In the beginning GOD created the world. Waste and void.
Waste and void. And darkness was upon the face of
the deep.
And when there were men, in their various ways, they
struggled in torment towards GOD
Blindly and vainly, for man is a vain thing, and man with-
out GOD is a seed upon the wind: driven this way
and that, and finding no place of lodgement and ger-
mination.
They followed the light and the shadow, and the light led
them forward to light and the shadow led them to
darkness,
Worshipping snakes or trees, worshipping devils rather
than nothing: crying for life beyond life, for ecstasy
not of the flesh.
Waste and void. Waste and void. And darkness on the face
of the deep.

And the Spirit moved upon the face of the water.
And men who turned towards the light and were known of
the light
Invented the Higher Religions; and the Higher Religions
were good
And led men from light to light, to knowledge of Good
and Evil.
But their light was ever surrounded and shot with darkness
As the air of temperate seas is pierced by the still dead
breath of the Arctic Current;
And they came to an end, a dead end stirred with a flicker
of life,
And they came to the withered ancient look of a child that
has died of starvation.
Prayer wheels, worship of the dead, denial of this world,
affirmation of rites with forgotten meaningsIn the restless wind-whipped sand, or the hills where the
wind will not let the snow rest.
Waste and void. Waste and void. And darkness on the face
of the deep.

Then came, at a predetermined moment, a moment in
time and of time,
A moment not out of time, but in time, in what we call
history: transecting, bisecting the world of'time, a
moment in time but not like a moment of time,
A moment in time but time was made through that mo-
ment : for without the meaning there is no time, and
that moment of time gave the meaning.
Then it seemed as if men must proceed from light to light,
in the light of the Word,
Through the Passion and Sacrifice saved in spite of their
negative being;
Bestial as always before, carnal, self-seeking as always be-
fore, selfish and purblind as ever before,
Yet always struggling, always reaffirming, always resuming
their march on the way that was lit fcy the light;
Often halting, loitering, straying, delaying, returning, yet
following no other way.

But it seems that something has happened that has never-
happened before: though we know not just when, or
why, or how, or where.
Men have left GOD not for other gods, they say, but for no
god; and this has never happened before
That men both deny gods and worship gods, professing
first Reason,
And then Money, and Power, and what they call Life, or
Race, or Dialectic.
The Church disowned, the tower overthrown, the bells
upturned, what have we to do
But stand with empty hands and palms turned upwards
In an age which advances progressively backwards ?

This poem by TS Eliot, is one of several written by that poet that Roy Hart performed. It was chosen by him for it's range of colours and emotions, these suited the use of the extended range that Roy Hart specialised in particularly well. It is therefore, an excellent medium to show Roy's vocal dexterity. It also shows how he used the range, not for gymnastic purposes, but to extend the emotional communication of the words. If you are interested in the root object of 'singing', as practiced by Roy Hart and his theatre, then I cannot recommend your listening to this recording highly enough.

Paul Silber 2009