0:00:05 > 0:00:09At the end of the 15th century, a Scottish notary and teacher called
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Robert Henryson writes a series of animal fables
0:00:12 > 0:00:14based on the old stories of Aesop.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20Aesop, myne authour, makis mentioun
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Of twa myis, and thay wer sisteris deir.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29Henryson is little known these days, but experts consider him a master.
0:00:29 > 0:00:34He's the greatest poet, I think, of the 15th century in English or Scots.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Fast forward over 500 years
0:00:37 > 0:00:40and Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney catches
0:00:40 > 0:00:44a glimpse of an early manuscript of the Fables and is spellbound.
0:00:44 > 0:00:50It had a little rooster on the top right-hand corner of the manuscript.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55But the rooster was crowing. Something so jaunty about it.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Over several years, Seamus creates a series of modern English
0:00:58 > 0:01:03translations infused with the language of his rural childhood
0:01:03 > 0:01:04in Northern Ireland.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It's absolutely brilliant. It's a wonderful translation.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09And he persuades Scottish actor
0:01:09 > 0:01:12and comedy legend Billy Connolly to record them.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15This country mouse when winter came endured cold and hunger...
0:01:15 > 0:01:21I think he's amazing. His reputation swells before him.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24- It's kind of scary now with you sitting out here.- Oh, for God's sake.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28Now five of these fables have been animated for a project that
0:01:28 > 0:01:32Seamus Heaney was working on at the time of his death.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Bringing a modern dimension to tales that were written
0:01:35 > 0:01:37over half a millennium ago.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40With a specially composed score by international pianist
0:01:40 > 0:01:43and conductor Barry Douglas.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46This is a very major thing for me. It's a new departure.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49- I'm very excited.- In a moment,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51the full animated story of The Preaching Of The Swallow.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55With an introduction by Seamus Heaney himself.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58And later, some revealing behind-the-scenes footage
0:01:58 > 0:02:01of how these morality tales made it to the screen.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06Five medieval fables are now ready for their second coming.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19The Preaching Of The Swallow is a darker
0:02:19 > 0:02:23and starker fable than the others.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27From the beginning, there is a kind of ominous note.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29When the poet describes the seasons,
0:02:29 > 0:02:33the season of winter gets the most stanzas and it's the darkest.
0:02:33 > 0:02:39And it's as if the dark mood of the story is being foreshadowed.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45The swallow is mentioned in the title,
0:02:45 > 0:02:50the swallow is a feminine bird. It's a she.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56And she is warning other little birds from the beginning to beware
0:02:56 > 0:02:59this field that is being sown with seed.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01Flaxseed.
0:03:02 > 0:03:08Beware it because if you let it grow, the farmer, who's a fowler,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12somebody out after fowl also,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16the farmer will get you in the end, little birds.
0:03:16 > 0:03:23And they mock the swallow and fly off.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25And it happens again.
0:03:25 > 0:03:33Each time more menacingly. And by this time, the flax has grown.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35They've harvested it.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40And the farmer has made a net with the fibres of the flax.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46And the little birds have a very stark ending.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01God's great wisdom and his marvellous workings,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03The deep insight of the Omnipotent,
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Are in themselves so perfect and discerning
0:04:06 > 0:04:09They far excel our merely human judgment,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12All things for Him being ever present,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14As they are now and at all times shall be
0:04:14 > 0:04:17In the full sight of His divinity.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21The firmament, star-stippled, sheer and clear,
0:04:21 > 0:04:24From east to west rolling round and round
0:04:24 > 0:04:26Every planet in its proper sphere
0:04:26 > 0:04:28And motion making harmony and sound
0:04:28 > 0:04:32The fire, the air, the water and the ground
0:04:32 > 0:04:34They should suffice to demonstrate to us
0:04:34 > 0:04:37The intelligence of God in all his works.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40Consider well the fish that swim the sea,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43Consider too the beasts that dwell on land,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46Birds in their strength and beauty as they fly
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Cleaving the air with large or small wingspan,
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Consider then His last creation, man
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Made in His image and similitude
0:04:55 > 0:04:57By these we know that God is just and good.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Summer comes in his garment green and cheerful,
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Every hem and pleating flounced with flowers,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Which Flora, queen and goddess bountiful,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Has lent that lord for his due season's hours,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16And Phoebus with his golden beams and glamours
0:05:16 > 0:05:19And heat and moisture hazing from the sky
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Has decked and dyed with colours pleasantly.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Next then warm autumn when the goddess Ceres
0:05:26 > 0:05:29Heaps the barn floors high with her abundance,
0:05:29 > 0:05:35And Bacchus, god of wine, replenishes Her casks for her in Italy and France
0:05:35 > 0:05:39With heady wines and liquors that entrance
0:05:39 > 0:05:41And the plenty of the season fills that horn
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Of plenty never filled with wheat or corn.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Then gloomy winter, when stern Aeolus, God of the wind,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53with his bleak northern blasts Tears open, rends
0:05:53 > 0:05:55and rips into small pieces
0:05:55 > 0:05:59The green and glorious garment summer sports.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Now fairest flowers must fade and fall to frosts
0:06:03 > 0:06:05And the nearly perished songbirds modulate
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Their sweet notes to lament the snow and sleet.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12The dales are flooded deep with dirty puddles,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Hills and hedges covered with hoar frost,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19The sheltering bough is stripped and shrinks and shudders
0:06:19 > 0:06:22In cruel winds as winter does its worst.
