It seems an appropriate time to post these Four Passing Songs, performed here by Soprano Emily Prosser and myself at Holy Trinity Church in Hereford. They were written at a time of some upheaval (just before the COVID 19 pandemic hit), and reflect on a theme of transition from one world/state to another.
The first song How sweet I roam’d from field to field (W. Blake) moves from freedom to captivity, or innocence to experience. The second sets a translation of a death-poem by the Haiku poet Bainen, who associates his own passing with the arrival of spring. The third is a setting of part of a traditional German lullaby. The final song was written as a 60th birthday present for friend and colleague Jo Williamson, and sets the final part of Helen Hunt Jackson’s New Year’s Morning – ending the set on a meditative and optimistic view of the passing of time.
Thanks to Holy Trinity Church for allowing us to make this video there, and to the wonderful Emily Prosser for performing them with me.
Emily Prosser (Soprano) and Robert Peate (Piano)
Holy Trinity Church, Whitecross, Hereford
3rd April 2021
Score available to buy/preview here – https://composersedition.com/robert-peate-four-passing-songs/