A Plastic Theatre takes its name from a text by Katie Schaag which I set for a commission for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Youth Company in 2023, a 20-minute work for the orchestra, mezzo soloist Jennifer Johnston and the RLPO Youth Choir and Children’s Choir. The live world premiere performance of this work is the centrepiece of this album which also provides an opportunity to feature some of my recent commissions, notably those I wrote for I Fagiolini in 2021. Their four pieces were commissioned for a programme called ReWilding the Wasteland with thanks to renowned ensemble Voces8, who hosted an online concert series during the Covid pandemic, was viewed globally. Voces8 also join forces with I Fagiolini in one of these tracks, now i lay.

I’m thrilled to introduce The Lyons Mouth, a remarkable choir (and solo consort) of singers who studied at the University of York with Robert Hollingworth before turning professional. Their exceptional understanding of tuning and attention to text brings a fresh and vibrant quality to some of my newest works that are receiving their recording premieres on this album, including my Ivor Novello Composer Award winning work, All shall be well. It is a delight to be able to feature another renowned ensemble that I have recently worked with, Stile Antico who commissioned Dialogo and Quodlibet, a parody piece based on mansplaining, repurposing texts from the 16th century.

It is a joy to share this collection of my latest works with you, and I hope you find as much pleasure in listening to them as I found in creating them.

Batter my heart
Batter my heart aims to capture something of its emotive power in an eight part texture that required an almost forensic alignment of text and music. Each phrase is crafted to reflect the emotional journey of the text, which surges forward with rhythmic energy, consonants and vowel colours smashing into each other: I make the same demands in the part writing. The vocal lines vie for precedence, pushing each other aside as they surge forward imploringly within this tightly compressed landscape.

Batter my heart was commissioned by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn for the 400th anniversary of the dedication of New Chapel. Its premiere was on 18th October 2023 by The Choir of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, London, directed by Nicholas Shaw.

now i lay (with everywhere around)
now i lay is a setting of an EE Cummings’ poem that meditates on themes of life, death and the interconnectedness of things. Using a rhythmic motif derived from the words in the opening line ‘the dim deep sound of rain’ I have created a serene but contemplative atmosphere with harmonic movement that gradually increases in tension before resolving in a hopeful way with the poem’s reference to dreaming of spring.

now i lay is one of a short collection of pieces called ReWildings that were co-commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival and I Fagiolini Charitable Trust for I Fagiolini’s programme, ReWilding The Waste Land in 2021.

All shall be well
All shall be well is a setting of a selection of quotes from 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love. In the composition I have incorporated a three-part vocal 'Rondellus' from 1300 which forms a kind of cantus firmus providing both a backbone and a rhythmic engine for the piece. This cantus firmus enables waves of slower moving harmony to develop luminously around it while anchoring the piece in a musical language and idiom of the mediaeval period.

All shall be well was commissioned by ORA Singers by the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt. Its premiere was given on 11th July 2021 under the direction of Suzi Digby at the Gresham Centre as part of the Live from London series. Many thanks to Gareth Curtis who kindly gave me his edition of the three-part Stella maris nuncuparis from c1300 to use as the basis for this composition.

Geocentric
The challenge of setting Geocentric, Pattiann Rogers’ wonderfully grotesque and highly unusual text to music was irresistible. The piece leans into the humourous descriptions of decay and detritus with phrases like 'sink-mire flatulence' and 'contagious with earwax'.

I found ways to amplify this playful imagery with an opening that contrasts spare vocal lines with sound effects—sighs, groans, and ‘ugh’ noises. The piece gradually ratchets up, playing with the absurdity of the visceral descriptions through contrasts of texture propelled along by rising harmony and finally finds a strange kind of affection in the punchline, 'nobody loves you as I do'.

‘Geocentric’ is part of the ReWildings set (see above).

Evening prayer
Evening prayer is a setting of a prayer by Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) from his Preces Privatae translated by John Henry Newman. My piece was inspired by Rhineberger’s Abendlied, a work with strong harmonic propulsion and luminosity that is very well-loved by choirs. I have reflected this harmonic world in the opening of my piece where the chordal texture shifts between high and low registers. This gives the feeling that it is part of the same family as the earlier work, as well as using a similar 6 part line-up.

Evening prayer was commissioned by Sonoro for the Choral Inspirations project with the generous support of Monica Darnborough.

Metachoral in blue
Tim Early’s poem Metachoral from Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery is a fragmented tableau that weaves together images of rural life, mechanical sounds and pastoral landscapes all bathed in a sense of nostalgia and surrealism. To compliment it musically I have created a little scherzetto movement which fits not just the playful imagery but also the rhyme and assonance that imbue his text. The form allows for nimble shifts in dynamic, giving the poem’s irregularity and twists and turns a kind of natural grace.

Metachoral is part of the ReWildings set (see above).

