One of the great joys of working for the realisation of a national pavilion is meeting lovers of art from all over the world.
Melinda Hughes is one such person, first visiting Grenada in search of art. Hughes is an opera singer from London who resides in Barbados. She visited the opening of Grenada’s pavilion in 2022; a welcome guest. Since then, she has returned to Grenada and has been inspired to ignite her own creativity. She has donated her time and resources for a presentation for the opening of the Grenada National Pavilion on 18 May in Venice. Here she describes her process.
“I was inspired by Commissioner Susan Mains’ theme “Walking on water” for the 2023 Grenada Pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia to create a musical piece which captured both the romance of Venice and the exotic beauty of Grenada, both places dear to my heart.
I chose one of Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola songs for piano and asked my long-term writing partner Jeremy Limb to transcribe it for cello and voice. We then set about trying to find a short poem to set to the melody and discovered ‘A Venezia’ by the Venetian poet Chiara Carminati. Carminati’s words describing a painter’s love for Venice fitted perfectly to this undulating melody which then gently morphs into a Caribbean freeform improvisation for Djembe and cello. The cello-djembe improvisation underscores the poem “Fleet de la Caraïbe” recited by the Grenadian poet Samuel Ogilvie.
The song also incorporates a melody from the haunting African slave chant ‘Massa buy me. This famous plantation song was first heard by Dr William Dickson when he was Secretary to Edward Hay, who governed Barbados in the 1770s. It was transcribed by Granville Sharpe, a founder of the anti-slavery movement in Great Britain.
‘Massa buy me’ is the only slave song to have been notated and is unusual as it is in the minor key, whereas most were in the major key. This is a unique voice depicting how the enslaved saw their lot and how music was one of the few things used in their resistance and as a strategy for surviving the regime of enslavement. Thus, we tie together the themes of heritage, history, water, and transportation, and pay respect to the complexities of the history of the Caribbean islands.”
This international collaboration across Grenada, Barbados, Venice, Italy, and the UK symbolises the breadth of collaboration and unity in music and art. Visit the website at www.grenadavenice.org
Arrangement
- Jeremy Limb & Melinda Hughes based on Mendelssohn’s Venetian Gondola song opus 30, no 6.
Performers
- Soprano: Melinda Hughes
- Cello: Zara Hudson-Kozdoj
- Djembe: Rosie Bergonzi
Words
- Chiara Carminati & Samuel Ogilvie
Sound and Visuals
- Alexander Barnes at Apple & Biscuit Recordings, SOProductions, Grenada
Grenada Arts Council
Looking forward to hearing Samuel Ogilvie again. His works presented at the Biennale 2022 were phenomenal.