0:06:22 > 0:06:25All creatures of the wild withdraw perforce
0:06:25 > 0:06:28From blasted farmlands to hole up and cower
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Against the cold in burrow, den or lair.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36Then when winter's gone there comes the spring
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Summer's secretary, bearing his seal
0:06:38 > 0:06:41When columbine peeps out after hiding Her
0:06:41 > 0:06:44fearful head beneath the frosty field.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47The thrushes and the blackbirds sing their fill.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51The lark on high, soaring far up yonder, is seen again,
0:06:51 > 0:06:53and other little songsters.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59That same season, one mild and pleasant morning,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Delighted that the bitter blasts were gone,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04I walked in woods to see the flowers blooming
0:07:04 > 0:07:07And hear the thrush and songbirds at their song,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10And as I walked and looked and wandered on
0:07:10 > 0:07:13Enjoyed the prospect of the vernal soil
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Ready for seed, in good heart, fresh and fertile.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Free and easy like that, on I go,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24Happy watching labourers at their tasks,
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Some digging ditches, some behind the plough,
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Some in full stride, sowing the seed broadcast,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34The harrow hopping off the ground they'd paced.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37For one who loved the corn crop, it was joy
0:07:37 > 0:07:40To see them at their work there, late and early.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Then as I stood beneath a bank to rest,
0:07:43 > 0:07:46Heartened and elated by the scene,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49There swooped into the hedge in sudden haste
0:07:49 > 0:07:51And quickly lit and roosted on the green
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Leaves of the hawthorn bush that was my screen
0:07:54 > 0:07:58A flock of small birds, everywhere at once,
0:07:58 > 0:08:03Innumerable, amazing, marvellous.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05Among them next I heard a swallow cry
0:08:05 > 0:08:09From where she perched on the top branch of the thorn,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11You birds there on your branches, hear,
0:08:11 > 0:08:12O hear me,
0:08:12 > 0:08:16And be instructed, understand and learn.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19When dangers loom or when perils threaten
0:08:19 > 0:08:22The wise course is to foresee and take care
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Plan, make provision, think, forestall and store.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30The lark laughed and then answered,
0:08:30 > 0:08:31Lady Swallow,
0:08:31 > 0:08:33What have you seen that's making you afraid?
0:08:33 > 0:08:36Do you see, she said, yon fellow with his plough
0:08:36 > 0:08:42Sowing - look - hemp and flax, broadcasting seed?
