CERDDORIAETH / GEIRIAU

THE MUSIC

Mae Nawr Yr Arwr / Now The Hero yn gam arall ar daith greadigol Marc Rees wrth greu theatr sy’n ymateb i’r lleoliad, drwy osod elfen gerddorol yn greiddiol i’r prosiect y tro hwn.Requiem i ymgolli ynddi fydd y gerddoriaeth, a honno wedi’i chyfansoddi gan Johann Jóhannsson o Wlad yr Iâ, sydd wedi’u enwebu ddwywaith am Oscar, ar y cyd ag Owen Morgan Roberts, yr artist trawiadol o Gymru.Owen Sheers, yr awdur o Gymru, fydd yn gyfrifol am y libreto, a Polyphony, côr enwog Stephen Layton, fydd yn canu.

Jóhann Jóhannsson

Jóhann Jóhannsson, born in Iceland in 1969, is an award-winning composer, musician and producer. His work often blends electronics with classical orchestrations and bears the diverse influences of the Baroque, Minimalism, and drone-based and electro-acoustic music.In 2015 Jóhann won the Golden Globe and received Oscar®, BAFTA, Grammy®Choice nominations for his score to The Theory of Everything, James Marsh’s biographical drama based on the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. In 2016 Jóhann was again nominated for Oscar®, BAFTA and Critics’ Choice awards now for the best original score for director Denis Villeneuve’s thriller Sicario. 2016 also saw the release of Arrival, Villeneuve’s film on linguists deciphering alien signs made by extraterrestrial beings and yet again Johann was nominated to Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for his score to the film. Jóhannsson began studying piano and trombone at the age of eleven in his native Reykjavík.He abandoned formal musical training while at high school and after studying literature and languages at university, he spent ten years writing music for and playing in indie rock bands, using guitars to compose feedback-drenched pieces and sculpt complex multi-layered soundscapes. By manipulating the resonances of acoustic instruments with digital processing, Jóhannsson created music that integrated acoustic and electronic sounds into something strikingly individual and new. His first solo album, Englabörn, was released in 2002 on the British Touch label. Its contents reveal influences spanning everything from Erik Satie, Bernard Herrmann, Purcell and Moondog to electronic music issued by labels such as Mille Plateaux and Mego. Later works include Virðulegu Forsetar (2004), scored for brass ensemble, electronic drones and percussion, and the orchestral albums Fordlândia (2008) and IBM 1401 – A User’s Manual (2006), the latter inspired by the sounds of electromagnetic emissions from the first of IBM’s pioneering mainframe computers. In 2010 Jóhannsson collaborated with the American avant-garde filmmaker Bill Morrison on The Miners’ Hymns, a lyrical and reflective response to Britain’s lost industrial past and the heritage of the mining communities of Northeast England. The film’s accompanying score, conceived for live performance and also released as a soundtrack album, combines brass band, pipe organ and electronics. In 2015, Drone Mass, Jóhann’s piece for a string quartet, electronics and vocal ensemble was premiered at the Met Museum in New York. In addition to his scores for Hollywood, Jóhann has also created soundtracks for several acclaimed works of world cinema and for documentary films, including Lou Ye’s Mystery, János Szász’s The Notebook and Max Kestner’s Dreams in Copenhagen. In 2015 hecompleted his first short film as director, End of Summer, which charts a slow, hypnotic journey across the austere landscapes of the remote island of South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula, its onscreen images accompanied by a haunting soundtrack score. Johann premiered another quite ambitious directorial project at Manchester International Festival in 2017, Last and First Men, where a text based on Olaf Stapledon’s sci-fi novel and read by Tilda Swinton is juxtaposed with startling footage of futuristic emonuments shot by Sturla Brandt Grövlen in in form Yugoslavia and Johannsson’s symphonic score.

As an orchestral, chamber and theatre composer, he has written works for, among others, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can, Theatre of Voices, Det Norske Teater and the Icelandic National Theatre. Jóhannsson made his Deutsche Grammophon debut with the release of his first studio album in six years, Orphée, in September 2016. Orphée is inspired by a range of readings of the Orpheus myth, draws on a varied sonic palette, both acoustic and electronic, to explore the boundaries between darkness and light. It contemplates impermanence, memory and the elusive nature of beauty, ultimately celebrating art and its power of renewal.

