The Easter Man is one of favourite pieces and their are some points I feel
you need to be aware off.
This was the first decent piece of music I had written for about three
years. The three years prior to that barren patch, had seen an explosion in
creativity, which resulted in (amongst other things) nine symphonies. Due to
various reasons, you could say I then suffered from "Burn Out". Fortunately I
joined Chiltern Church in Sutton, Surrey, UK, which accepted me as I was,
imagination and all and about a year later, after a couple or churchy songs,
I wrote this.
The first song to be written was Gethsemane, and it was the idea behind
this that acted for the slant the production took, in that it concentrated on
the emotions of those involved at the time.
The choir that performed this, was a scratch one as Chiltern doesn't have a
regular choir. This meant that the music had to be kept fairly simple, hence
no official part singing, although if a member felt they could harmonise the
tune, then I let them do it. The only stipulation being that they harmonised
in the same key as I was playing.
Rehearsals started six weeks before Easter 1995, I finished writing it
three weeks later.
At the risk of sounding like an Oscar winner, there are many people who I'd
like to thank. There is no point listing their names, because unless you know
me, you will have no idea who they are. But just in case anyone ever reads
this, I would name Val Theo for her encouragement, and Susan Atkins, the assistant pastor at the time, whose idea
it was for me to "write something for Easter". So I did, and this is the
result
Lyrics to be posted shortly.
