Oboe and harp (2012)
The first of a number of ‘Pearls’, the music is written in the same character as the anonymous medieval text from which it takes its name, recounting a fathers grief for his lost daughter. It was written for the oboe and harp duo ‘Orfea’.
‘…Yea, many a thought in mind did spring, To think that her radiance in clay should rot. O mould! Thou marrest a lovely thing, My pearl, mine own, without a spot…’
Pearl (c. 14th Century – Anon.) Translation by J. R. R. Tolkien
Pearl (I) was first performed in St Olave’s Church, London, in December 2012 by ‘Orfea’ (Mea Wade – oboe, Olivia Jageurs – harp).
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