w19140
| Title | Scrap of Life, A |
| Contributors |
Claire McCue (composer) Anon / McCue (author) |
| Composition date | 2011 2011 |
| Duration (mins) | 10 |
| Category | accompanied vocal |
| Instrumentation | M-s Fl Ob Cl Hn Bsn Pf |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | |
| Notes | |
| Programme Note | This piece is based on a true personal experience. Last summer, while I was stopped at a set of traffic lights, a young woman approached all the car windows, handing through a tealight candle and a small, roughly cut scrap of paper, with some writing in slightly blurred type from being photocopied many times. On it she explained that she was from Kosovo, had 2 young children, no money and no way to buy food. While we read the note, she finished her circuit and then came back round all the cars to collect money. But she never spoke the whole time. If it was because she didn't speak English, I wondered how she had managed to have the note written? There was no time to think about whether or not her case was genuine, just to give some money, or not - before the lights changed. It was a strange place for it to happen, the traffic lights at Anniesland, and I thought about it a lot afterwards...asking a few people what they thought. I was slightly surprised that most people thought it was probably suspicious and said they wouldn't have given any money without knowing if it was true or not. I am not sure what made me keep the little scrap all this time, or keep thinking back to the incident. Perhaps the words, but I was left thinking in circles, and wondering not only if her case was genuine, but questioning how it had come to the stage where we might rather not hep in case it was a scam than help in case it was true. The first paragraph of the text is exactly as it appeared on the scrap of paper. The rest, my own reflections. |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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