For the Messengers - Hat Yai

Woman wading through the floods at Hat Yai. Her lovely stripey dress, her delightful spotty umbrella ... was funny how her head disappeared into the dark space of the gateway beyond ...

Francesca Caccini and Modern Floods

I have been listening to Francesca Caccini's music on Lucie Skeaping's Early Music Show on BBC R3 and am so taken away with her melody and expressive ornamentation.

The word painting of this incipient operatic style is so breathtaking. This use of an emotionally affective solo vocal over a simple chordal accompaniment is very relevant to modern singer songwriters as well.

Here's the famous painting of Francesca.















Also, this morning at work I have been shotlisting aftermath of floods. So I have written some lyrics which relate to this experience, and intend to set them to an ornamented, emotionally affective vocal line over cello and uke.
Francesca and the Caccini family, thank you all for this inspiration.

Here are the simple lyrics. I love this idea, but have yet to see if it works in practice. I am convinced it will.

FLOOD SONG
It all happened so fast
I can't even put it into words
So much damage has been done
Everything that we had built is gone

We are left here with the water
And our neighbours who hug us
For they too have lost everything
And have no insurance

Too late for sandbags
In our rubber dinghy
We paddle the streets
Watching the rescue workers in waterproof clothing
outside the block of flats

They carry our old friend into the ambulance.
We talk, and wade and stand
And hold each other