Speaking Silence
Version for baritone and piano
Description
for baritone and piano
A beautifully constructed song-cycle set to poems from Christina Rosetti to WB Yeats and the sixteenth century French poet Pontus de Tyard. Exploring the themes of yearning and longing at the end of a love affair, the subject of the texts focus largely on a desire for rest and even oblivion. The music responds accordingly, ranging from the bright and chromatic to simple, poignant settings of folk-inspired tunes.
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Programme Notes:
These songs were especially written for David Wilson-Johnson, whose voice and artistry I very much admire. Since he sang in the first performance of my oratorio Or Shall We Die?, we have been planning this cycle of songs. The texture and range of the voice suggested to me poetry of yearning and longing and this also allowed me to continue the ideas I had begun in my recent song cycle for Heather Harper with Songs of Awakening Love. However, where Heathers songs were for
