PERIL AT SEA'S EDGE

Peril At Sea's Edge is a truly impressionistic work in the accepted sense of the term. While the music has something of a narrative tendency it remains faithful to the tenets of impressionism by virtue of displacement in time. The temporal relations in Water Drake and Puck Church are connected but unrealistic, in much the same way as dreams have a tendency to ignore chronology. If the music had been written in the 1920's or 30's it may well have been labelled as Surrealistic. The passing of time is more accurately described in Coonatto but here again the hymn-like theme starting at bar 92 could be superimposed, in the mind at least, anywhere in the ship's supposed history.

I describe this opus as three poems for guitar. It emulates in form but not content the spooks-in-the-night “Gaspar de la Nuit” by Maurice Ravel from which the work is partly inspired. The Sussex coastline between Seaford Head and Beachy Head is the setting for the work as a whole and local folklore provides themes for the three individual tone poems. Each tells a story and is the guitaristic parallel to the Ravel work but Peril At Sea's Edge would be more accurately subtitled “Spooks at the Seaside”.

Water Drake is a Sea Sprite, something like the male equivalent of mermaid, said to frequent the waters between Seaford and Eastbourne. This is not a malevolent spirit. He is reputed to help drowned mariners find their way into the next world and the peace that comes with it. The music is unambiguous but ethereal, describing his fluid environment dappled with light which penetrates the blues, greens and the rippling motion of his aquatic realm complete with mysteriously calm hiding places.

Coonatto is a three-masted clipper returning from the antipodes with a precious load. The music describes the ship's approach to England and its final end on the beach at Cuckmere Haven. The crew are anticipating a well earned rest and have drunk to much grog in a premature celebration. Being listless and neglectful they fail to heed the warning bells and surrounded by fog are unable to see the looming chalk cliffs which would otherwise alert them to their imminent danger. The ship runs aground. The mariners are saved but the cargo is lost and with it the prosperity they so much expected.

A following storm pounds the Coonatto against the rocks and the ship is broken. That part of the cargo which is not washed away is plundered and all that is left is the sorry hulk. Year after year the gales and the wreckers take their toll and with the relentless passage of time all that is left is the disappearing memory of a once great ship. Even the hymn to the passing of time becomes extinct.

Puck Church is the third and last poem in this trilogy. It is a cave in the white chalk cliff-face of Seaford Head and local folklore tells us that it is the domicile of a devil, Puck. The music is menacing, agitated and boisterous to describe the character of the imp.

To set the scene: Summer lightning threads through a warm grey sky: Puck is in his parlour (the cave) and he wants company to perform his usual impish tricks on. By devious arts he attracts the attention of a passer-by, “Wayfarer”. Wayfarer is lured into the cave and is subjected to a ludicrous game of hide and seek. His host is only glimpsed, fleetingly as if in spasms.

This devil appears around corners, dances on one foot, disappears an reappears, then offers tempting treats such as food, drink which never materialize. He conjures up fleeting glimpses of manifestations which defy human description — and which never really appear in any solid form. He then tantalizes Wayfarer with hypnotism. To Wayfarer all is bewilderment. Where is mine host? His host plays with lightning. His host plays with thunder. His host plays with demons. His host plays in Wayfarer's world and on his mind. The music vividly describes Wayfarer's heartbeat which increases alarmingly. Wayfarer is fearful to the outcome of this devil's mind-games but is mercifully allowed to get away. The fiend is still playing hide and seek as his quarry makes good his escape. The spell is broken and the last musical flourish describes a shiver in Wayfarer's spine as he retreats from the site of his tormentor but Puck has the last words: “Only joking — only joking. So?”