We (I and Guildhall students, led by Lana Bode) have been powering our way through three weeks’ worth of workshops covering my song repertoire in GSMD’s Voiceworks programme. Reaching the considerable craggy peak of King Harald’s Saga (to be performed by the excellent Katherine McIndoe, pictured left) we noticed that the relevant workshop would take place a couple of days before the fortieth anniversary of the work’s world premiere – 17th May 1979 at Dumfries Music Club, in southern Scotland.
How wonderful therefore to be able to welcome and honour its dedicatee and progenitor, Jane Manning, who has herself contributed her expertise to GSMD in recent years and had coached Katherine for this session. Forty years may not seem a long time in musical history, but it is a remarkable span for a new work such as ‘King Harald’ to remain constantly in the repertoire, with still-increasing numbers of perfomers around the world discovering the score and adding it to their own repertoires.
