On Craig Ddu
In 2024, I was selected to participate in Choral Arts Initiative’s PREMIERE|Project Festival as a Composition Fellow. The experience culminated in the premiere of my piece, “There is sweet music here.” After sharing that Edward Elgar’s setting was a big inspiration in that piece, a friend who attended the premiere suggested I set more reflections of classic English part songs. My setting of “On Craig Ddu” is a reflection on Frederick Delius’ setting of Arthur Symons’ text. Throughout the work, the recurring rhythmic motives are meant to paint an observer looking up at the sky through the branches of a tree. The piece is the second of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
XYZ
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Text:
The sky thro’ the leaves of the bracken
tenderly, pallidly blue,
nothing but sky as I lie on the mountain top.
Hark! for the wind as it blew,
rustling the tufts of my bracken above me,
brought from below
Into the silence the sound of the water.
Hark! for the oxen low,
sheep are bleating, a dog barks,
at a farm in the vale:
Blue thro’ the bracken, softly enveloping,
Silence, a veil.
- Arthur Symons (1865-1945)