Voices of a Northern Year
A song cycle commissioned by The Hourglass Ensemble, Sydney, in 2016. The first two songs are lyrical, tonal and easily accessible for a student ensemble and the final three songs increase in both harmonic complexity and virtuosity providing a challenge for professional performers. The songs work well together as a cycle, but would equally stand well alone as individual performance pieces.
Voices of a Northern Year is an attempt to musically capture the “voices” of the seasons in the northern hemisphere. I had spent a month experiencing a Scottish winter for the first time early that year and was struck by the tedium of the endless precipitation, grey skies and the curious juxtaposition of the stillness indoors opposing the constant chaos and movement outdoors. I first stumbled upon New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield’s poem “Voices of the Air” and from there discovered four other poems of hers that each described an element of the seasonal changes with vibrant, child-like wonder, simplicity and playfulness; “Winter Song”, “A Fine Day”, “Autumn Song” and “There is a Solemn Wind Tonight”. Knowing I would be ending the year back in a northern winter, this time in the the States, the addition of a “fifth” season is a foreshadowing of the return to the dark isolation and fury of a windy and snowy winter.
Song Cycle for Mezzo Soprano, Flute/Picc, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano
15:00
Commissioned by the Hourglass Ensemble, Sydney
Premiered by the Hourglass Ensemble at the Sydney Opera House, November 2016
1. Winter Song
The first song in the cycle is sparse, bleak and repetitive, reflecting upon the monotony of seemingly endless dreary days. The brightness of the flute is purposefully excluded from the instrumentation to highlight this further. The accompaniment is purposefully simple and repetitive, with the exclusion of the clarinet, which represents the outer chaos and swirling wind.
Mezzo Soprano, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano
3:30
I: Winter Song by Katherine Mansfield
Rain and wind, and wind and rain.
Will the Summer come again?
Rain on houses, on the street,
Wetting all the people’s feet,
Though they run with might and main.
Rain and wind, and wind and rain.
Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.
Will the Winter never go?
What do beggar children do
With no fire to cuddle to,
P’raps with nowhere warm to go?
Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow.
Hail and ice, and ice and hail,
Water frozen in the pail.
See the robins, brown and red,
They are waiting to be fed.
Poor dears, battling in the gale!
Hail and ice, and ice and hail.
2. A Fine Day
The second song sees the first glimpse of the hope of spring and celebrates the joy after the desolation of winter. It begins with a long lyrical line on the flute and a more dulcet, sparkling accompaniment.
Mezzo Soprano, Flute/Picc, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano
2:45
II: A Fine Day by Katherine Mansfield
After all the rain, the sun
Shines on hill and grassy mead;
Fly into the garden, child,
You are very glad indeed.
For the days have been so dull,
Oh, so special dark and drear,
That you told me, “Mr. Sun
Has forgotten we live here.”
Dew upon the lily lawn,
Dew upon the garden beds;
Daintly from all the leaves
Pop the little primrose heads.
And the violets in the copse
With their parasols of green
Take a little peek at you;
They’re the bluest you have seen.
On the lilac tree a bird
Singing first a little note,
Then a burst of happy song
Bubbles in his lifted throat.
O the sun, the comfy sun!
This the song that you must sing,
“Thank you for the birds, the flowers,
Thank you, sun, for everything.”
3. Voices of the Air
Summer makes its appearance in the third song with a messy vibrant texture and imitation of the sounds of nature referenced in the poem. The insect “voices”, in particular, are in places direct transcriptions of recorded insect sounds.
Mezzo Soprano, Flute/Picc, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano
2:30
III: Voices of the Air by Katherine Mansfiled
But then there comes that moment rare
When, for no cause that I can find,
The little voices of the air
Sound above all the sea and wind.
The sea and wind do then obey
And sighing, sighing double notes
Of double basses, content to play
A droning chord for the little throats—
The little throats that sing and rise
Up into the light with lovely ease
And a kind of magical, sweet surprise
To hear and know themselves for these—
For these little voices: the bee, the fly,
The leaf that taps, the pod that breaks,
The breeze on the grass-tops bending by,
The shrill quick sound that the insect makes.
4. Autumn Song
Autumn arrives in the form of a joyous Hispanic dance as if the narrator of the story has taken a southern getaway to revel in the last of the sunshine and warmth of the year. It is fast and vibrant and rhythmically propelled.
Mezzo Soprano, Flute/Picc, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, Piano
2:20
IV: Autumn Song by Katherine Mansfield
Now’s the time when children’s noses
All become as red as roses
And the colour of their faces
Makes me think of orchard places
Where the juicy apples grow,
And tomatoes in a row.
And to-day the hardened sinner
Never could be late for dinner,
But will jump up to the table
Just as soon as he is able,
Ask for three times hot roast mutton–
Oh! the shocking little glutton.
Come then, find your ball and racket,
Pop into your winter jacket,
With the lovely bear-skin lining.
While the sun is brightly shining,
Let us run and play together
And just love the autumn weather.
5. There is a Solemn Wind Tonight
The instrumentation of the final song is stripped bare to voice and piano just as the trees will be stripped bare by the starting of the cool winds that herald the arrival of winter. The texture is sparse and semi-tonal. This song has been described “as optimism turn(ed) to complex fragmented brooding”. The silences and space are just as important as the music, especially in the vocal part. The piano part is complex and challenging, representing the eddies of the wind as they chill the audience and performers alike.
Mezzo Soprano & Piano
5:55
V: There is a Solemn Wind Tonight by Katherine Mansfield
There is a solemn wind to-night
That sings of solemn rain;
The trees that have been quiet so long
Flutter and start again.
The slender trees, the heavy trees,
The fruit trees laden and proud,
Lift up their branches to the wind
That cries to them so loud.
The little bushes and the plants
Bow to the solemn sound,
And every tiniest blade of grass
Shakes on the quiet ground.