Snapshot Songs – The Next Best Thing from Only Connect on Vimeo.

Taking the theme of “The Next Best Thing” Only Connect members Temi Lateef, Michael VA O’Mara, Steven Fields and Sarah Eliza worked with Stuart and others at Only Connect to produce this epic. They received a standing ovation on both nights.

This taster workshop took place at the Artizan Street Community Centre. The soundtrack to the film was improvised by the singers there just minutes after meeting one another for the first time, and led by the wonderful Liv. The brainstorm writings you see show the variety of thoughts that the groups at all the different workshops are having when we consider what is notable, special or important about living in London today.

The post Riffing on the zeitgeist appeared first on Snapshot Songs Blog.

In yesterday’s workshop at the Artizan Street Community Centre, E1, we de-constructed a chicken casserole…in song-form.  The discussion had turned to the latest food trends in the capital, and elderly local estate resident Trudy O’Brien recounted her own gastronomic ‘snapshot’: namely, she ordered a chicken casserole at a nearby café, and didn’t quite get the homely stew she was after.  This triggered a new snapshot song – composed by the group in the ensuing 10 minutes – that involved each of them taking on the role of an ingredient in Trudy’s casserole, coming together singing the refrain “Where’s the chicken…?!”

Bonkers?  Yes, absolutely!  Every bit as bonkers as the graphic-equaliser-London-skyline song from Fellows Court Community Centre last weekend, and the smartphone-zombie, CCTV and ‘soundscape’ performances from the Barbican workshops, to name just a few: delightful examples of the creativity that can bubble up when you’re nudged gently out of your comfort zone at a Snapshot Songs taster workshop.

When The SHM Foundation first proposed the idea of a zeitgeist-themed song-cycle, one that built upon and updated the traditional song-cycle form, the first big challenge was: how do I go about capturing the ‘zeitgeist’, and what on earth is it anyway?  I quickly abandoned the idea of trying to be too all-compassing with it – and opted to deconstruct it into a handful of ingredients, or ‘snapshots’, dipping in and out of the rich stew of modern London life.  It’s turning into a very interesting journey!

Songs so far that have a place in the cycle include adaptations of modern poetry from the likes of Mat Lloyd (“This City”) and Luke Wright, alongside new commissions from the Barbican Young Poets group, who are tackling the challenging subject of mental health and suicide.  I’ll be transforming the tweets of the late, great Ivy Bean (the world’s oldest tweeter at 104) into song. We’ll have stories of mobile-phone abandonment and wild goose chases with sat-nav.  The members of Only Connect will be singing – and rapping – about “The Next Big Thing”, and exciting collaborations are in the pipeline with FutureBand and Body & Soul.  And, naturally, I’m looking to develop some snapshot songs from the gems of zeitgeist ideas that are coming out of our workshops; all ultimately fleshed out into a full arrangement for soloists, choir, drummers and symphony orchestra.  It will hopefully turn into a magnificent musical casserole that we all find is to our liking!

The post “Where’s the chicken…” – a blog post by the Snapshot Songs composer Stuart Hancock appeared first on Snapshot Songs Blog.

As the workshops come and go, certain themes are coming up again and again from people about their experiences living in London that we wanted to share:

• the connections with like-minded people, new and unusual experiences, and extreme isolation that are all possible in this large a city where all the world is there to be encountered
• the ubiquitous smartphone
• being bombarded with information
• the contrast in seeking connections with other people through online dating when we don’t even acknowledge each other in the street
• the pressure to document our experiences and relationships for other people to read online
• the anonymity that is only possible in such a large and densely populated place
• a sense that people might come together through their shared struggle with these experiences

The challenge to composer Stuart Hancock will be how he takes these ideas and their energy forward in his composition of the Snapshot Songs song-cycle!

In his own upcoming blog post Stuart will share some of his initial sources of inspiration from when he first began to plan this song-cycle, what has surprised and excited him the most about that first taster workshop, and what he is working on next…

The post The London “zeitgeist” appeared first on Snapshot Songs Blog.