In the Summer of 1995 I saw an advertisement for composers to enter ‘The Musical of The Year 1996’, an international, open-entry competition which would culminate in a professional stage production in Aarhus, Denmark with simultaneous radio broadcast nationwide. At that time I only had a couple of unfinished songs with a vaguely Celtic theme – the Celts were all I was reading about and I thought it sensible to put my new- found knowledge to good use – and so the idea for “CELT” was born. I had only three months to deliver storyline, characters, a minimum of eight songs (hand-written transcriptions of the score in those days,) scenograpyh notes (of which I knew nothing) and one scene of script. I was still transcribing the last song at three in the morning with a courier coming at six a.m. to whisk my entry off to Denmark in time to meet the competition deadline. "Alone At The Gates Of Dawn" is a reworking of "Song Of Shadows" - from "CELT."

SUMMARY

1996 – “CELT” was entered into ‘The Musical of the Year’ in Denmark; one song (Only In The Stillness Of The Night) reached the final in ‘Best Song’ category from a worldwide open field of more than 2,500 songs. Judges included Julia McKenzie, Peter Ustinov and Bjørn Ulvaeus from Abba. “CELT” did not make the last three - because it fell short in the technical presentation of the audio recording (no music software then and I was flying by the seat of my pants - ALONE) although there was encouragement: BASCA NEWS described “CELT” as: “a work of high quality” and “innovative” – in direct contrast with the “professional but somewhat predictable content of the winning entries”. “Alone At The Gates Of Dawn” started out as “Song of Shadows” from “CELT” and I have reworked it over the years. In September, 2017 I booked a studio in Berlin and a highly capable German singer - Ille Hamma - to sing the part of Ardan.
It has taken too many years for this song to see the light of day in a form that does it justice - and now, “Alone At The Gates Of Dawn” can be an example of the epic struggle within that we all face at some point in our lives when met with an impossible dilemma. The world of Epic drama is where “Alone At The Gates Of Dawn” sprang from and I hope that it finds a home with the many people who love this musical realm as much as I do.
Joanna Bates - November 2017