Song in the City’s first CD: ‘VOICES OF LONDON’: Songs of the Big Smoke
Jennifer Witton (Soprano), Beth Debruslais (Mezzo Soprano), Nick Allen (Tenor), Piran Legg (Bass-Baritone), Gavin Roberts (Piano)
Song in the City is branching out! We need your support to raise the vital sum of £2,900 to enable us to produce and complete our very first CD.
This is a fantastic opportunity to capture a very special song cycle of brand new London themed songs for four voices and piano commissioned by Song in the City, and to make these widely available. This project is directed by our very own Gavin Roberts, Artistic Director of Song in the City.
Song in the City believes in commissioning new music from young, emerging composers, and enabling them the opportunity to work with real-live performers directly. This project has not only facilitated this process, but has also offered an important professional development opportunity for the next generation of talented singers, to record new repertoire in the professional setting of Milton Court, with its world class facilities. We plan to continue to support the careers of the next generation of artists with other new projects in future.
Crowdfunding is a great way for us to overcome the prohibitive costs of producing the recording. Your generous support will contribute to the costs of producing and editing the recording, and also associated printing and licensing costs. Without your help to meet our final target, sadly we cannot guarantee the successful completion of the CD.
Song in the City is a Registered Charity (no 1147050)
Artistic Director: Gavin Roberts, Co-Director: Rebecca Cohen; Patrons: Sarah Walker CBE, Iain Burnside
www.songinthecity.org info@songinthecity.org
Praeludium
RAYMOND YIU (b. 1973), Richard of Devizes (fl. late 12th century)
‘To open the song cycle with an allusion to the ringing of London church bells, Praeludium sets an unforgiving description of 12th century London by Richard of Devizes depicting its chaos and shortcomings. Surprisingly, his complaints and sentiment are still applicable today.’
London
JAMES LARK (b. 1979), William Blake (1757–1827
‘William Blake’s London is a hugely evocative depiction of the city at its seediest; a wandering motif in the piano leads the singer ‘thro’ each charted’d street’ at the outside, a sparse texture reflecting the emptiness in the text. There are more dissonant outbursts as Blake reflects on ‘the mind forg’d manacles’ in the voices he hears but the song is constantly dragged back towards the uneasy lullaby of this beguiling midnight city which offers little comfort to its inhabitants, from the new born infant upwards.’
Translating the English, 1989
GRAHAM ROSS (b. 1985), Carol Ann Duffy (b. 1955)
‘Translating the English, 1989. Carol Ann Duffy’s text is set in a tongue-in-cheek cabaret style, with ever-increasing tempo and rising keys. Each gear-change is structured around the author’s continued cries to welcome the listener ‘to my country’, with the many ironies and absurdities of the English language fighting to be heard over one another.’
The Telephone
RAYMOND YIU (b. 1973), Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953)
‘The Telephone, with text by Hilaire Belloc, crystallizes the sense of loneliness associated with big cities; and in this case, London specifically.’
Covent Garden, Inside Outside
JOSEPH ATKINS (b. 1981), Amy Clampitt (1920–94)
‘Amy Clampitt’s poem Covent Garden, Inside Outside brims with the excitement of visiting an iconic London landmark for the first time. So often, with experiences of a new city, the little details leave the greatest impression, in the same way the ghost of a melody (in this case, an Act 1 aria from Don Pasquale sung by Norina) can remain long imprinted upon the memory.’
Through Galleried Earth
GRAHAM ROSS (b. 1985), Seamus Heaney (b. 1939) from District and Circle
‘Through galleried earth takes its title from one of the closing lines of Seamus Heaney’s District and Circle, of which the final section is set here. Despite its depiction of a London Underground train journeying through a tunnel, the predominant mood of my setting is one of wistful reflection, where the author’s glazed face transports his thoughts away from the jolting train to blackened memories of his father and the past.’
This Moment of June
RAYMOND YIU (b. 1973), Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) from Mrs Dalloway
‘The text of This Moment of June, taken from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dolloway, is without doubt one of the most joyous passages found in English literature about London. It praises the beauty and vibrancy of this great city.’
Shadwell Stair
JOSEPH ATKINS (b. 1981), Wilfred Owen (1893–1918)
‘’Ugliness! I never saw so much beauty …,’ famously exclaimed Wilfred Owen, when describing London’s East End and Docklands. His haunting poem Shadwell Stair offers a unique perspective upon, and an unusual homage to a shabby, yet mysteriously alluring maritime landscape.’
If London Could Speak …
JAMES LARK (b. 1979), Simon Munnery (b. 1967)
‘Typically for one of the country’s more esoteric comedians, Simon Munnery has asked what London would say if it could speak, and found it to be arrogant and complex, a cockney geezer and a bit of a bully. The music attempts to be as multi-faced as the poem: brash but beautiful, schizophrenic but lucid. Designed for performance, the words are a gift to a composer, with their rapid changes of rhythm and pace, quick fire delivery of information and mixture of the banal and profound. Also, the jokes are good!’