Elegies for Emma
A song cycle setting Hardy's Poems of 1912-13 for mezzo-sop and guitar
This piece is an ongoing collaboration with Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano). The cycle was started in May 2019 with the piece The Walk, the next instalment, Rain on a Grave, was written whilst on a Wild Plum Arts and Britten/Pears Foundation residency 'Made at the Red House'. It was premiered in Britten and Pear's library in December 2019. Completion of the set is scheduled for 2020/21.
This page will host the complete cycle once finished but for now the completed songs and programme notes are below.
This page will host the complete cycle once finished but for now the completed songs and programme notes are below.
Programme Note:
This cycle sets poems from Thomas Hardy’s collection Poems of 1912-13. This set was written after the sudden death of his wife Emma and are elegies that do not shy away from the couple’s complicated relationship. Tim Armstrong describes the collection as “One of the greatest and most personal elegiac sequences written in English, offering a substantial revision of the elegiac tradition for the twentieth century, as well as a uniquely honest image of the poet struggling with his own grief and remorse.” *
I was drawn to the collection for their honesty and my response focuses on the varied and complex emotional landscapes which often express multiple emotions simultaneously.
The starting point for writing this piece at all comes from admiration of Finzi’s many settings of Hardy poetry. His settings serve the text beautifully, to the point that the poetry defines the musical shape. The idea for this cycle and the music herein was developed with Lotte Betts-Dean, to whom I am grateful.
AKB
* Tim Armstrong, Thomas Hardy: Poems of 1912-13 in ‘A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry’ ed. Neil Roberts (Blackwell, Oxford, 2001)
This cycle sets poems from Thomas Hardy’s collection Poems of 1912-13. This set was written after the sudden death of his wife Emma and are elegies that do not shy away from the couple’s complicated relationship. Tim Armstrong describes the collection as “One of the greatest and most personal elegiac sequences written in English, offering a substantial revision of the elegiac tradition for the twentieth century, as well as a uniquely honest image of the poet struggling with his own grief and remorse.” *
I was drawn to the collection for their honesty and my response focuses on the varied and complex emotional landscapes which often express multiple emotions simultaneously.
The starting point for writing this piece at all comes from admiration of Finzi’s many settings of Hardy poetry. His settings serve the text beautifully, to the point that the poetry defines the musical shape. The idea for this cycle and the music herein was developed with Lotte Betts-Dean, to whom I am grateful.
AKB
* Tim Armstrong, Thomas Hardy: Poems of 1912-13 in ‘A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry’ ed. Neil Roberts (Blackwell, Oxford, 2001)