The synopsis of The Drummer of Tedworth could make Alice in Wonderland seem conventional and even impress Eugène Ionesco. A character, Olis, is in search of the pnoom (no idea what it is, and that’s kind of the point). On a delirious journey, he will meet protagonists one might encounter in the adventures of Baron Munchausen: a guardian named Skardnik, a Drunken Landlady, a band of mischievous dwarfs, the Krasnoludki, an Martian refugee, an avatar of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Goat, and Benjamin Franklin! There are other eccentrics, but listing them would be too tedious.
Having reached this point, I have probably already lost several. But if you are still here, it means you have a feline and insatiable curiosity. You may be pleased to know that this improbable construction is still based on a simple idea: Olis, who doesn’t like life because “it makes him grow old,” eventually embraces existence and all the excitement of its many surprises.
Sean Noonan’s music, which involves a large orchestra (the London Symphony) and a substantial drum score (well, of course, hence the title), is in keeping with the fragmented scenario: as much contemporary music as free jazz, Broadway, or sometimes instrumental pop, the sounds conceived by Noonan spin and whirl like bright shards in a kaleidoscope. Noonan’s writing is fearsomely detailed, both in its atonal, polyharmonic, and polyrhythmic passages, and rendered with impressive precision by Jack Sheen in the conducting.
Don’t let the term “contemporary” deceive you about the nature and character of the music heard: Noonan avoids the academicism of conceptual dissonance to embrace a shattered and humor-filled expressionism.
The narration (by Noonan himself) is full of energy and wit.
This is where the experience succeeds in convincing, even if some may have the impression of listening to “mickey-mousing” shot up with LSD.
We must acknowledge the composer’s vigorous determination to pursue his creative voice to the end, risking ridicule, but with the conviction of those who ultimately, against all odds, manage to convince the sceptics.
