Background
| John's Story | Making it happen |
Rosetta Life Artist, Jenny McCabe's Diary
17/02/05 - First session at Penrith Day Hospice
The centre is a very small place and only open one day a week. People are shipped in from all over Cumbria to have their medical and social needs tended to. It's a very warm and friendly place. The routine is to have an activity between 11-12 every Thursday. Our project fills that slot and continues around it.
Robin talked about his music which I steered into a sort of reminiscence /reflection on music's affect on our lives. Robin is inspired by John's story of farming life in Cumbria in the 1930s. We speak of giving our piece a regional voice, rooting it in the landscape of Cumbria, the Cumbrian way of speaking, the Cumbria way of life. Hopefully we will be able to take John Back tothe farm where he worked and film him
24/02/05 - Robin talks to John
In the afternoon we travel out, at John's invitation, to his house where we film him in conversation with Robin. This is the starting point of The Song text.14/03/05 - Filming Robin
I travel down to Delph near Oldham where Robin lives to film him in the process of writing The Song.
17/03/05 - Showing film at Day Hospice
After lunch and with much interest I show them a 10-minute long film of Robin explaining how he works and what he's writing. John is there and much enjoys the attention after seeing himself on film. People are fascinated by seeing the process a composer goes through - humming, singing, playing the piano and transposing ideas. I get the feeling everyone appreciates being made to feel more involved by seeing what was happening away from the centre.
