Music Finland Core

* Title

Additional title

Description

<p>My
 collaboration with conductor George Parris began when I heard his 
recording with the Carice Singers of Hubert Parry’s Songs of Farewell, 
and remarked to him that I’d always wanted to write a large-scale choral
 song cycle in English along those lines. Having rediscovered Robert 
Louis Stevenson’s Songs of Travel at a very low point in 2018, I thought
 they would be the ideal basis for such a venture, perhaps even a 
companion piece to Parry’s. The poems’ pervasive tone of loss and 
rootlessness, far from being depressing, were somehow a great comfort. 
Amid the isolation of 2020, they acquired a new urgency for me, and once
 again became a vehicle for healing. The shape and main ideas for the 
piece formed in large part on an extended hike in the perpetual light of
 Finnish Lapland that summer, a trek during which grief would move 
slowly toward acceptance.</p><article><p>The cycle is anchored at each end by two expansive songs, for which I
 adapted the poetry in small ways to make it more personal, with minor 
deletions where the musical setting demanded it. The opening song, Home 
no more home, presents a simple, ambiguously modal tune at the outset, 
before sending out tendrils in searching, halting rhythms, a slow, 
reluctant tread off into the hills, clouded by memory. The middle three 
songs are brighter in tone, attempting to find solace in a variety of 
places – in the land, in the firmament, on the sea – but all ultimately 
turn reflectively inward. In the highlands touches on a number of folk 
traditions, including bagpipe-like strains and a Swedish herding call 
known as kulning. The infinite shining heavens is a rapt, glowing 
meditation on the night sky. Give me the sun is an original setting of 
Stevenson’s lyrics for the popular Skye Boat Song, with fragments of the
 original tune ghosted here and there throughout the texture. The final 
movement, Evensong, combines three poems on the theme of leave-taking. 
Here the tone of melancholy becomes one of gentle resignation, not to an
 ending, but an acceptance of suffering, and of transience.</p><p>- Matthew Whittall</p></article>

Year of composing

Arranger

Movements

Availability

Abbreviation	Instrument
Woodwind
acl	alto clarinet
afl	alto flute
arec	alto recorder
asax	alto saxophone
barsax	baritone saxophone
barhn	baritone horn
bcl	bass clarinet
bfl	bass flute
bob	bass oboe
bsax	bass saxophone
bsn	bassoon
cbsn	contrabassoon
cl	clarinet
ehn	English horn
fl	flute
hn	French horn
ob	oboe
pic	piccolo
rec	recorder
sax	saxophone
srec	soprano recorder
ssax	soprano saxophone
trec	tenor recorder
tsax	tenor saxophone
Brass
ahn	alto horn
atrb	altotrombone
barhn	baritone horn
btrb	bass trombone
cornet	cornet
euph	euphonium
fhn	flugelhorn
hn	French horn
tba	tuuba
thn	tenor horn
trb	trombone
trp	trumpet
Percussion
dr	drums
glock	glockenspiel
mar	marimba
perc	percussion
timp	timpani
vibr	vibraphone
xyl	xylophone
Strings
db	double bass
gamba	viola da gamba
str	strings
vla	viola
vlc	cello
vln	violin
Other
acc	accordion
cel	celesta
cemb	harpsichord
chords	chords
elbas	electric bass
elg	electric guitar
elorg	electric organ
elpno	electric piano
guit	guitar
harm	harmonium
hca	harmonica
hp	harp
instr	instrument
kantele	kantele
keyb	keyboard
live electr	live electronics
mand	mandolin
mel	melody
org	organ
pno	piano
synth	synthesizer
tape	tape
Vocal
alto	alto
baryt	baritone
basso	bass voice
ch	choir
chc	childrens choir
chf	female choir
chm	male choir
chx	mixed choir
cten	countertenor
mezzo	mezzo-soprano
sopr	soprano
speaker	speaker
ten	tenor
voc	vocal

Symphony orchestra
2222 4331 11 1, str = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, one other percussionist, harp and strings
Wind band
2252 3 423 21212 3 = 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 5 clarinets, 2 bassoons - 3 saxophones - 4 French horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones - 2 cornets, alto horn, 2 tenor horns, baritone horn, 2 tubas - 3 percussionists
Big band
221 4 4, pno, guit, db, dr = 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, baritone saxophone, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, guitar, double bass, drums
Additional codes
+	fl+pic = flutist doubles on piccolo
/	pno/org = can be played on either piano or organ
lib	ad libitum
obl	obligato
str	str: 65432 = specified number of string players
str min	str min: 65432 = at least 65432
str max	str max: 65432 = not more than 65432
solo	vln solo = violin is the solo instrument in a work not obviously for solo violin