Pastorale. Music/Theatre by Trevor Wishart - ACE124.3

God, with serpent and apple (and Michelangelo’s The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1508-1512) talks about the Garden of Eden and his "contract with the two tenants". God on The Fall; reminding the audience that Bach would have considered human suffering to be part of his grand design. Music over. Wishart’s VO suggests that the idea of human suffering as part of God’s plan is "structurally there, inside the music". God starts Adam and Eve’s performance; they are joined by unseen choir. Wishart says that he finds that musical structure is "full of ideas" and that by changing the structure of the Bach piece, he is "commenting on what that music is about". God talking about an alternative classic creation story which posits him as "celestial clock-maker", a role in which he disappears after setting the universe going; everything subsequently carries on according to the laws of mechanics. Gog and Magog striking the hours on St Dunstan’s Church, Fleet Street. Clockwork. Wishart talking about wanting to use clock automata, and about the idea of the universe as a giant clockwork mechanism.