passed onto another school with the aim that the children also learn to play a variation composed by a different school and further promulgating the idea of passing over the baton. In order to create the feeling of an authentic relay and strengthening the link to the original work 'Piano Cycle', on selected parts of its journey between schools the manuscript will be delivered by bicycle.

The challenge is for pupils in each school to volunteer their musical ideas to create or improvise a variation on an original theme/rhythm contained in 'Piano Cycle'. The composer will work in tandem with Anthony Hewitt to introduce each school's theme/rhythm to the children and coax and inspire them to express their ideas. We will explore the sound that bicycles make and how that sound effect could be replicated on a musical instrument, together with teaching the idea of motion being a fundamental element in music. The variation could be for solo piano, or piano plus a number of additional instruments – percussion etc - and could include electronic music. The music they compose/improvise could be very simple, a few notes or rhythms based on the original - the idea is that they will be able to perform whatever they create in front of a large audience.

The Batonality project will reach its climax when the manuscript scrolls containing all five 'Batonality Variations' are handed back to Anthony Hewitt for their official unrolling as part of opening concert of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas cycle on October 19th 2012. At this performance, for the first time the whole of the Batonality cycle – both the original Piano Cycle and Batonality Variations - will be performed by Anthony Hewitt and the participants from schools respectively to an audience which will include other children from participating schools. The Batonality Cycle will be recorded a this concert for archive, and copies will be sent to each school as a legacy to the project.