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Polyphony

Stephen Layton

Stephen Layton is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation. Often described as the finest exponent of choral music in the world today, his ground-breaking approach has had a profound influence on choral music over the last 30 years. Fellow and Director of Music at Trinity College Cambridge, Layton is also Founder and Director of Polyphony and Music Director of Holst Singers. Former posts include Chief Conductor of Netherlands Chamber Choir, Chief Guest Conductor of Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of City of London Sinfonia, and Director of Music at the Temple Church, London.

Layton is regularly invited to work with the world’s leading choirs, orchestras and composers. His interpretations have been heard from Sydney Opera House to the Concertgebouw, from Tallinn to São Paolo, and his recordings have won or been nominated for every major international recording award. He has two Gramophone Awards (and a further ten nominations), five Grammy nominations, the Diapason d’Or de l’Année in France, the Echo Klassik award in Germany, the Spanish CD compact award, and Australia’s Limelight Recording of the Year.

Layton is constantly in demand to première new works by the greatest established and emerging composers of our age. Passionate in his exploration of new music, Layton has introduced a vast range of new choral works to the UK and the rest of the world, transforming the music into some of the most widely performed today. Longstanding composer partnerships include Arvo Pärt and Sir John Tavener; in the Baltic, Eriks Ešenvalds, Uģis Prauliņš and Veljo Tormis; and in America, Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre, of whose music Layton made two Grammy-nominated recordings.

Other award-winning discs include recordings of Britten, James MacMillan, Bruckner, Handel (including BBC Music Magazine’s “Best Messiah recording” with Britten Sinfonia), and Bach’s St John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and B Minor Mass with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Layton’s recordings have consistently broken new ground, creating a new sound world in British choral music.

Owen Morgan Roberts

Originally from Worcester (U.K.), Owen Roberts is a Paris/Berlin-based performer, composer and producer whose work spans the fields of electronic, electro-acoustic and contemporary orchestral, chamber and choral music. His artistic output in each of these areas is connected by a passion for exploring the timbral characteristics of acoustic sound, blurring of the traits of rhythm and texture, and a focus on the placement and reception of sound in space.

Beginning his musical life in the English choral world as a member of Worcester Cathedral Choir, Owen went on to study composition under Dr. Martyn Harry and Trevor Wishart at the Universities of Durham and Oxford before moving to Germany to immerse himself in the free improvisation and electronic scenes of Berlin. There, he began performing as a solo electronic artist under his ‘Eugene’ moniker (performing in venues such as Hamburg's Kampnagel, Berlin's Radialsystem and Amsterdam's Shoeless festival), composed works for ensembles including his CTM festival commission, Recycled Hyperprism Plastik for amplified chamber ensemble, and began collaborating with producer Raz Ohara with whom he released 2015’s Chez Cherie Session and toured extensively in Europe and Russia.

Other Berlin-based collaborations included performance and production for composer Laurie Tompkins' works Heat War Sweat Law and 45th Generation Roman and production for releases by Julia Reidy, Klaas Hübner, Yeah You and Matt Rogers.

More recently, Owen toured with, and arranged for, the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble and the electronic trio which form the basis of that ensemble, performing his arrangements of their studio work as well as featuring as a vocalist in their ensemble and electronic shows. Other orchestration/arranging projects have included working with Greg Haines on David Dawson’s ballet Empire Noir and with Adam Wiltzie on his film score and album, Salero.

Owen's compositions have been performed by the BBC Singers, Chroma ensemble, Oxford Philomusica and Onkalo and his sound installations hosted at venues such as Radialsystem (Berlin), Modern Art Oxford and Mindpirates e.v. (Berlin).

