www.treesensemble.org
The Long Man / The Holy Well
Composed and arranged by Terry Pack and Trees, with lyrics by Imogen Ryall
The Long Man of Wilmington is a giant figure carved into a hill in the chalk Downland above the village of Wilmington in East Sussex.
The music for the first part of this piece was created in two stages. Firstly, we recorded the members of the band playing long notes in F major for just over a minute. The second stage took place in the studio. Neil Costello and I reversed the live recording and superimposed the reversed version on the original. Matt Hobson added orchestral percussion. What you hear is the result. The Long Man leads into the main body of the piece:
The Holy Well: Music composed and arranged by Terry Pack, with lyrics by Imogen Ryall after a poem by Sir Edward Dyer.
Holywell, The Holy Well of the title, is a natural aquifer at the Eastern end of The South Downs Way. It has been carved out of the chalk cliffs of the South Downs by hundreds of thousands of years of erosion. The rainwater is filtered through the chalk and is said to have healing properties.
This piece is adapted from two older tunes: ‘Over The Hills’ and ‘What Happens Now’, which were first recorded on my album ‘What Happens Now’ in 2005. I wrote a new melody for ‘Over The Hills’ based on the existing harmony, which is a simple AABA chord sequence in D minor. The original melody is used as a descant in the recapitulation at the end.
The lyrics were written after the original live recording session and added as an overdub in the studio in 2017. I needed to rethink the first part of this piece, because the single take we had from the original 2015 live recording was compromised by a couple of extraneous clunks and bangs. The original introduction was repaired to create an entirely new piece, ‘Haven: The River’s End’, which is now track 10 of the album. It features the bansuri of Kate Hogg and acoustic guitar of Enrico Pinna.
The new introduction to The Holy Well is ‘The Long Man’. The first sixteen bars of the opening theme were rearranged: the original woodwind arrangement was replaced by a new accompaniment played by the acoustic guitars and keyboards of Enrico Pinna, Nick Magnus and Mark Edwards. Imogen added her alto voice to Red’s soprano, and a much simplified woodwind arrangement joins in after the first eight bars.
The form of the ‘What Happens Now’ section of the piece is AAB, and is based on two very simple minor pentatonic riffs, one in the bass and the other in the tune. This was the second arrangement I wrote for Trees.
The featured musicians are the vocalists Imogen Ryall and Red Grey on the opening and closing themes, and the other singers throughout. Gabriel Garrick plays a solo on flugelhorn, and Mark Edwards a solo on synthesizer. Neil Corin and Nick Magnus are featured on keyboards and tuned percussion, James Osler and Enrico Pinna on guitars, and Beccy Rork on soprano saxophone.
from
'Heart of Oak',
released June 23, 2017
Rhythm
Alice Hawkes: piano (all)
David Beebee: piano (1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10)
Eddie Myer: double bass (1,6,9,10,11)
Enrico Pinna: ac and elec guitars (1,3,10)
Imogen Ryall: shakers (1-11)
James Osler: elec guitar (1,6,9,11)
Lucy Pickering: kalimba (2,7)
Mark Edwards: keys (1,3,6,8,9,11)
Matt Hobson: ac, orch and elec perc (all)
Matt Wilson: ac and elec guitars (1,2,3,4,5,7,8) Milo Fell: drums and perc (all)
Neil Corin: accordion, tuned perc and keys (all) Nick Magnus: keys (1,3,4,8)
Phil Hudson: ac and elec guitars (8)
Terry Pack: double and elec basses, voice (all)
Tom Phelan: keys (3,8)
Tristan Banks: drums and perc (1,6,9,11)
Trumpets and Flugelhorns
Bob Turner (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Chris Willard (2,4,5)
Gabriel Garrick (1,6,9,11)
Jack Kendon (1,6,9,11)
Jane Stimpson (all)
Martijn Van Galen (1,3,8)
Martin Bradley (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Moshe Ibelo (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Steve Lawless (all)
Trombones
Charlotte White (3,4,8)
Mimi Nicholson (1,3,7,8)
Paul Nieman (all)
Peter Thompson (all)
Tarik Mecci (1,2,4,5,6,9,11)
Tim Wade (3,4,8)
Woodwinds
Abi Cox: alto sax (2,4,5)
Andy Pickett: tenor sax, bari sax and bass clar (all) Antony Durrant: flute (1)
Beccy Perez-Rork: sop sax (all)
Chantelle Rizan: alto sax (1,6,9,11)
Charlotte Glasson: sop and tenor saxs (all)
Claire Western: alto sax (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Greg Maddocks: alto flute (all)
Hilary Burt: flute (all)
Jo Luckman: alto sax (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
John Styles: bass clar, bassoon and bari sax (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Julian Nicholas; alto clar and tenor sax (1,6,11)
Kate Hogg: alto sax,flute and bansuri (all) Linda Atkinson: alto sax and Bb clar (all) Lucy Pickering: flute (all)
Merlin Shepherd: G clar (1,6,9,11)
Mike Guest: flute (all)
Paul Stuart Briggs: tenor sax (all)
Phil Paton: bari sax and bass clar (1,2,3,4,5,7,8)
Philippe Guyard: tenor sax (1,2,4,5,6,10,11)
Tony Freer: oboe and Cor Anglais (2,3,4,5,10)
Voices
Annie Lightly (all)
Antony Durrant (all)
Elaine Crouch (1,3,7,8,10,11)
Heather Camille (all) Imogen Ryall (all)
Lucy Pickering (2,3,5,8,10)
Rachel Munro (1,2,4,5,6,7,9)
Red Gray (1,5,7)
Vikki Parker (1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9)
Recorded live at Hawthbush Farm in East Sussex
December 2015 & November 2016 and at
studio (sessions between January 2016 and March 2017)
Mixed and mastered by Neil Costello
