Three Partsongs [Second Set] (2018-24)
Dream Tryst [Thompson] (2018, rev. 2024)
Everyone Sang [Sassoon] (2024)
Waiting [Dickinson] (2021, rev. 2024)
SATB
Duration:
12′
First performance [‘Dream Tryst’]:
24 March 2019
City of Canterbury Chamber Choir, Edward Rhys Harry, St Paul’s Church, Canterbury, UK
First performance [‘Waiting’]:
24 April 2022
Nazareth College Chamber Singers, Brian Stevens, Linehan Chapel, Nazareth College, New York State, USA
Score
Programme note
The second set of Three Partsongs, continues my interest in the music and fashions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that I have explored in many works over the past two decades, the most similar being the first set of partsongs from 2008-12. Like their predecessors, the second set of Three Partsongs are simple settings for SATB unaccompanied choir, taking their influence from the Romantic idea of the partsong as a simple, homophonic, melody dominated piece often taking its inspiration from nature and other Romantic notions. ‘Dream Tryst’ is a sustained and atmospheric setting of Francis Thompson’s 1890s work of the same title. Thompson is most well known today for his epic poem The Hound of Heaven, on which most of his posthumous reputation hangs, and for being one of the great religious, mystic poets of the Victorian era. Like my earlier set of partsongs, this work tries to distil some of the essence of the partsong that was in vogue in the early twentieth century, though ‘re-imagining’ this genre for a very different time and mindset. ‘Everyone Sang’ is more animated and euphoric, trying to capture some of the bittersweet joy in Siegfried Sassoon’s well-loved poem. ‘Waiting’ is a simple and warm setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem of the same name. The piece is in a clear ABA form with sustained material and prominent solo soprano bookending more arioso and cantabile material. This song relates directly to the COVID-19 pandemic with obvious references to ‘singing’ and ‘keeping the dark away’ at the heart of the composition.
PAC