Owen’s relationship with composer Jóhann Jóhannsson began through his work as an orchestrator/arranger. Since 2014’s orchestral adaptation of The Miner’s Hymns at Reykjavik’s Harpa concert hall, Owen has worked with Jóhann on a series of his projects including Drone Mass, Arrival, Last and First Men, Orphic Hymn and 2016’s Deutsche Grammophon release Orphée, as well as conducting and arranging Jóhann‘s choral contribution to Tim Hecker’s 4AD release, Love Streams. Owen is now based in Paris and, apart from NAWR YR ARWR//NOW THE HERO, is working on a full length Eugene LP (his first full length solo release), a new duo album with Raz Ohara and arrangements for a live version of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s film score, Arrival.

NAWR YR ARWR//NOW THE HERO will be their first full compositional collaboration although this has taken a very tragic turn as Owen will now complete the score alone following Jóhann‘s sudden passing.

Y GEIRIAU

The Gododdin

Cyfansoddwyd ‘Y Gododdin’ gan Aneurin yn OC 600 ac mae’n un o’r enghreifftiau hynaf sydd wedi goroesi o farddoniaeth Gymraeg.Mae’r arwrgerdd yn adrodd hanes 300 o ryfelwyr Celtaidd sy’n ymgynnull ar ôl dod ynghyd o lefydd mor bell â Phrydyn a Gwynedd. Ar ôl blwyddyn yn gwledda yn Din Eidyn, sef Caeredin heddiw, maen nhw’n ymosod ar Gatraeth – yn fwyaf tebygol, Catterick yng ngogledd Swydd Efrog erbyn hyn. Ar ôl sawl diwrnod yn ymladd yn erbyn byddin enfawr y gelyn, cafodd bron y cyfan o’r milwyr eu lladd. Mae’r gerdd yn debyg ei naws i farddoniaeth arwrol mewn ieithoedd eraill, gyda’r pwyslais ar arwyr sy’n brwydro’n bennaf er mwyn bri, ond nid naratif mohoni.

Awdur, bardd a dramodydd yw Owen Sheers. Mae wedi cyhoeddi dau gasgliad o farddoniaeth, sef The Blue Book a Skirrid Hill, a enillodd Wobr Somerset Maugham.Daeth The Dust Diaries, sef ei gyfrol ryddiaith gyntaf sydd wedi’i lleoli’n Zimbabwe, yn fuddugol yng Ngwobr Llyfr y Flwyddyn Cymru 2005. Mae Resistance, ei nofel gyntaf, wedi’i chyfieithu i un ar ddeg o ieithoedd.

Mae gwaith Owen i’r llwyfan yn cynnwys sgript a nofel ddiweddarach (The Gospel of Us) i The Passion, sef cynhyrchiad 72 awr National Theatre Wales ym Mhort Talbot.Drama a gafodd ei chreu gyda dau filwr clwyfedig oedd The Two Worlds of Charlie F. Teithiodd hon drwy’r Deyrnas Unedig a Chanada gan ennill Gwobr Rhyddid Mynegiant Amnest Rhyngwladol. Drama lwyddiannus arall oedd Mametz, a gynhyrchwyd gan National Theatre Wales. Enillodd ei ddrama fydryddol Pink Mist, a gomisiynwyd gan BBC Radio 4 a'i chyhoeddi gan Faber ym mis Mehefin 2013, Fedal Barddoniaeth Gŵyl y Gelli a Gwobr Llyfr y Flwyddyn Cymru 2014. Cynhyrchwyd hon ar gyfer y llwyfan yn yr Old Vic, Bryste, ym mis Mehefin 2015. Mae Owen wedi cydweithio â chyfansoddwyr ar ddwy oratorio.Cafodd The Water Diviner’s Tale ei chreu gyda Rachel Portman a’i pherfformio ym Mhroms y BBC yn 2007, tra crëwyd A Violence of Gifts, a ysbrydolwyd gan gyfnod o ymchwil yn CERN, gyda Mark Bowden a’i pherfformio am y tro cyntaf yn Neuadd Dewi Sant ym mis Ebrill 2015.

