w19661
| Title | Way We Are, The |
| Contributors |
Derek Ball (composer) |
| Composition date | 2013 |
| Duration (mins) | 120 |
| Category | accompanied vocal |
| Instrumentation | S Bar Pf |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
| First line | |
| First performed | |
| Notes | A grand villanelle song cycle of solos and duets for soprano, baritone and piano. |
| Programme Note | The Way We Are We take the ubiquitous verse-and-refrain structure for granted: so many songs use it. The form is just inherently musical. And with its double refrain, the villanelle is doubly so! This is a huge song cycle for soprano, baritone and piano, consisting of 30 songs, either solos or duets. It is divided into 3 parts and lasts about 2 hours. Every song is a villanelle and every villanelle poet is known to the composer. There are altogether 11 poets who have generously provided existing poems or have written them specially for me. One of the poems I wrote myself, almost involuntarily. As if to underline the musicality of the form, there are two wordless villanelles. The poet Maurice Harmon inadvertently started me off, by sending me a newly-written villanelle, 'My tears come with me'. Richard Berengarten, also quite unsuspecting, sent me another villanelle not long afterwards, 'Lucky I draw my breath', hence removing any slight doubts in my mind about the inevitability of the project. Songs by those two poets are grouped near the beginning and end of the cycle. Where other poets are represented more than once, the songs are grouped together. If there is a unifying theme to the cycle I am not conscious of one, other than the villanelle form itself, and the fact that they are all poems I like by poets I like. Please note that there are two versions of the cycle. The first is for baritone and piano, lasts at least 80 minutes and dates from 2012. The second is this one, for soprano, baritone and piano, lasting at least 120 minutes. -Derek Ball, June 2013 |
This work is associated with the following collection items:
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