Twelfth Night (2017)

A setting of Laurie Lee’s Twelfth Night

SATB, Organ (or Piano)

Twelfth Night was written for the Glasgow Chamber Choir broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship.

Duration:
3′

First performance:
8 January 2017
Glasgow Chamber Choir, Michael Bawtree, St Margaret’s Church, Glasgow, UK

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Score

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Programme note

Twelfth Night is a simple setting of Laurie Lee’s much-loved poem of the same title in which the poet vividly depicts a winter scene to emphasise the coming of the Wise Men. My setting aims to be as unobtrusive as possible with Lee’s text, setting the text in a clear, homophonic fashion in the main. There is a slightly more reflective, unaccompanied third verse reflecting the journeying of the Magi and the fragility of the Christ child, though the final verse returns to the opening material in triumphal fashion to denote ‘our saviour from terror’s equinox’.

PAC

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Recording

Twelfth Night (2017) by Phillip Cooke, performed by Glasgow Chamber Choir, conducted by Michael Bawtree with Christopher Nickol (organ).