Darllen mwy

Go Gododdin-Brith-Gof-_-Test-Dept.jpg?mtime=20180123165622#asset:164 GODODDIN - Brith Gof / Test Dept

I've called the libretto a ‘gleaning’ from Y Gododdin as a nod towards both the sense of gathering from a field already harvested (in the case of Y Gododdin, many times by many poets over the centuries) and towards the fact that the shaping influences of this version are drawn from many places. There is also, I hope, the added shadow of the gleaning of a generation of young men in conflict. I’ve tried to keep a suggestion of the original cynghanedd form in the translation, represented by a pattern of mirrored alliteration and assonance. At the same time I wanted this pattern to be irregular, broken, to signify the violence of both the original poem and the fighting of WWI. Although much of the imagery is drawn from the period of the original poem - the 6th century - I also wanted to include references which occasionally telescope the text into the 20th century, and specifically the battle of Mametz Wood, where the 38th Welsh division lost 4000 men. An intended consequence of this is that the libretto should feel strung between then and now - at once ancient and contemporary, and therefore in some way tragically timeless, referring to the idea that violent conflict remains one of humanity’s most persistent failures, despite it also being one of our oldest and most often told stories. We sing the songs written by the ‘only one to return’, but seem unable to learn from their tales of ‘the boys once golden, now crimson.’

Owen Sheers

Awdur, bardd a dramodydd yw Owen Sheers.Mae wedi cyhoeddi dau gasgliad o farddoniaeth, sef The Blue Book a Skirrid Hill, a enillodd Wobr Somerset Maugham.Daeth The Dust Diaries, sef ei gyfrol ryddiaith gyntaf sydd wedi’i lleoli’n Zimbabwe, yn fuddugol yng Ngwobr Llyfr y Flwyddyn Cymru 2005. Mae Resistance, ei nofel gyntaf, wedi’i chyfieithu i un ar ddeg o ieithoedd.

Mae gwaith Owen i’r llwyfan yn cynnwys sgript a nofel ddiweddarach (The Gospel of Us) i The Passion, sef cynhyrchiad 72 awr National Theatre Wales ym Mhort Talbot.Drama a gafodd ei chreu gyda dau filwr clwyfedig oedd The Two Worlds of Charlie F. Teithiodd hon drwy’r Deyrnas Unedig a Chanada gan ennill Gwobr Rhyddid Mynegiant Amnest Rhyngwladol. Drama lwyddiannus arall oedd Mametz, a gynhyrchwyd gan National Theatre Wales. Enillodd ei ddrama fydryddol Pink Mist, a gomisiynwyd gan BBC Radio 4 a'i chyhoeddi gan Faber ym mis Mehefin 2013, Fedal Barddoniaeth Gŵyl y Gelli a Gwobr Llyfr y Flwyddyn Cymru 2014. Cynhyrchwyd hon ar gyfer y llwyfan yn yr Old Vic, Bryste, ym mis Mehefin 2015. Mae Owen wedi cydweithio â chyfansoddwyr ar ddwy oratorio.Cafodd The Water Diviner’s Tale ei chreu gyda Rachel Portman a’i pherfformio ym Mhroms y BBC yn 2007, tra crëwyd A Violence of Gifts, a ysbrydolwyd gan gyfnod o ymchwil yn CERN, gyda Mark Bowden a’i pherfformio am y tro cyntaf yn Neuadd Dewi Sant ym mis Ebrill 2015.

NAWR Y PERFFORMIAD

Yn ôl yr arfer yng ngwaith diweddar Rees, bydd Nawr Yr Arwr yn cael ei berfformio mewn sawl lleoliad, ond mae’n brosiect ar gynfas ehangach hefyd, gan gyfuno tri chyfnod o ryfela:y cyfnod Celtaidd (wedi’i gynrychioli gan ‘Y Gododdin’), y Rhyfel Mawr (wedi’i gynrychioli gan Baneli’r Ymerodraeth Brydeinig), a gwrthdaro cyfoes (wedi’i gynrychioli gan filwr o Abertawe sy’n gwasanaethu ar hyn o bryd, ac a fydd yn rhoi’r llinyn storïol i’r gwaith).