Work
Nine Poems from "Meeting the Comet"
for countertenor or mezzo-soprano, cello and piano
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About
Nine Poems from "Meeting the Comet" is a setting of nine poems by New Zealand born, U.K. resident poet Fleur Adcock, from her set of twenty-four poems, 'Meeting the Comet'. These describe a young girl with a disability and her encounter with Halley's Comet, as seen in the skies from New Zealand in the 1980s.
The piece, in its original instrumentation for countertenor and guitar, was written at the invitation of Keiko Fujiie for countertenor Derek Lee Ragin and guitarist Kazuhito Yamashita. It received its first performance by these artists at the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival in Nagano, Japan in September 1999. This recomposition for countertenor or mezzo-soprano, cello and piano was made in October 2019 and is based upon a version for voice and piano written for the Edge Duo - Riccardo Strano and Nicolò Sbuelz, published by Donemus.
Meeting the Comet is published by Bloodaxe Books in Fleur Adcock's Poems 1960 - 2000 (2000).
Dedication note
to Brian Queenin (1965-99), missed by his many friends
Text note
Poems by Fleur Adcock