0:08:42 > 0:08:45In no time at all the flax will braird
0:08:45 > 0:08:47And when it's grown that churl will make a net
0:08:47 > 0:08:50And already plots to snare us under it.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52So my advice is this
0:08:52 > 0:08:55When he is gone this evening we descend and with our claws
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Scrape every seed out of the earth and then
0:08:58 > 0:09:00Eat it immediately, for if it grows
0:09:00 > 0:09:04We'll surely rue the day - and with good cause.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07Thus straightway we shall remedy our case
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Since the one who takes precautions suffers less.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13For scholars say it is not sufficient
0:09:13 > 0:09:15To consider only things that you can see,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Prudence being an inner discipline
0:09:17 > 0:09:19That causes one to look ahead and be
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Aware what good or evil end is likely,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Which course of action better guarantees
0:09:25 > 0:09:28Our safety in the last analysis.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31The lark laughed at the swallow then for scorn
0:09:31 > 0:09:35And said she fished before she'd found a net.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37The baby's easy dressed before it's born.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40What grows is never all that has been set
0:09:40 > 0:09:42It's time enough to bend and bare the neck
0:09:42 > 0:09:46When the blow is aimed, most fated's like to fall.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49And so they scorned the swallow, one and all.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Despising thus her salutary lesson
0:09:52 > 0:09:54The birds departed in a sudden flurry
0:09:54 > 0:09:57Some whirled across the fields in quick commotion
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Some to the greenwood in a panicked hurry.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03Left on my own then, out there in the country
0:10:03 > 0:10:05I took my staff and headed back for home
0:10:05 > 0:10:08In wonderment, as in a waking dream.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17Time passed, then came the pleasant month of June
0:10:17 > 0:10:19When seeds that had been sown earlier
0:10:19 > 0:10:23Grew high round corncrakes cracking out their tune
0:10:23 > 0:10:26And hiding places of the leaping hare.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30So again one morning I went roving where I found that same hedge
0:10:30 > 0:10:32and green hawthorn tree
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Which held those birds I've spoken of already.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38And as I stood there, by the strangest chance,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Those same birds you have heard me talk about
0:10:40 > 0:10:42Maybe because it was one of their haunts
0:10:42 > 0:10:45A safer, maybe, or a lonelier spot
0:10:45 > 0:10:47They lighted down and when they had alit
0:10:47 > 0:10:51The swallow cheeped, still harping on her theme:
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Woe to the one who won't beware in time.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58You birds, so blinded and so negligent,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00Unmindful of your own security,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Lift up your eyes, see clearly what has happened
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Look at the flax now growing on yon lea.
0:11:07 > 0:11:09That is the stuff I argued once that we
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Should uproot, while it was seed, from the earth.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15Now it's a crop, young stalks, a sprouting braird.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18While it's still tender, immature, and small
0:11:18 > 0:11:20Go, stop it growing.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Pull it up this minute.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24It makes my heart beat fast and my flesh crawl,
0:11:24 > 0:11:28It gives me nightmares just to think of it.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30The other birds then cried out and protested
0:11:30 > 0:11:31And told the swallow
0:11:31 > 0:11:34That flax will do us good.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Is linseed not our little fledglings' food?
0:11:37 > 0:11:39When the flax is grown and the seed-pods ripe
0:11:39 > 0:11:42We'll feast and take our fill then of the seed
0:11:42 > 0:11:45And sing and swing on it and peep and pipe.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47Who cares about the farmer?
0:11:47 > 0:11:50So be it, the swallow said.
0:11:50 > 0:11:51But I am sore afraid
0:11:51 > 0:11:54You'll find things bitter that now seem so sweet
0:11:54 > 0:11:58When you're scorched and skewered on yon fellow's spit.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01The owner of that flax field is a fowler
0:12:01 > 0:12:05A stealthy hunter, full of craft and guile,
0:12:05 > 0:12:07We'll all be prey for him, birds of a feather,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Unless we watch and match him, wile for wile.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Our kith and kin he has been wont to kill
0:12:14 > 0:12:17He spilled their blood for sport, most casually.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21God and his holy cross save and preserve me.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24These little birds who hardly gave a thought
0:12:24 > 0:12:27To dangers that might fall by misadventure
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Ignored the swallow, they set her words at nought
0:12:30 > 0:12:33As they rose up and flew away together,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Some to the wood, some to the heather moor.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39Noontime was approaching, I took my staff
0:12:39 > 0:12:42And bearing all in mind I headed off.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46The flax grew ripe, the farmer pulled it green,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Combed and dressed the seed-heads, stooked the beets,
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Then buried it and steeped it in the burn,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Spread and dried it, beetled the stalks to bits,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58And scutched and heckled all to tow in plaits.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02His wife then spun a linen thread from it
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Which the fowler took and wove into a net.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14The winter came, the freezing wind did blow,
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Green woods wilted in the weltering wet,
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Hoar frosts hardened over hill and hollow,
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Glens and gullies were slippery with sleet.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27The frail and famished birds fell off their feet
0:13:27 > 0:13:30Useless to try to shelter on bare boughs,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34So they hied them to the haggard and outhouses.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Some to the barn, some to the stacks of corn
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Fly for shelter and settle themselves in.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42The fowler sees them coming and has sworn
0:13:42 > 0:13:45He'll catch and make them pay for pilfering.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50He spreads his nets and in preparation
0:13:50 > 0:13:54Clears a space, shovels the surface snow off,
0:13:54 > 0:13:57Then smoothes it level with a layer of chaff.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01The small birds saw the chaff and were distracted.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04Believing it was corn they lighted down.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06The net was the last thing they suspected.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09They set to work to scrape and grub for grain
0:14:09 > 0:14:12With no thought of the fowler's cunning plan.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15The swallow on a little branch nearby,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18Fearing a trick, shouted this warning cry:
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Scrape in that chaff until your nails are bleeding,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24You won't find any corn, no matter what.
