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RISK = 1% by Paul Barker
I am continuously amazed at the way music is enmeshed in every part of our lives. When Philip told me about the Marin Marais work, I was like most people surprised and intrgued. True, drama is never far away from a doctors work, and where there is drama, music will intensify it. But it was a great pleasure to write this little piece, which chimes in with my long-standing enthusiasm for working with the voice in all musical contexts. The other rewarding element was to work with period instruments, which as a composer today is a comparative rarity, unfortunately: they are an exciting part of our heritage, and should not be only the prerogative of dead composers!
The words for Risk = 1% come from interviews recorded by Jane Wildgoose and Neil McCarthy with Peter Isaacs's medical team and patients at Blackpool Victoria Hospital using questions based on the text of Marais's piece, in addition to a press article about Andy Warhol. There are rather a lot of different characters protrayed between the three actors in under four minutes. I count myself as one of those who rather fears any kind of hospital treatment, and I was impressed to find some of the medical team expressng the same view. There is a certain and increasing nervousness and tension in the work that reflects this, but not without, I hope, a sense of humour. Without that I dont think we would be so good as patients - or, perhaps, doctors.
The above photograph shows lead aprons from ERCP sessions in the X-ray room at Blackpool Victoria Hospital
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