The Alice Sound: Making New Music and Learning Resources Based On Carroll's Classic Works

This project builds on AHRC-funded research which revealed Victorian understanding of, and widescale creative engagement with, Lewis Carrroll's 'Alice' books - landmark works that continue to capture the popular imagination in Britain and beyond. A range of audiences beyond academia benefited from the research findings via events, media coverage and a six-month exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood. The innovative research-led exhibition enabled deep, enduring and creative engagement with Carroll's work and its afterlife, especially on the part of British children. While the fellowship focused primarily on what Alice looked like to the Victorians, archival work on music sheets featuring early coloured illustrations also enabled insights into what she sounded like. This opened up a whole new and unforeseen avenue of research concerning the sonic dimension of the works, and to a collaboration with composer Paul Rissmann and the London Symphony Orchestra [LSO]. The QMUL-funded pilot project produced a new 20-minute Wonderland orchestral suite with vocal parts, based on Carroll's text and the historical music sheets, which premiered at the Barbican in November 2015.

This follow-on proposal draws on the fellowship research and the pilot project methodology to respond to the acute need for rich, cross-curricular provision for all children in the face of the ravages on music education and other creative activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There', this project will complete and scale up the 2015 Wonderland pilot, substantially extending its reach and legacy, and actively involving children throughout. A brand new companion piece to the Wonderland Suite, based on 'Looking Glass', will be created by Rissmann in collaboration with the PI and with children, and will be performed by the LSO in participatory school and family concerts at the Barbican. Enabling access to high-quality performances of these works to the widest audience possible, both pieces of music will be recorded and the films made permanently and freely available on a bespoke project website. A suite of attractive, accessible, cross-curricular learning resources to guide and enhance engagement with the books and the music will be the other key feature of the website. A marketing strategy jointly developed by the LSO and QMUL, involving events, press releases and features and social media dissemination, will ensure the widest possible uptake of the website nationally and internationally.

Generous contributions from the LSO make possible all 4 performances and covers 1/3 of the total recording costs. This application enables the commission of the new collaborative and participatory work, the creation of the website and learning resources, and covers the remaining 2/3 of the recording costs. The project will deliver real-world impact: supporting the LSO in its recently developed regional and digital learning strategy, and assisting teachers under acute pressures of time - compounded in many cases by lack of experience with music and classic texts - in order to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on children's well-being, learning and creativity. Renowned author and former children's laureate, Julia Donaldson, recently expressed her concern that 'there would be some children who grow [up] not able to sing'. Mobilising AHRC-funded research, this project enables engagement with classical music and touchstone texts, ensuring, ultimately, that children across the UK and beyond can indeed grow up singing.