Over the years, David has demonstrated a commitment to exploring scientific subjects and to promulgating the public understanding of science through a number of projects:
EARLY SCIENCE EDUCATION PROJECTS
David's first children's songs were commissioned in 1984 and 1985 for concerts combining mainstream and special schools in Plymouth to celebrate the coming of spring. Several of them dealt in a highly accessible manner with subjects such as migration (Swallow), hibernation (Hedgehog), social insects (Queen Bee), plant growth (Seedlings) and life cycles (Tadpole). He was later commissioned by the National Trust to write a song for four schools involved in a tree-planting ceremony at Saltram House, resulting in Tree, a song detailing scientific processes involved in the life of a tree. One of those schools, Pilgrim Primary, later commissioned Tamar Valley from David, a song inspired by the natural and industrial history of the River Tamar.
MUSIC THEATRE SCIENCE PROJECTS
In 1989, the newly-formed Youthspring Music Theatre Company commissioned a science musical, Granny Galactica, from David - the tale of a woman astronomer taken on a journey around the galaxy. The musical includes scientifically-accurate songs about a geostationary weather satellite, the moon, sun, planets, a red giant, neutron star, black hole and quarks. It then includes a powerful ecological message by portraying a visit to an alien planet where the Fnirks live - a self-indulgent race of aliens who wreck planet after planet not through malevolence but through simple negligence.
In 1990, the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, commissioned The Hypnos Hormone from David Haines. This comic chamber opera told the story of a sleep researcher, Angelica, facing an ethical dilemma when presented with a non-sleeper who has come to her for therapy but whom she wishes to exploit in her search for an anti-sleep drug.
Two years later, David wrote The Terrorothon for Ivybridge Community College - a musical about a hostage crisis prompted by concerns over global warming and rising sea levels.
1996 saw the creation of David's community opera Prince Donald and the Average Family. With a cast of 60 children and adults, this tragi-comic work explored issues relating to IVF, genetic testing, disability and the nature/nurture debate.
The Chronovirus (Springtide 1999) is a community comic opera exploring issues surrounding gene therapy through the use of engineered viruses.
The eight mini-operas and micro-musicals of Octopera (Springtide, 2000) include 2 or 3 with science-related themes: Blind Corner explores the dilemma faced by a blind couple when the husband is offered surgery to restore his sight; Vlarval in Love envisages a future where a human space traveller may find himself sexually propositioned by an ardent alien; Summit sees a meeting of world leaders at the point when the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction finally collapses - despite their trying to break down barriers by meeting in the nude!
RECENT SCIENCE EDUCATION PROJECTS
In 2000, David was commissioned by Gatehouse Primary School to create a series of songs commemorating and celebrating their Science Week. A neighbouring school, Dawlish Community College, commissioned Equations from David that same year, a set of songs to help GCSE Science students learn specific equations. Both projects were financially supported by COPUS, the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science.
2004-2005 saw the year-long Teign Lifetime Project, conceived, initiated and fund-raised by David Haines and designed to stimulate discussion of and interest in the science of Life and Evolution. The project saw a dozen schools and a community choir forming a 400-strong choir for performances of David's Lifetime science oratorio. Further concerts featured new songs on the same themes written by participants in workshops facilitated by David. The project also featured arts workshops, public lectures, quizzes, surveys and a web-site. The whole project was video-documented and a documentary DVD is available to groups or institutions outlining how they might also mount a similar project.
The Cambridge Science Festival, Massachusetts, USA, included performances of Lifetime at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and two other venues in April 2007. Powers of Ten - with around ten new songs - will feature in the 2008 Cambridge Science Festival.
