Voice and piano (2019-20)
How sweet I roam’d from field to field – William Blake
Lullaby – Traditional (German)
Now spring has come – Bainen
New Year’s Morning – Helen Hunt Jackson
Written on a theme of change – each song centres on a different kind of transformation, or passage from one world 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 is a setting of part of a traditional German lullaby. The third sets a translation of a death-poem by the Haiku poet Bainen, who associates his own passing with the arrival of spring. 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, with the lines: “The new is but the old come true; / Each sunrise sees a new year born.”
Four Passing Songs was premiered at Hellen’s House, Much Marcle, Herefordshire on 5th August, 2021 by Emily Prosser (poprano) and Robert Peate (piano)
Preview/buy score here
Watch a performance here: