Winter “Has the End Begun?”
Text: Hattie Johnson
A sliver of glass lines the moon
like the wet surface sheen of a heart
The cold this year is a new sensation
The type a place feels when all air is inhaled from it
Has the end begun?
The low white sun in the day
Had thawed the sun
But the water’s beginning to freeze again
Shards of feathered crystals shift
Since the Summer now burns the land and skin
The cold has become a comfort
The journey towards the end has begun
The set of events leading to the final day
Has been set in motion
They were written out a long time ago
Once the speaker starts to read aloud
It is decided; the end has begun
The cold is now a comfort
The journey towards the end
Has begun; it is decided
But has the end begun?
Has the end begun?
AMANDA JOHNSON
Flower Composer 2023
Winter “Has the End Begun?”
Music: Amanda Johnson
Text: Hattie Johnson
for soprano, tenor & recorded sound
from
“Seasons of Change”
commissioned by ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
with funds from
The National Lottery Heritage Fund & Hinrichsen Foundation
inspired by “Free Trade Songs” for the League Bazaar 1845
by Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
First Performance by ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
Conway Hall, October 27th 2023
Frances M Lynch – Soprano
Laurence Panter – Tenor
Herbie Clarke – Sound
In true Flower style, here is a new family collaboration, using my daughter’s words, voicing the devastating effects of the climate emergency and cost of living crisis. It is written in the form of a duet between the voice of authority and the voice of reason. Has the end begun? If so, who holds the power to halt its progress?
I was inspired to write this song after listening to one of Eliza Flower’s Free trade Songs of the Seasons, Winter, in which she sets the words of her sister, Sarah Flower Adams, to music. The sisters were radical feminists who fought for human rights, particularly those of women and poverty-stricken families.
You can see a performance on the video at 11.14
AMANDA JOHNSON
Flower Composer 2023
Where I started
I studied music at University and have an MA and BA (Hons.) degree in performance. Before that I went to a Comprehensive School in Rotherham. I had free violin lessons from the music service there and thinking back I was always making up music in my head without realising what I was doing, but I never had chance to study composition at school. My composition tutor at University told me it wasn’t possible for anyone to make a living from composition unless you were Mozart! So, I became a violinist to earn some money I played in orchestras, string quartets and theatres and taught violin in schools and from home.
Where I am now
But… whatever else I was doing, the music was always there, going round and round my head, getting bigger and bigger until I had to write it down or record it just to get it out. I was always a composer but it took me a while to figure it out. I now compose full-time and I do make a living from it. I am clearly not Mozart but I don’t really want to be if I’m honest!
Who inspires me?
Last year I discovered a composer called Kaija Saariaho. When I first heard her music I was transfixed. As I read more about her I found out that she too heard music in her head from a young age and used technology in her work. For the first time in my life, here was a role model, a female composer in the limelight also working in a similar way to me.
