Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Sally Beamish
Shadow and Silver (1995)
- Peters Edition Limited (World)
Commissioned by the BBC Singers to mark their 70th anniversary and first performed by them on 16th June 1995 at St John’s, Smith Square, London, conducted by Jane Glover.
Programme Note
I came across Hugh Haughton’s beautiful translations of these four Lorca poems in the Chatto Book of Nonsense Poetry; however they are arguably somewhat misplaced in that context. To quote Hugh Haughton: ‘Perhaps in part because Lorca was a musician himself, these delicately inventive, quasi-naif poems seem to invite music; folkish and in touch with the childish, they have a mysterious fizz and gnomic rhythmic swing about them, a sense of voice and space...’
The songs are entitled:
- Shell
- Girl by the River (with an accompaniment of bells)
- Corridor
- Tío-Vivo (or The Merry-go-round)
My settings draw on influences from various vocal traditions – not least Lorca’s own arrangements of Spanish folk-songs – but also barber-shop and close harmony singing. They are dedicated to the BBC Singers on their 70th birthday.