WISDOM'S NO FOOL

Kenneth Walton finds out why composer Sir John Tavener has dedicated his latest work, The Fool, to slap-stick genius Sir Norman Wisdom. The Scotsman - 9th October 2000.

The last person you would expect the high-minded composer Sir John Tavener to strike an affinity with is that comical wizard of slapstick, and fellow knight of the realm, Sir Norman Wisdom.

Consider the differences. Tavener's tall, saintly physique, crowned with biblical, flowing locks, exudes a god-like aura. His art is serious and sublime, simple and seductive, and firmly rooted in his Eastern Orthodox religious beliefs.

Most of us will have encountered works like The Song for Athene, sung in Westminster Abbey at the Princess of Wales's funeral, or that big hit of the classical charts, The Protecting Veil. He is, many would say, not of this world, nor of this time.He has the air of a mystic, a deep and distant intellectual. Telling jokes, one would reasonably deduce, is not his forte.

Wisdom, on the other hand, is a clown. He lives for laughs. And we all fall about hysterically when the diminutive clothcapped misfit of many Sunday matinee films does just that - fall about. Even inreal life - if we accept his chat-show appearances as a genuine snap-shot - Wisdom appears constantly to sacrifice self-respect and dignity for the sake of a few laughs. There is a Chaplinesque pathos in his real-life act. He draws pity.

Yet, when the two men met briefly at Buckingham Palace recently for their respective Royal dubbings, Tavener immediately felt drawn to Wisdom's innocent tomfoolery. So much so, he drew on the experience as a major stimulus in finish- ing his new music theatre piece, The Fool, which receives its London premiere tonight at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as part of the South Bank's current Tavener celebration, Ikons of Light.
'I had him in mind to play a role in The Fool,' Tavener reveals. 'But when we eventually met, he was so busy telling gags, I just couldn't get the concept over to him.'
In the end, Tavener simply observed the comedian and dedicated the work to him.

Wisdom, says the 56-year-old composer, is a 'real' fool, and his remark is not meant disparagingly. 'My new piece centres on the existence of holy fools in the early Byzantine church,' says Tavener. 'They sacrificed everything for the sake of Christianity, committing deliberate blasphemies and obscenities. There's the well-documented story of St Simeon of Constantinople dropping his trousers in church, rather like a modem-day streaker. There are also stories of such fools going into people's houses, where the marriage wasn't going well, and pretending to rape the wife in front of her husband' They behaved like complete lunatics, says Tavener, compelled to do so in order to rout out hypocrisy within the church. 'Rasputin was a kind of diabolic fool. They were regarded highly. Most were revered and feared. In the 20th century this is a difficult figure to understand, but we could do with a few fools today.'

It was during a recent period of seclusion in a Greek monastery that Tavener did, in fact, come across such a phenomenon. 'In the surrounding countryside, there were hermits living in trees,' he explains. 'As I walked in the woods, I spotted one muttering psalms and ripping up pieces of paper. I approached him with a mix of trepidation and awe. As I passed, he poured the bits of paper over me, as if they were rose petals. Some would say he was mad. I'm not so sure.'

Simplicity and purity are important to Tavener, in his music and in his spiritual beliefs. The Orthodox Church embodies that, he says, and is less limiting than the Presbyterianism he once embraced 'It doesn't have dogma like Rome, with its appalling malignant tumour of Papal infallibility. Orthodoxy is like a revitalised Quaker meeting. Its thinking centres around the belief that we are all born in pristine condition. Our path in life is to get that back.” Even if it means acting the fool.

' The Fool was performed by the theatrical string playing group, the Gogmagogs, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 7:45pm. The Tavener Festival, Ikons of Light, ran until 22 October 2000.

[ Picture is of Sir John Tavener: purveyor of a simple and seductive art firmly rooted in his Eastern Orthodox religious beliefs. ]