Sonnets (2020)
(for Two Pianos and Three Pianists)

It’s a plague year, and Shakespeare is commissioned to compose a series of poems to convince a young boy to marry. The parents invite him to stay in their country house, away from the dangers of the city.

In the course of his assignment, Shakespeare becomes obsessed with the ‘fair youth’, and the sonnets become passionate expressions of his unrequited love.

After a few years, Shakespeare’s affections are won by another mysterious figure: the ‘dark lady’. The sonnets he writes to the dark lady are different – erotic and sensual, rather than idealistic and spiritual.

It seems that the dark lady and the fair youth meet, and begin an affair. The agony for Shakespeare is palpable in his writing.

In this piece, the three characters are represented by three pianists, who are forced to share only two pianos. As the story plays out, the music reflects passion, jealousy, joy and desperation, as the characters portray their conflicting emotions – from humble page turner to triumphant soloist; pursuer, pursued; moving between the pianos rather like a game of progressive table tennis.

The music is developed from lute songs by John Dowland: My Heart and Tongue were Twinnes, and Unquiet Thoughts. I have also used wordless settings of fragments from ‘Sonnet 18‘ and ‘Sonnet 129’.

I have used the initials WS (Shakespeare), WH (the initials Shakespeare used in the dedication of the sonnets addressed to the young man), and DL (Dark Lady).