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I'm just back from a week of rehearsing in Cardiff, working with a great dancer getting ready for my next series of concerts. I've comissioned Welsh composer, Chris Painter, to write a work for solo clarinet player and dancer based on Welsh mythological character from the Mabinogi, Taliesin.
Taliesin began life as Gwion Bach, a servant to the enchantress Ceridwen. Ceridwen had a beautiful daughter and an ugly son named Morfran, whose appearance no magic could cure. Ceridwen sought to give him the gift of wisdom as compensation and cooked a potion, which had to be constantly stirred and cooked for a year and a day. A blind man named Morda tended the fire beneath the cauldron, while Gwion Bach stirred. The first three drops of liquid from this cauldron would give wisdom; the rest was a fatal ppoison. Three hot drops spilled onto Gwion's thumb as he stirred, and he instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, instantly gaining wisdom and knowledge. The first thought that occurred to him was that Ceridwen would kill him, so he ran away. All too soon he heard her fury and the sound of her pursuit. He turned himself into a hare on the land and she became a greyhound. He turned himself into a fish and jumped into a river: she then turned into an otter. He turned into a bird in the air, and in response she became a hawk. Exhausted, he turned into a single grain of corn and she became a hen and ate him. She became pregnant. She resolved to kill the child, knowing it was Gwion, but when he was born he was so beautiful that she couldn't, so she threw him in the ocean in a leather bag. The baby was found by Elffin, the son of Gwyddno Garanhir, 'Lord of Ceredigion', while fishing for salmon. Surprised at the whiteness of the boy's brow, he exclaimed "dyma Dal Iesin", meaning "this is a radiant brow." Taliesin, thus named, began to recite beautiful poetry.
The work will be performed alongside other contemporary works for solo clarinet in a series of concerts during February and March, including a national tour of Wales. Other works to be performed include Messiaen's Abime des Oiseaux, Paul Mealor's Solemn Liturgy, Stockhausen's Der Kleine Harlekin. I'm also learning a number of new works to be performed with Ensemble Cymru, including James MacMillan's Tuireadh - for clarinet and srting quartet, composed as a response to the tragic Piper Alpha disaster in 1988.
This project has been made possible with the support of: Welsh Government; The National Lottery through the Arts Council of Wales; European Social Fund; Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships