The poem "A different kind of urban" was commissioned by The Open University Choir in 2017 to form the lyrics for a twenty minute piece of choral music written by Liz Lane, comprising brass ensemble, timpani and percussion.
Both Liz and I have long-standing links to the Open University. We have both taught for it – she, music: I, creative writing. Our knowledge of Milton Keynes however differs greatly: she had never explored the town before accepting the commission. I lived there for 30 years, moving away, to Dorset, in 2016. Thus the project was constructed by one contributor looking back and one looking at the town for the first time. Interesting …
The commission was part of the ‘MK50’ festivities in 2017 – a year-long celebration of the new town as it reached its half century. The then Housing Minister, Anthony Greenwood, formally designated the area within Bletchley, Stony Stratford, New Bradwell and Wolverton as the site for a new town of 250,000 people on 23 January 1967.
I believe one of the very first institutions to set up in Milton Keynes (in 1969) was the Open University, so it is fitting that The Open University Choir should have marked the occasion as it has done.
The premiere of the choral piece A different kind of urban was given on 23 November 2017. Sadly, no recording of it is available. After the concert one or two people said to me that they wished they could have heard the poem read. So I decided to make this recording of the poem to keep the memory of it alive until it is performed again when, hopefully, the piece can achieve the wider circulation which it richly deserves.
I, for one, can’t wait to hear it again.
In the meantime …
also by Judi Moore
‘Wonders will never cease’
Moo Kow Press (in conjunction with FeedARead) released my fourth book of fiction in December 2017. Available in Kindle and paperback from Amazon.
'It is December, 1985. The year is winding gently towards its close until Fergus Girvan, a Classicist at Ariel University, finds his research has been stolen by the man who is also seeking to steal his daughter. But which man is, actually, the more unscrupulous of the two? And is there hope for either of them?'
