The Pine Boughs Past Music

Song cycle for medium voice and piano, based upon the poetry of Ivor Gurney and Leonard Clark. A set of pieces very much in the English lyrical vocal writing tradition of Butterworth, Ireland and, of course,Gurney.

'The Pine Boughs Past Music is a song cycle baseed upon poetry associated with Gloucester and was commissioned to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of the Gloucester Music Society. Havingpurposefully sought inspiration from a wide array of Gloucester poets, from Henley to Harvey, I finally found inspiration in the poetry of Ivor Gurney, whose work is so saturated with the Gloucestershire landscape. In his poetryIdiscovered the essential element I needed to bind the cycle together: the eternal backdrop of nature upon which the poet's thoughts are played out.

It would have been quite easy to conclude the set with another poem byIvor Gurney. However, it was to Leonard Clark I turned. The title of his summative poem speaks for itself, 'In Memoriam: Ivor Gurney': a haunting elegy that pays tribute to Gurney's everlastingmemory.'
                                 - IanVenables

First performed on April 15th 2010, at St Mary-de-Lode, Gloucester, performed by Roderick Williams (Baritone) and Andrew West (Pianist).

Commissioned by Christine Talbot-Cooper to celebrate theGloucester Music Society's eightieth anniversary.