for Erin Hodgson and Conrad Sclar from Viola Dialogues: Volume 1

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Music by Sun Keiting: Science and art are woven together in a woman’s desire for recognition. The inspiration for this song comes from extensive research on Mary Anning, the nineteenth century Paleontologist. Mary spent her short and productive life extricating the fossils of prehistoric creatures from the Blue Lias limestone cliffs of Lyme Regis. Her ground-breaking discoveries became the focus of early scientific papers and discussions on pre-historic life and evolution and her fossil finds adorn many museums today, including the London Natural History Museum, but it is not until recently that she has been credited for her work– she was unsung.

There are two movements in this piece, Blue Lias and Unsung. In Blue Lias, three subsections build a scene: Blue Lias, Folk, and Climb. By reimagining an English Folk tune, the music pictures the geological formation of the same name and tells the story that once happened on the Jurassic Coast. The movement Unsung is an experiment with ideas around the nature of a name being “unsung”, physicalizing the silenced mouth and the frozen motion in order to invoke Anning’s emotional journey.
 

Libretto by Teresa Howard: a British librettist, lyricist and playwright. At present she’s writing two opera librettos for Sun Keting: New Genus (Royal Academy of Music Opera Festival) and Milk. She’s collaborating with composer Dylan Richards on Karaoke Soundscape (Copenhagen Contemporary, 2020), and book and lyrics for The Wind Singer (Royal Shakespeare Company). Teresa wrote book and lyrics for two musicals composed by Steven Edis: I Capture The Castle (UK Tour 2017) and Possessed, developed at the Royal National Theatre (Camden People’s Theatre, London 2016). Her stage plays include Grock (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Stonefist (Soho Theatre, London) and for TV she wrote Protectors (Talisman films) and was Dramaturg for In The Willows (Writers Guild of GB Award for Best Musical Theatre Book 2019). 

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lyrics

(1.Blue Lias)
Blue Lias
Blue limestone ledges 
Layered with ancient clay,
Blue in the light of day
But black when the sun turns away.
Black Venn
Formed
Under a shallow sea
When primordial beasts 
Owned this ball of earth,
Before the dawn of man and woman.

(2.Folk)
Blue Lias
I dream you
Glittering blue in the shimmer light.
Wet-stone where the dragons lie
In their fossil beds.

Blue Lias
I hear you 
Calling me down 
To your darkling crags.
Waiting-
Against a troubled sky
Beside the iron sea. 

Blue lias
I feel you
Tugging my heart
With your secret deep.
Ah- 
I long to touch the beast
Sleeping in your arms.

(3.Climb)
Take me, test me.
I climb-
Ten, twenty, thirty feet, up your spine.
Wet skirts.
Damp wool.
Hot-
Hot-
Wind riven raw,
I climb,
Foot over foot,
Hand over hand,
Black dirt in my fingernails.
Ledge over ledge, breath over breath.
Muscles aching.
Ah!
Hold-
Hold me-
Never let me go.
Hold me to your ancient breast,
Feed me on Jurassic bones,
Transformed,
Re-made,
Re-made. 

Will I lie 
In your limestone sheets
With the rest of my tribe?
Plunder for a new race.
How long?
How long?
The time is counting down.
The end awaits us.
Human extinction will come.

But now, it’s me, it’s me!
I climb, I climb your limestone shale
A woman, a hunter with my bright eye
And sharp hammer,
Beating on your stone.

Blue lias
I breathe you,
Reeking of death
But promising life.
Let me in,
Show me where dragons lie
And I will be your bride.

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credits

from Viola Dialogues: Volume 1, released October 28, 2024