Lost Light: Music from The 306
Various Artists
(National Theatre of Scotland)
SCOTLAND’S national theatre was created to make its own rules, so there will be no surprise that it is now a record label, but there should probably be a health warning of some sort on the packaging of this 12-track album: “may induce weeping”, or something similar.
Music-theatre trilogy The 306: Dawn, Day and Dusk was a highlight of the contributions NTS made to the 14-18NOW programme of work marking the centenary of the First World War. Playwright Oliver Emmanuel and composer Gareth Williams had a superb cast and musical partners in Red Note Ensemble to tell the heart-rending true tale of the 306 men executed for cowardice and desertion, in a co-production with Perth Theatre.
It would be a mistake, though, to look at this release of music from the three shows as simply a memento of those site-specific and stage productions. This disc (also available to download) stands eloquently on its own, with the bare minimum of information on the packaging to put it in context.
Using language honed to its essence, and scoring that is often just as minimalist, Emmanuel and Williams give the singers and instrumentalists enough to depict the anguish of the young soldiers and the loss of those they left behind. Real relationships sundered over a hundred years ago leap achingly from these performances, recorded at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
It culminates in a list of the men the shows memorialised, but the tears may start to flow much earlier, during the first of two trio recordings by Amanda Wilkin with cellist Sonia Cromarty and pianist (and musical director) Jonathan Gill. The song That Should Be Us might be the work of Sondheim, but without any of the cynicism.
Keith Bruce
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here