27/06/2023
Reflections on Yanomamo
Last weekend marked the 40th Anniversary of the première of YANOMAMO, the world’s first environmental musical. Peter Rose, the composer of this work, reflects on the making and history of this ground-breaking work.
Ivan Hattingh, WWF’s (then) Head of Education, commissioned Anne Conlon and myself to write a work that would educate children (and their audiences) about the dangers facing the Amazon Rainforest and its inhabitants. Since that memorable first performance, Yanomamo has gone on to be performed by hundreds of thousands of children throughout the world.
Ahead of the Première, songs from Yanomamo had been featured on BBC Breakfast Time for a whole week, so expectations were very high! Despite the pressure though, the Choir and Musicians of St Augustine’s were on top form. Our narrator Sir David Attenborough, clearly extremely moved by the performance, applauded each one of the 200 children off the Logan Hall stage. Further performances that week in Manchester’s Free Trade Hall and Blackburn’s King George’s Hall (with narrator David Bellamy) were equally successful as was the performance later in the year at the Edinburgh International Festival with our narrator Sir Michael Hordern exclaiming “This was the first genuine standing ovation I have ever witnessed”. The rest, as they say, is history.
In so many ways though, it isn’t history! Because 40 years on, tragically the Amazon’s inhabitants, both human and animal, are under more pressure than ever. As are the world’s inhabitants. Sadly therefore, the messages contained in Yanomamo all those years ago are now more relevant and urgent than ever. To quote from the finale:
“ …Do the people from the skies know they need the living trees?
Do they know they give us life? Yanomamo.
Do they want to leave their children an empty barren world;
No more life and loveliness? Yanomamo…”
It therefore felt totally appropriate that in this year of all years, we should create a new arrangement of Yanomamo: an SATB version for youth choirs, adult choirs, church choirs, community choirs etc. Children can of course still perform in the new arrangement, making Yanomamo particularly suitable as a community project. Anne and I are very keen to carry Ivan Hattingh’s original vision on into the future by bringing Yanomamo to an even wider audience. So if you know of any choirs that may be interested in a performance or in viewing perusal material, please do message me. And please spread the word! The Yanomami (People of the Trees) will surely thank you for it
YANOMAMO
Words: Anne Conlon
Music: Peter Rose
The Logan Hall, London 25th June,1983.
The Choir and Musicians of St Augustine’s RC High School, Billington, Lancashire
Narrator: Sir David Attenborough