0:14:24 > 0:14:27Do you think yon churl's the sort who would be feeding
0:14:27 > 0:14:29Birds out of pity?
0:14:29 > 0:14:31No, that chaff is bait.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34I'm warning you, away, or you'll get caught.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37The nets are set and ready for their prey.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Beware in time therefore, or rue the day.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Only a fool is going to risk life
0:14:43 > 0:14:45And honour on a useless enterprise
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Only a fool persists when he's warned off
0:14:48 > 0:14:51And continues to ignore all good advice.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Only a fool fails to take cognisance
0:14:54 > 0:14:57Of what the future holds and thinks the present
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Forever stable, safe and permanent.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04These little birds, half-dead from hunger now
0:15:04 > 0:15:07And foraging for dear life for their food,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Paid no heed to the preaching of the swallow
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Although their grubbing did them little good.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14That was the moment when she understood
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Their foolish hearts and minds were obdurate
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And as she fled the fowler drew his net.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Alas, it was heartbreaking then to see him
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Butcher those little songbirds out of hand
0:15:32 > 0:15:36And hear, when they understood their hour had come,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40How grievously they sang their last and mourned.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43Some he hit with his stick and left there stunned,
0:15:43 > 0:15:47Some he beheaded, on some he broke the neck,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49Some he just stuffed alive into his sack.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55And when the swallow saw that they were dead,
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Behold, she said, the fate that often follows
0:15:58 > 0:16:01Those who won't take counsel or pay heed
0:16:01 > 0:16:05To words of prudent men or wisest scholars
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Three times and more I warned them of the perils.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Now they are dead.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15I am saddened and heartsore.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18She flew off and I saw her then no more.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51I try to be in an empty room. Maybe I'm looking at the window at nature.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53But that's the only thing that's going to distract me,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and then I just try to imagine the mood that these
0:16:57 > 0:17:00words are having on me, and the music that might match that.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06I compose away from the piano, but then I go to the piano,
0:17:06 > 0:17:09and I play what I've composed.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13And I see what works and what maybe need a little tweaking.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17But essentially, I think it's a much more pure process if you use your
0:17:17 > 0:17:21imagination and you sit there with a blank piece of manuscript paper.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29You have to kind of imagine the world that these
0:17:29 > 0:17:31fables are taking place in.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33That's kind of the backdrop to the whole thing.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36That's the whole atmosphere. That's the ambience.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39And then there are the added layers of this incredible poetry
0:17:39 > 0:17:42that's being translated by Seamus Heaney and all the rich, English
0:17:42 > 0:17:46words he's used to bring this whole thing to life for our time.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48And then there's another level,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50and all of these are equal levels, of course.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54Billy Connolly, his reading of it, the humour, the pathos
0:17:54 > 0:17:55and the drama in his voice.
0:17:55 > 0:17:59And so they scorned the swallow one and all.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03And then you have to try and match the music to that,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07so that there is a kind of multifaceted kind of menu of flavours,
0:18:07 > 0:18:11which are balancing, rather like a good wine and a good meal.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14You try to match those flavours together.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17That same season, one mild and pleasant morning,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20Delighted that the bitter blasts were gone,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22I walked in woods to see the flowers blooming
0:18:22 > 0:18:25And hear the thrush and songbirds at their song.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28Because this project IS so international,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31and yet so local, it's very complicated.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33And so you have to try and find those different strands
0:18:33 > 0:18:35and do something with the music.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Free and easy like that, on I go,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Happy watching labourers at their tasks,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Some digging ditches, some behind the plough,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Some in full stride, sowing the seed broadcast...