O magnum mysterium
O magnum mysterium, a Latin text traditionally used in the liturgy of Christmas, speaks of the great mystery of the birth of Christ, marvelling at the humility of the animals witnessing the newborn Christ in the manger. It is a text frequently chosen by composers, especially those writing for the church.

My piece is an evolving journey from polyphonic textures with long languid melodic lines through sections where the text is articulated syllabically with greater rhythmic clarity, to final jubilant hallelujahs of praise and celebration.

O magnum mysterium was commissioned for the choir of Westminster Cathedral by Martin Baker, Master of Music.

In winter’s house
In winter’s house is a setting of a poem by Jane Draycott that paints a fairy-tale winter’s landscape using the imagery of darkness and light, renewal, and rebirth.

My piece grows from a simple, lilting motive that gives the words the resonance of an old folk song. This idea gradually evolves across the five verses, each time unwinds in a new direction, growing in importance as the piece progresses. I was particularly drawn to the structure of her verses, especially the stretched final verse, which gives a sense of finality reminiscent of a carol in a hymnal.

In winter’s house was originally commissioned for the tenors and basses of Tenebrae for their concert at Wigmore Hall on 1st December 2019 but due to its popularity I made this version for SATB choirs in 2023.

The world is charged
The world is charged is an eight-part polyphonic setting of John F Deane’s evocative poem that paints a vivid landscape of nature’s fleeting yet enduring beauty. The poem’s title is taken from the first line of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem, God’s Grandeur. As a nod to this connection, I have woven into the fabric of my composition a two-bar musical quotation from near the final cadence of Kenneth Leighton’s setting of Hopkins’ poem. This quotation serves as the core material for the piece, gradually evolving: sometimes heard in its original form, other times adapted and transformed, creating a sense of continuity and growth.

The interplay of these unfolding repetitions mirrors the poem’s journey through scenes of natural wonder and reflections on time, memorial, and legacy. As the music progresses, the recurring motif becomes a thread binding together the imagery of pheasants, briars, and constellations, culminating in a resonant central meditation on the persistence of life and love. The result is a tapestry of sound that being rooted in an older musical work, serves as a reminder of the enduring nature of beauty in our world.

The world is charged is part of the ReWildings set (see above).

Dialogo and Quodlibet
Dialogo and Quodlibet is a parody piece based on the conversations found in the Dialogo della Musica of Anton Francesco Doni of 1544. The Dialogo is a sizable volume containing a selection of contemporary pieces that Doni uses as a schema for analysing music and commenting on its performance. With a light conversational tone an assemblage of characters rehearse the works and talk about them, supposedly in the manner of an Academia.

My composition splits the choir into 12 parts divided into two choruses, one of tenors and basses, and the other of altos and sopranos. The sopranos and altos represent the Muses of Helicon singing extracts of text from the dedication of Maddalena Casaluna’s first book of madrigals. The tenors and basses, characters from the Dialogo who are absorbed in their discussion of music theory and unaware of the Muses. The entire text of the piece is constructed from either quotes from the Diagolo or letters about music written by Anton Francesco Doni himself. The music references motives from 16th-century music, gradually disrupting them throughout the piece. The final section of the piece could be called a quasi Quodlibet, where chopped up musical and textual quotes from earlier in the work are mashed together.

Dialogo and Quodlibet was commissioned by the Stile Antico Foundation. Premiered at the Venus Unwrapped Festival, Kings Place by Stile Antico on 27th April 2019.

A Plastic Theatre
There are two possible ways of reading the word ‘plastic’. It can be that material we all once found so useful and which is now wreaking havoc in the natural world. But it can also mean ‘adaptable’, ‘fluid’, ‘malleable’. What attracted me most about Katie Schaag’s text, a five part poem scripted as a drama written out as a drama, was the way she explores both possibilities: one alarming (our destructive potential), the other affirming (the amazing adaptability of nature, and of our own minds—‘neuroplasticity’), but without either preachiness or exaggerated ‘positivity’.

In keeping with Katie Schaag’s theatrical conception, A Plastic Theatre is divided into five distinct ‘acts’. The first plays with the idea of plastic objects as ‘abandoned’—hazardous, but also strangely poignant. In Act II it becomes an emblem of our own dreams, longings, and greed, in music which both pushes forward restlessly yet seems trapped in its own endlessly repeating cycle. A disturbing pathos emerges in Act III in which plastic seems almost human, while human beings lose themselves ever more in the synthetic. In Act IV the libretto’s parody of academic verbosity is balanced by my music in which I take the tone of a child’s bed-time story. Finally, Act V explores the increasingly confused states of our relationship with nature. I felt that the ending needed to be exciting but ambiguous: does the final ‘plunge into the rushing current’ hold out the possibility of adventure, discovery? Or is it much more ominous?

A Plastic Theatre was co-commissioned by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Opera with the Australian premiere with Vox, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs sponsored by Peter McCreanor.

Joanna Marsh © 2025