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Work


Relatively Speaking

for two-part treble voices and piano

Year:  2001

Year:  2001

David Hamilton
Composer

Composer:   David Hamilton

Films, Audio & Samples

Sample Score

Sample: pp1,7,11,14

See details ➔

Borrow/Hire:

To borrow items or hire parts please email SOUNZ directly at info@sounz.org.nz.

About

This cycle grew out of a request from the Junior School at Diocesan School for Girls (Auckland) for a work for their annual 'Mothering Sunday' service. Unable to find a suitable poem about mothers I decided that grandmothers might be a suitable substitute. I turned to the poetry of Jack Prelutsky whose work I have often set over the past five or six years, and found Hurry, Grandma Hurry. This became the beginning of a cycle about relatives: in turn grandmother, grandfather, mother and father. Hurry, Grandma Hurry presents us with the typical activities of a young boy or girl while being looked after by a hassled grandmother. The child swings from trees, roller-skates (backwards), threatens to eat a bug and so on. Poor Grandma has trouble keeping up with the pace. Grandpa McWheeze is a rather eccentric fellow who does all sorts of unusual things: standing on his head while buttering his bread, playing bassoons made from prunes and tying springs to his knees. There can be few like him! Oh Mother, I am Blue Today is a short poem which plays on the word blue and its various meanings. Appropriately the music suggests a blues style. The implications of the title of the final piece, When Daddy Sat on the Tomatoes are obvious - he wasn't very pleased at all! The big question is, will somebody own up?


Dedication note

Written for the choirs of the Junior School, Diocesan School for Girls, Auckland


Contents note

  1. Hurry, Grandma Hurry
  2. Grandpa McWheeze
  3. O Mother I am Blue Today
  4. When Daddy sat on the tomatoes

Text note

Text by Jack Prelutsky