Grand Union Orchestra

Why do some diseases hit the headlines and attract billions in funding, while others languish almost unnoticed, even though they affect many more people? That’s the question dramatised by Song of Contagion. It investigates the mismatch between places where diseases are endemic and where more money is spent, through a musical narrative.

Song of Contagion features thirty of the Grand Union Orchestra’s finest musicians and singers from a plethora of major musical traditions world wide – acclaimed artists with international reputations in their own right, who bring an awe-inspiring authenticity to the performance.

Combining elements of jazz and world music, seamlessly fusing these genres in moving and exhilarating songs in Haynes’ carefully crafted compositions, Song Of Contagion is a chance to witness an inimitable contemporary orchestra in full force and will be a fantastic spectacle to behold.

Song of Contagion begins in the atmospheric setting of Wilton’s: a classic Victorian music hall in the heart of East London, where cholera raged 150 years ago. The cause unknown, wild theories abound, but eventually the problem is solved: fresh water and an effective sewage system are the answer. Meanwhile, Indian voices and instruments describe an equally virulent cholera epidemic gripping Kolkata, in West Bengal; but no such steps are taken there, and thousands continue to die from the disease.

It then moves to addresses the story of HIV/AIDs: GUO musicians animate the lines on a graph, projected behind them. Strings buzz away over drums and bass, portraying growing activism against the disease. Saxophones represent growing public awareness and media attention, and trombones the initially reluctant government funding for treatment, while a menacing bass drum marks the ever-increasing death rate. Then the trumpets announce a treatment has been found – an expensive one, but the drum beats fade. Meanwhile, millions of families suffering from the disease in Africa can’t all be treated until medication is cheaper. Against an African rhythm now, the strings, saxophones and trombones again get to work and the trumpets mellow as the price falls.

A mosquito begins to dance over a lilting rhythm from central Africa, where dengue fever has been killing tens of thousands for years. However “it’s not going to play if it’s too far away” comes a response form a tabloid newspaper editor. Next, with soca and steel pans, the mosquito spreads the disease to the Caribbean, but “....the rum is still flowing and tourists keep going, where’s the drama?” is the editor’s reply. The mosquito then sambas into Brazil, where “…Zika may spoil the Olympics: there’s babies being born with small heads.” “Now you’re talking!” the editor said.

The audience return after the interval to the sound of a heartbeat and its graphic wave fills the screen on stage, a portent of Coronary Heart Disease. Against this pulse, Dr Sugar, a character who may once have trodden the boards of this very music hall, investigates how the heart’s rhythms can be sent off kilter by the junk food industry.

Three dramatic stories now follow, vividly brought to life in a series of flashbacks. This is the experience of people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or ‘shell-shock’. Their stories are interwoven, and then taken up by four jazz soloists – two trumpets and two saxophones – while the other musicians provide an eloquent instrumental commentary. Overlapping and colliding with increasing frequency, the musical images build to a powerful climax, which then dissolve into a poignant epilogue.