For four years, Goldfield have toured our schools’ productions to the Fens. Now, for 2019 we bring the Fens to the fore, combining the fascinating landscape and folklore of this area with music from the British Isles in our new production: Bogles, Marsh Sprites & Green Mists: Three Fenland Stories.
Three Fenland Stories are based on old folktales reimagined through the eyes and ears of children. Linking the stories are ancient childhood games, rhymes, and rituals – the lore of school children and the playground, a culture forgotten or mostly ignored by adults. Our new show is an inspirational, quirky, mysterious and uplifting rhythmical journey through the “black glistening peat-lands, where great black snags work their way up from submerged forests below,” where bogles and marsh sprites play tricks and a North Sea wind whistles through stunted willows…
This original story is illustrated with shadowy images and musical extracts from an extraordinary blend of arranged folk song, percussion, and some of the finest 20th century chamber music written or arranged for string quartet:
- Gustav Holst – St Paul’s Suite for strings
- Ralph Vaughan Williams – Norfolk Rhapsody
- Elizabeth Maconchy – String quartets number 3 and 11
The show is written, designed and produced by Kate Romano and performed by members of the Goldfield Ensemble. It is ideally suited for KS1 and KS2 – although we usually find that grown-ups love our shows just as much!
Three Fenland Stories was developed as part of the Live Music In Schools 2019 scheme. It has been seen and heard by over 1800 children in 10 different schools. We are extremely grateful to the Cambridgeshire Music Hub for their vision, funding, and support and the creation of this outstanding scheme.