Wild Swans (2018)

In December 2017 I co-directed a course on word-setting at Snape, with actor/writer Peter Thomson, as part of the Offstage initiative. This led to conversations about the relationship between music and natural spoken inflection.

I asked Peter to record Yeats’ poem ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, and made a transcription of his voice as the starting point for this piece.

The poem explores themes of loss, in contrast to the constant renewal of nature. The work begins with an introduction, followed by a setting of verse one, low on the violin. After this, episodes reflecting the poem, and exact settings of verses 2 and 5, form a paraphrase of the poem.

I met Mathilde Milwidsky when I returned to viola playing in 2015, and we have performed together several times. Her playing struck me immediately as direct and expressive, with a translucent beauty. Huw Watkins has recently premiered my Night Dances, and I am a great admirer of his musical sensitivity and clarity, both as pianist and composer.

It was commissioned as part of St John’s Smith Square Young Artists’ Scheme, and first performed at St John’s Smith Square on 31st May, 2018, by Mathilde Milwidsky and Huw Watkins.