Manchester Collective are one of the most successful groups of musicians who aim to bridge the gap between musicians and their audiences. The winning formula they have developed is to curate programmes with strong and unusual themes and then to communicate directly with the audience during the gig. However, they are not afraid of including challenging repertoire mixed in with the more accessible. The results are entertaining and bold in equal measure, as was the case with this concert entitled “Sea Shanties”, with the impressively communicative and talented Sean Shibe as guest artist.
All the music in their programme reflected the theme of the sea, with a noticeable lack of the jaunty upbeat vibe of the shanty. Much of the music was mournful, including as it did a large proportion of John Dowland, the high priest of melancholy. These were performed in beautiful arrangements for string quartet, percussion and the sensitive lute of Shibe, mixed in with arrangements of traditional Gaelic Scottish folk songs arranged by the group’s leader, Donald Grant. These settings were particularly poignant, especially Allein Duin, a ‘s naire, a heart-breaking tale of loss from the perspective of the a wife, mother and daughter lamenting the loss of all her men at sea.
Another notable moment in the evening the arrangements of The Unthanks, a beautiful setting of Rudyard Kipling’s powerful poem Big Steamers, written on the eve of the World War One and describing the need to keep the cargo ships safe at sea to keep us fed, a particularly relevant subject in the today’s war-torn world. The arrangement by Peter Bellamy was one of the high points of the evening. The concert began in an upbeat manner with an arrangement of sailors’ music from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Later in the programme, Purcell was represented again with a strangely forgettable arrangement for string quartet by Thomas Adès.
The evening ended with a new commission, Arksong composed by Ben Nobuto. According to Nobuto’s thorough introduction, the piece brings in themes of shanties of old and how over time this simple method of harnessing a team effort was drowned out by the advance of technology, firstly steam engines and increasingly with the highly computerised noises of our own world. The string quartet and Sean Shibe, now on electric guitar, was supplemented by a very extensive solo percussion part, played with notable athleticism by Beibei Wang. The fifteen-minute score was packed with incident and energy, incorporating AI generated voices and sounds, spoken word from the performers and toy tuned bells. The result was a refreshingly lively confection of Stravinskian rhythmic propulsion, minimalism and folk inspired wisps of themes. The result of this aural melange sounded fresh and unique, having the ability to simultaneously fascinate and challenge, but not in an academic way, something many young composers fail to achieve. A fitting end to a thoughtful and satisfying evening of music making.
