Matériel : Vocal Score
This was composed in 1979 and is scored for SATB.This work is a setting of a sixteenth-century poem which is a plea for death to come and bring an end to suffering thereby affording peace.
SKU: HL.14005423
UPC: 884088440657. 9x12 inches.
A chamber opera in one act for soprano, tenor, baritone and bass soli, TTBB chorus and orchestra, commissioned for the Wells 800 Celebration in 1982. Libretto by Peter Porter. Vocal score with piano reduction. Duration: c. 55 minutes. Orpheus is a Chamber Opera, or perhaps more properly might be described as an 'Opera-Cantata'. It is designed to be performed as a short opera, fully staged and costumed, or as a concert piece. Either way, its structure is dramatic, rather than reflective. It tells the story of Orpheus, probably the most familiar story in music, and en emblem of their art for composers of all periods, as a direct narrative. Since the legend is set in the world of pagan mythology, it has been lightly Christianised for its Church setting. The Aeneid has often been seen as speaking of Christ avant la lettre, and Renaissance Humanists were always willing to identify forerunners of Christian types in Classical personages: in this manner, Orpheus pursues, without undue emphasis, musical parallels with St Francis, St Cecilia and even Adam and Eve.The work is framed briefly by a prologue and epilogue. The Prologue introduces the four solo singers - Hades (bass), Orpheus (tenor), Eurydice (soprano) and Charon (baritone). It also introduces the chorus who do not only portray, at various stages, Orpheus's wedding companions, the denizens of Hell and Blessed Spirits in the Elysian Fields, but also comments on the action as it proceeds.
SKU: HL.14005410
'Acquainted with Night', is a cycle of six songs, for alto and strings, harp and timpani. The texts are all concerned with different aspects of night. The first song, 'Lullaby' to a poem by Beaumont and Fletcher, seeks to evoke the 'care-charming' powers of sleep. The second, a setting of Robert Frost's 'Acquainted with the night', is concerned with the lonely world of a strange city at night and the music is characterised by an insistently repeated figure in the accompaniment. The third song contrasts the calmness of the night with the turbulence in a lover's mind - the poem is by the Earl of Surrey. 'Out in the dark' a poem by Edward Thomas, is the text of the fourth song. It is in the form of a scherzo and deals with the mystery and strangeness of night, and, as the poet puts it, the 'might' of night. It is, as the poet says, a hymn to night and the chordal nature of the accompaniment suggests this quality. This song leads directly into the last, which is in fact a reprise of the opening 'Lullaby' so completing the cycle.
