for soprano and piano
duration ca 9'
Death and the Post Office (2016) was commissioned by Dr Antonio Cascelli with Irish soprano Virginia Kerr for performance alongside Michael Tippett's The Heart's Assurance. The text is by Irish poet Martin Dyar and used with permission.
Death and the Post Office
by Martin Dyar
The job they’re given is fairly simple.
Find the place,
go in for half an hour and discuss the settlement.
Find the place,
go in for half an hour and discuss the settlement.
Consider, if it’s appropriate,
the few antiques: the safe,
the signs, the switchboard.
Glance at the books, the electrics.
Perhaps fill out some forms.
But these aul’ ones, these Cathleens, these Annies,
the few antiques: the safe,
the signs, the switchboard.
Glance at the books, the electrics.
Perhaps fill out some forms.
But these aul’ ones, these Cathleens, these Annies,
they can be fierce long-winded.
For some of our lads their ways
are just too compelling.
For some of our lads their ways
are just too compelling.
Some accept a drink, some’ll have lunch.
We’d a Polish guy who took
a ninety-two-year-old out in the van.
She showed him a ball alley.
a ninety-two-year-old out in the van.
She showed him a ball alley.
Fair enough: dozens of ghosts
and no graffiti. But if you’re not direct
and no graffiti. But if you’re not direct
about the job? You understand,
we’ve had to weed out the dreamers.
we’ve had to weed out the dreamers.
Immunity to stories, I find,
is the primary quality.
You don’t want to be sitting at an old table,
is the primary quality.
You don’t want to be sitting at an old table,
under a clock that strikes you
as fabulously loud.
Or find yourself cradled by the past,
Or find yourself cradled by the past,
thinking a man need venture
no further west than the brink he meets
no further west than the brink he meets
in a mouthful of milky tea.
If the archive-harbouring frailty
of the postmistress soothes you;
if her wit grants you the lost farm
and maternity of the world;
if her isolated, dwindling village, a place
If the archive-harbouring frailty
of the postmistress soothes you;
if her wit grants you the lost farm
and maternity of the world;
if her isolated, dwindling village, a place
without a pub or a shop,
whose nearest decent-sized
whose nearest decent-sized
town is itself desperately quiet –
if these things move you...
What I mean is, if you can’t meet
What I mean is, if you can’t meet
a forgotten countryside
head on, and calmly dismantle her,
fold her up, carry her out,
and ship her back
to Head Office, however ambiguous,
and ship her back
to Head Office, however ambiguous,
however heavy-handed or fateful,
however bloody poignant
the whole affair might seem to you;
if you can’t stand your ground
when a steep moment
of hospitable chat and reminiscence
might tempt you to put
your mobile phone on silent,
or worse, blinded by plates of fruit cake,
to switch it off completely;
if you cannot accompany
an inevitable change, knowing
you did not cause these people, these ways, to vanish,
of hospitable chat and reminiscence
might tempt you to put
your mobile phone on silent,
or worse, blinded by plates of fruit cake,
to switch it off completely;
if you cannot accompany
an inevitable change, knowing
you did not cause these people, these ways, to vanish,
and if you will not sign off
on expired things for us,
then, I’m sorry, but you are not our man.
on expired things for us,
then, I’m sorry, but you are not our man.
(This text is used with the kind permission of the author.)
Performances:
23.02.2017 — Virginia Kerr (soprano) & Antonio Cascelli (piano), Riverstown Hall, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
