Work
these children singing in stone a
for a cappella SATB choir (divisi)
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This piece endeavours to evoke the imagery of e e cummings' poem, which itself has a musical structure, and creates a striking sound-image: 'children forever singing, wreathed with singing, etc.' which is contrasted with a profound concept of silence: 'silence of stone'. Unlike the way one might approach other texts, there was no call for adding to the repetitions and fragmentation already within the poem; instead I see the composition of the musical setting as creating a field of resonance around the poem and a kind of 'surface' for its presentation, while leaving its structure intact. The experience it embodies is very much like tuning in to the atmosphere of a particular, very still place and the images evoked there, living through a memory or fantasy which floods the senses, then fades.
Contents note
Single movement
Text note
Text by e e cummings