w21088
| Title | Twelve Songs for the Voices of Children |
| Contributors |
George Newson (composer) William Blake (author) William Shakespeare (author) Fleur Adcock (author) George Newson (author) W H Auden (author) |
| Composition date | 2022 |
| Duration (mins) | 0 |
| Category | choral |
| Instrumentation | U Pf |
| Commissioned by | |
| Key signature | |
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| First performed | |
| Notes | Up with the lark - Two songs from Steve Borson - Bonfire Song - The Echoing Green - The Song of the Dodo - Dragonfly - Cradle Song - Marriage Song - Fear no more the heart of the sun - Aiya's Song for Nanny - Ruby's Poem for Nanny |
| Programme Note | The opening song of this collection: 'Up With the Lark' has words written by me; the introduction to it has a tune composed by the dedicatee, my wife June. She improvised it to one of our children when putting him to bed. Most of the album has been recycled from various compositions of mine. The earliest is Blake's 'Cradle Song' which I wrote in 1953 for the birth of my eldest, the latest is the 'Marriage Song' (text by Auden) composed for my daughter's wedding in 1992. Two songs are taken from my unfinished opera 'Steve Bornson', and Shakespeare's elegy 'Fear No More the Heat of the Sun', is used in my full scale opera 'The Winter's Tale'. 'Bonfire Song' was originally written for voice and violin and contains my text as does 'Song of the Dodo,' which comes from the second version of 'Silent Spring'; a work for children's choir and orchestra. 'The Echoing Green', composed for the same forces, has words by Blake, while 'Dragonfly' sets a poem by Fleur Adcock. It expresses a child's wishes for a life hereafter. My six year old great-granddaughter expressed her feelings in a lament for her great-grandmother's dying. She, Aiya, improvised a melody which was recorded by her mother. Her cousin wrote the poem spoken by her at her nanny's funeral. I set it twice; first in a minor key, and immediately repeated it in the relative key to complete the 'Twelve Songs' on a positive note. |
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