(2009) – Solo Soprano & Chamber Orchestra
In the spirit of Anglo Saxon riddles and storytelling, these two songs are very much ‘round the campfire’ settings. The first (Cuckoo) imitates the birds behaviour and includes features such as removing and replacing notes at the beginning at the beginning of the piece, as the bird does with eggs. The second (Swan) is largely of a kind of antique, lugubrious nature, depicting the birds’ graceful gliding through the river and the air.
Two Anglo-Saxon Riddles was first performed at Birmingham Conservatoire in 2010 by Soprano Hannah Davey and The Orchestra of the Swan, conducted by David Curtis.