TheMyriadSong
Our Poetical Companions
The poet is never alone – everything in the surrounding world is endowed with personality, voice and agency. Birds, flowers, rivers and winds send messages and warnings; they mock, complain and plead, bringing wisdom, fear and consolation… and thus reveal their inner lives and personalities. Variations – A mixture of languages (including Russian and Spanish), […]
Philips The Humming Bird (live, 2000)
Back in 2000 we premièred Julian Philips’ Verses in Solitude at the Bromsgrove Concerts’ Mixing Music series. Verses in Solitude (sound clip here) is based on the life and letters of Emily Dickinson and in the first half we sang some of Julian’s An Amherst Bestiary – a set of songs on Dickinson poetry. An […]
Of Tales, Time and Things Beyond
Through songs set to texts by Walter de la Mare and like-minded British poets, we rediscover a child’s sense of awe at what the world holds for us, and explore the great mysteries of life. We are urged to to treasure beauty and youth whilst we still can, to beware the demons lurking in the […]
Koechlin Le paysage dans le cadre (BBC R3, 1997)
We recorded this song (full title Le paysage dans le cadre des portières) and some others by Koechlin for BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the week. Several of the performances, including this one, were world première broadcasts. The song (words by Verlaine) evokes the furious, mechanical churning of a steam train, upon which the poet […]
Bizet Pastorale (live, 1996)
Here’s one of our earliest recordings together – Bizet’s Pastorale, recorded in the Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 1996. This is a song we performed many times in those early days, and we revisited it early this year for a recital at The Forge, Camden. Here is the text – […]
More programme ideas – looking at the music and the words
The piano as protagonist Friend, foe, and spiller of secrets. Sand, boulder, mountain, planet Experiencing scale through poetry and music. Prescience, nostalgia and topicality Music and text that look back or ahead in time.