0:18:50 > 0:18:52I'm enjoying this very, very much.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56As a child and teenager and in my early '20s, I wrote reams of music
0:18:56 > 0:18:57and mostly rubbish.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02that's a double bar.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04If the cello tune can relax more, you know,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07and when the violin comes in, if we can sort of move it on slightly.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11And then get much more excited right up until the offbeat bits.
0:19:11 > 0:19:13Since then, I've tried to get a bit more serious and so,
0:19:13 > 0:19:17I wrote cadenzas for Mozart and Beethoven piano concertos.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21And I've written a little bit of music, but very kind of low-key.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24So, this is a very major thing for me.
0:19:24 > 0:19:26It's a new departure and I'm very excited.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42I wanted to have this kind of flowing music
0:19:42 > 0:19:46and yet it's such a kind of timeless story,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50that I wanted the beginning, the preamble, the small,
0:19:50 > 0:19:55prologue introduction music to sound like it's a kind of beginning
0:19:55 > 0:19:57of creation and then,
0:19:57 > 0:20:02so it goes naturally into the songs of the birds, the fact that he
0:20:02 > 0:20:07is walking through the woods and the storms and the winter, it's all
0:20:07 > 0:20:11finished, it's a great atmosphere of replenishment in spring.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23I thought it would be interesting to bring the human voice in, not
0:20:23 > 0:20:29singing any particular words, but just bringing that human quality and
0:20:29 > 0:20:35the frailty of the human condition in through the female voices.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38# Oooh, oooh... #
0:20:39 > 0:20:43I have chosen some wind instruments, some stringed instruments,
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and a piano. The piano was kind of the bread of the sandwich,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48but the real flavour
0:20:48 > 0:20:50and the real stuff that's going on is in the different instruments
0:20:50 > 0:20:53and how they relate to the characters
0:20:53 > 0:20:55and the particular moments of the drama.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01There swooped into the hedge in sudden haste
0:21:01 > 0:21:04And quickly lit and roosted on the green
0:21:04 > 0:21:06Leaves of the hawthorn bush that was my screen
0:21:06 > 0:21:09A flock of small birds, everywhere at once.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Obviously, capturing the birdsong is always tricky, because we have the
0:21:15 > 0:21:19swallow, we have the lark and then we have later on the corncrake.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And many composers have been very good at this,
0:21:22 > 0:21:25certainly Olivier Messiaen, the French composer,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27spent his whole life recording
0:21:27 > 0:21:30birdsong and trying to translate that into orchestral terms.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32So, we just want to give a flavour of that,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35but at the same time, in the swallows warning
0:21:35 > 0:21:38and the preaching, underneath, there is this darkness.
0:21:38 > 0:21:39So I wanted to kind of capture this.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41I can't do all the instruments on the piano,
0:21:41 > 0:21:44but because the flute, the choir will be in this too.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47HE PLAYS THE PIANO
0:22:00 > 0:22:02So, this is the preaching,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04this is the main thing that the swallow was talking about,
0:22:04 > 0:22:09which is beware of the future and what you're actually doing.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Can you see what is going to happen to you later on?
0:22:11 > 0:22:15And then the lark, of course, laughs.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42The slow, inexorable descent to a very bad place.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Because they don't listen to the swallow.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54He just has a knack for sort of getting to the emotional
0:22:54 > 0:22:58core of the shot. And he just gets the mood right, you know?
0:22:58 > 0:23:02And that's really the mark of a good composer, that they
0:23:02 > 0:23:05can do that, whether it's tragic or comic.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07They know the right music to reflect that
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and really bring out the mood in a shot.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30First and foremost, I'm going
0:23:30 > 0:23:33to read it with my kind of interpretation.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37That's to produce the music and the moods that I'm trying to match up.
