John Pickard
SONGS OF RAIN AND SEA
Bardic Edition BDE937
Words by Sigrun Davidsdottir. Instrumentation:
Children's Choir, Youth Choir or Women's Choir (SSA)
2 Pianos (or Piano Duet) (separate versions available)
Percussion (2 players):
Player 1: 2 Timpani, Tambourine, Suspended Cymbal, Vibraphone, Crotales (upper octave) [where Crotales are unavailable, a Glockenspiel played with brass beaters may be substituted]
Player 2: Tubular Bells, Side Drum, Bass Drum, Tam-tam, Suspended Cymbal, 2 Bongos, Triangle
NB: the Piano and Percussion parts are technically demanding and require professional, or at least highly experienced, performers.
"Songs of Rain and Sea" was commissioned by Finchley Children's Music Group to mark their 50th anniversary year.
When I was asked to write a work for the 50th anniversary of Finchley Children’s Music Group the first problem was finding suitable texts to set. I wanted to write something optimistic, celebratory and uncomplicated, though I had immediately and categorically ruled out setting anything even remotely resembling children’s poetry.
I became interested in writing something about that most British of subjects, the weather. But none of the poems I found appealed as material for setting. I then became engrossed in 16th and 17th century books on weather forecasting, which I studied at the British Library, but still nothing emerged that seemed suitable for setting to music.
Just as I began to despair of ever finding suitable texts, I got to know the work of the Icelandic writer Sigrun Davidsdottir, who enthusiastically accepted my suggestion that we collaborate. The writing partnership proceeded very smoothly, the texts and music being created simultaneously.
We had immediately agreed that our native countries, Iceland and Great Britain, had two things in common: a lot of sea and a lot of rain. So we made that the basis of the piece, conceiving the work in terms of a seasonal cycle: from summer to spring and back to summer, so that the piece ends where it began.
There are five songs (summer has an extra one, an Intermezzo), each observing the coastline and its weather from a different seasonal perspective. John Pickard
Duration 17 minutes
Children's Choir, Youth Choir or Women's Choir (SSA)
2 Pianos (or Piano Duet) (separate versions available)
Percussion (2 players):
Player 1: 2 Timpani, Tambourine, Suspended Cymbal, Vibraphone, Crotales (upper octave) [where Crotales are unavailable, a Glockenspiel played with brass beaters may be substituted]
Player 2: Tubular Bells, Side Drum, Bass Drum, Tam-tam, Suspended Cymbal, 2 Bongos, Triangle
NB: the Piano and Percussion parts are technically demanding and require professional, or at least highly experienced, performers.
"Songs of Rain and Sea" was commissioned by Finchley Children's Music Group to mark their 50th anniversary year.
When I was asked to write a work for the 50th anniversary of Finchley Children’s Music Group the first problem was finding suitable texts to set. I wanted to write something optimistic, celebratory and uncomplicated, though I had immediately and categorically ruled out setting anything even remotely resembling children’s poetry.
I became interested in writing something about that most British of subjects, the weather. But none of the poems I found appealed as material for setting. I then became engrossed in 16th and 17th century books on weather forecasting, which I studied at the British Library, but still nothing emerged that seemed suitable for setting to music.
Just as I began to despair of ever finding suitable texts, I got to know the work of the Icelandic writer Sigrun Davidsdottir, who enthusiastically accepted my suggestion that we collaborate. The writing partnership proceeded very smoothly, the texts and music being created simultaneously.
We had immediately agreed that our native countries, Iceland and Great Britain, had two things in common: a lot of sea and a lot of rain. So we made that the basis of the piece, conceiving the work in terms of a seasonal cycle: from summer to spring and back to summer, so that the piece ends where it began.
There are five songs (summer has an extra one, an Intermezzo), each observing the coastline and its weather from a different seasonal perspective. John Pickard
Duration 17 minutes
