The Seasons of the Wayfarer (1990)

Duration 35’
Synthesizer score for the Norfolk Dance Association Summer Course
Concept: David Chant
Choreography: Michael Pink
First performed at East Anglia University, Norwich.

Following a story that was inspired by a tree local to East Anglia, The Seasons of the Wayfarer was the end-of-course performance for the Norfolk Dance Association’s Summer Course of 1990. It followed a similar format to the previous year’s spectacular show, The Spirits of Sarras, with each year group providing sections that were then compiled into a full narrative, comprising an evening’s performance.

The theme was less extrovert than its predecessor, and the music, similarly constructed from the Roland D550 synth, was more muted and more pastoral, but with something of a rough and ready folkloristic quality suited to the rural setting. The cycle of seasons went from spring to spring, with a notable summer lullaby and a desolate winter scene, musically sparse with a haunting distant white voice. Some of that suspended space found its way into the ballet, Cinderella some three years later. The work ended with a percussive rhythmic dance to celebrate the return of spring, not Stravinsky (!) but effective in its own way.