0:23:37 > 0:23:42But then, Billy Connolly has already done this,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45and I have the tape of his interpretation of the fables.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48And so, I must pay attention also to his rhythm,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51so there will be a little bit of tweaking of the music there as well.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53The swallow on a little branch nearby,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Fearing a trick, shouted this warning cry:
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Scrape in that chaff until your nails are bleeding
0:24:01 > 0:24:04You won't find any corn, no matter what.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10- I couldn't hear Billy, because I played too loudly! - THEY LAUGH
0:24:10 > 0:24:12And of course, he's a great multitasker.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15I witnessed this at one of the recording sessions where during...
0:24:15 > 0:24:17He was recording the cues,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20he was playing this fantastic piece on the piano.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24But at the same time, he was conducting a 20-piece choir,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27he was watching the animation on a big screen.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30He had his headphones on listening to Billy Connolly, hitting the cues.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33He was also conducting a flautist at the other side. All at the same time.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Sometimes playing with one hand, conducting with the other, then back to two hands.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38That was just very, very impressive.
0:24:53 > 0:24:54This is very complicated.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Normally in film recordings, everyone in the orchestra would have
0:24:58 > 0:25:01headphones with their click track so everyone is playing to that.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03So, I think to do what he's doing,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06where it's kind of free hands, very difficult.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10It's like juggling a lot of balls in the air at once.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Also changing the length of things to fit
0:25:13 > 0:25:16the screen, maybe even changing some of the notes,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18when you would hear it for real, it might have a different effect
0:25:18 > 0:25:21with another sound, different dynamics, that kind of thing.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24So, it's a very evolutionary process.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30And bar 100. So, play 100 twice and then play 101 twice also.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34You kind of divide your brain into four and just hope for the best.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36So far so good. We'll see what happens.
0:25:43 > 0:25:44Sir, said the fox,
0:25:44 > 0:25:46He is a hefty bod
0:25:46 > 0:25:49One heave and you will be high and dry aloft.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51But this much I can guarantee you
0:25:51 > 0:25:53If you haul that herring safely out of there,
0:25:53 > 0:25:57You needn't fish again till lent next year.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Obviously, we're all inspired by some great successful works.
0:26:00 > 0:26:02I mean, Peter And The Wolf springs out, of course,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05whenever I first heard about this project,
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and so, one instrument might represent one animal or one
0:26:08 > 0:26:11theme might represent one kind of drama.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13So, there are those kind of local, pinpointed,
0:26:13 > 0:26:18spotlighted bits of motifs, which are coming through the music.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22And so, we have a violin, we have a cello with the double bass
0:26:22 > 0:26:26for the oxen and the clarinet for the fox.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29And I try to bring those colours of the instruments
0:26:29 > 0:26:32which are totally natural, and match them with the story.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40For the lion in The Lion And The Mouse fable,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42I've got a French horn playing
0:26:42 > 0:26:45because I think that's the kind of very brassy, regal and there's
0:26:45 > 0:26:49quite a pompous Lion who shows great mercy to the poor old mouse.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02He's great to work with.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06I mean, he has an incredible respect for all of the people he works with.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10And he never gets flustered. He is never rude. He's never in a hurry.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12Just talk amongst yourselves for a second.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16He really is a fantastic colleague to work with all the time.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30We must fetch that lent food here.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33My strong teeth can lay waste to the herringbone
0:27:33 > 0:27:35and basket work, I trust?
0:27:35 > 0:27:36Indeed, the Fox replied,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39I often wished for your bite and brawn
0:27:39 > 0:27:40To help me raise that fish.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43It's like a side of salmon, more or less.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46Shiny as a partridge eye and luscious.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Worth more than all of those herring on the grass,
0:27:49 > 0:27:50Three times as tasty
0:27:50 > 0:27:53Three times more precious.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55My first experience of Seamus Heaney was
0:27:55 > 0:27:58when I got my win in the Moscow Competition in '86.
0:27:58 > 0:28:02He wrote the most beautiful message to me on a postcard.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04That was out of the blue.
0:28:04 > 0:28:05I'd never met him.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07And he talked about soaring higher
0:28:07 > 0:28:09and higher and it was real poetry.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15I had the good fortune to meet him
0:28:15 > 0:28:17several times after that on many occasions.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20And he would come to my concerts when I was in Dublin.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22And then when I was in Oxford for a sabbatical in '93,
0:28:22 > 0:28:27I had the chance to hear him lecture there in one of the colleges.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29And so, he's been a great influence
0:28:29 > 0:28:32and of course his poetry is a huge influence on all of us.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34A great inspiration.