I Travel In Time (this one's not about swimming)

The programming of a concert is an art in itself. Done well, an audience will notice the progression from piece to piece, while also having a sense that there’s a whole behind the parts. I felt that whole on Saturday listening to Orun Johnson and Jonty Lefroy Watt’s Strings, Still Lifes and Scenery in the beautiful setting of Clungunford’s St Cuthbert’s Church. 

Since meeting the Four Quartets in English Literature A level, I’ve been fascinated by TS Eliot’s phrase ‘the still point of the turning world’. He captures in this metaphor the idea that, if you can get to the very middle of something (as with a wheel), you'll find that the central point isn't moving, though all around is turning. The point itself in physics terms (i.e. in terms that stretch the limits of my mind and imagination) is one atom big.

Saturday’s programming was audacious, in particular the second half bracketing of two new works (Kulning by Lefroy Watt and Murmurations by Johnson) around the Adagio from Bach’s Violin Sonata no.1 in G minor. This was exquisitely played by Zea Hunt, but (and especially, you may well think), how can two young composers in 2025 sit themselves either side of Bach? Then again, how can they not? 

What this Jonty Lefroy Watt : JS Bach : Oran Johnson juxtaposition did was open up the Bach to newness. As I listened to the three pieces, surrounded by a warm, attentive audience, I felt myself gradually lulled out of time. It was as if the Bach was fresh as the pieces either side. I imagined what it would’ve been like to hear any of Bach's compositions as a world premiere, and then realised I had: feeling on this occasion his composition as completely, viscerally original. This is the joy of live performance - it's all new to us.

By the time we reached the sweeping shapes of Johnson’s Murmurations, I felt myself eternal (not immortal, nothing so grand). I think I mean eternal in the sense of experiencing my life as a singular life stretching backward and forwards within a collective of lives. It was like reaching right into the legacies and promises of creativity as fundamental as Bach's and as vibrant as that of the young musicians in the church. I'm not sure if the still point atom was the quality of  concentration given by the audience, or a singular note - let's say G - of music. It doesn't matter - as Eliot says elsewhere, 'words strain, sometimes crack' if we lay too much on them. 

I’m so grateful to the musicians - Declan Hickey, Eliza Nagle, Zea Hunt and to the composers - all of them so young, and so experienced in musical technique and traditions. I’m so grateful to Anna Dreda and St Cuthbert's for hosting a concert of contemporary classical music. And I'm so grateful to the people listening with me - to all who supported the event in so many ways: for the chance, for those minutes, to feel myself stilled, connected to all that has been, all that is to come. 

Jonty Lefroy Watt; Declan Hickey; Eliza Nagle; Zea Hunt; Oran Johnson

Photo - Ally Dunavant