PROGRAMME
Trad. words Thomas Dekker arr. Ellie Slorach - Golden Slumbers
Eric Whitacre - Sleep
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act IV, scene i
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi - Pseudo-Yoik
Edgar Allan Poe - A Dream within a Dream
Billy Joel arr. Philip Lawson – Lullabye
Mátyás Seiber - 3 Nonsense Songs – 1. There Was An Old Lady Of France
John Keats - To Sleep
Josef Rheinberger - Abendlied
William Shakespeare – Cymbeline: Act V, scene iv
Mátyás Seiber- 3 Nonsense Songs - 2. There Was An Old Person Of Cromer
Ēriks Ešenvalds - Only in Sleep
William Wordsworth - To Sleep
Mátyás Seiber - 3 Nonsense Songs – 3. There Was An Old Man In A Tree
William Shakespeare – The Tempest: Act III, scene ii
Camden Reeves - The Maze of Sleep
William Shakespeare – Sonnet 27
Kristina Arakelyan – Train Ride (World Premiere)
Edmund Jolliffe – Be not afeard
William Shakespeare – The Tempest: Act IV, Scene i
Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Cloud Capp’d Towers
Emily Dickinson - The Moon
Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
—
Artistic Director Ellie Slorach
Presenter & Researcher Dr Michelle Phillips
Presenter & Researcher Dr Jason Taylor
—
Programme Notes
where do we go in our dreams?
As dusk drapes the world in velvet shadows, sleep whispers its invitation. It is here, in the quiet hours between night and dawn, where this music lives, embarking on a quest to discover what happens when we close our eyes. Journey through improvised soundscapes, poetry, and choral music by composers including Eric Whitacre, Laura Mvula, Vaughan Williams, and a new commission by Kristina Arakelyan to unveil the hidden landscapes of our dreams and the mysteries of the subconscious mind.
We also welcome members of the RNCM Research Department and the University of Manchester, who will study how our brain responds to live music during this event. They will give a short demonstration of their process before capturing and processing live brain wave data in real time and projecting it behind the choir, illustrating the extraordinary power of music.
Trad. words Thomas Dekker arr. Ellie Slorach (1994- ) - Golden Slumbers
I have really vivid memories of my mum singing this to me when she was tucking me into bed as a child. As a very nostalgic melody for me and a melody perfectly tied to the theme of ‘In Your Dreams’, I decided to open tonight’s gig with this new little arrangement. It starts with a solo soprano line to mimic my mother’s voice, although she’s an alto these days(!), followed by an upper voice duet and then a trio. Finally the full choir join and the cluster chords build to the highest point of the phrase – the idea was to mimic a little of Eric Whitacre’s soundworld before we delve right in to his piece ‘Sleep’...
Ellie Slorach
Eric Whitacre (1970- ) - Sleep
In the winter of 1999 I was contacted by Ms. Julia Armstrong, a lawyer and professional mezzo-soprano living in Austin, Texas. She wanted to commission a choral work from me that would be premiered by the Austin ProChorus (Kinley Lange, cond.), a terrific chorus in which she regularly performed.
The circumstances around the commission were certainly memorable. She wanted to commission the piece in memory of her parents, who had died within weeks of each other after more than fifty years of marriage; and she wanted me to set her favorite poem, Robert Frost’s immortal Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening. I was deeply moved by her spirit and her request, and agreed to take on the commission.
I took my time with the piece, crafting it note by note until I felt that it was exactly the way I wanted it. The poem is perfect, truly a gem, and my general approach was to try to get out of the way of the words and let them work their magic. We premiered the piece in Austin, October 2000, and the piece was well received. Rene Clausen gave it a glorious performance at the ACDA National Convention in the spring of 2001, and soon after I began receiving letters, emails, and phone calls from conductors trying to get a hold of the work.
And here was my tragic mistake: I never secured permission to use the poem. Robert Frost’s poetry has been under tight control from his estate since his death, and until a few years ago only Randall Thompson (Frostiana) had been given permission to set his poetry. In 1997, out of the blue, the estate released a number of titles, and at least twenty composers set and published Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening for chorus. When I looked online and saw all of these new and different settings, I naturally (and naively) assumed that it was open to anyone. Little did I know that the Robert Frost Estate had shut down ANY use of the poem just months before, ostensibly because of this plethora of new settings.
After a LONG legal battle (many letters, many representatives), the estate of Robert Frost and their publisher, Henry Holt Inc., sternly and formally forbid me from using the poem for publication or performance until the poem became public domain in 2038.
I was crushed. The piece was dead, and would sit under my bed for the next 37 years because of some ridiculous ruling by heirs and lawyers. After many discussions with my wife, I decided that I would ask my friend and brilliant poet Charles Anthony Silvestri (Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, Lux Aurumque, Nox Aurumque, Her Sacred Spirit Soars) to set new words to the music I had already written. This was an enormous task, because I was asking him to not only write a poem that had the exact structure of the Frost, but that would even incorporate key words from “Stopping”, like ‘sleep’. Tony wrote an absolutely exquisite poem, finding a completely different (but equally beautiful) message in the music I had already written. I actually prefer Tony’s poem now…
And there it is. My setting of Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening no longer exists.
Eric Whitacre
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act IV, scene i
‘Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.’
Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (1963- ) - Pseudo-Yoik
This Pseudo-Yoik has nothing to do with the genuine traditional Lappish or Sámi yoik, and should thus be considered to have the same degree of authenticity as local colour in bel canto opera. If a connection must be sought, I would prefer to describe this piece as an impression of a stereotype — the stereotype that most Finns associate with Lapland and its people. The text exists merely to give form to the music and is meaningless. His Majesty Karl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, graciously consented to listen to Pseudo-Yoik at the Nobel Prize Banquet in Stockholm in December 1997. Afterword: At the time of this writing in March 2008, there are 36 known recordings of the different versions of the piece, and it has been performed in places as diverse as the jungles of Australia and the Italian Alps. Performers wonder when I say that I have come to realize that this is not a comedy piece at all. Insane? Certainly. Grim? Possibly. But funny? No. That the audience can perceive it as funny is another thing altogether; but the performance must be manically serious. This is not to say that it cannot be fun to sing, though.
© 1999/2008 by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) - A Dream within a Dream
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
Billy Joel (1949- ) arr. Philip Lawson – Lullabye
Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) is the seventh track from Billy Joel's 1993 album ‘River of Dreams’. It was inspired by Alexa Ray Joel, his daughter. This tender ballad has been arranged for SATTBB choir by Philip Lawson. It is featured on the King's Singers album "SIX".
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960) - Three Nonsense Songs: No.1 There Was An Old Lady Of France
Mátyás Seiber was a Hungarian-born British composer who was a pupil of Kodály and Bartók at the Liszt Academy. He went on to teach jazz at a conservatoire in Frankfurt from 1927-1933; this was the first academic study of jazz anywhere. He finally settled in London in 1935 where he built his reputation as a composer and composition teacher. Sadly, Seiber was killed in a road traffic accident aged just 55 whilst on a concert and conducting tour in South Africa. Seiber wrote his Three Nonsense Songs for the Dorian Singers, the choir he directed whilst living in London. The words are by Edward Lear (1812-1888) and are in the form of limericks. We have spread the three songs throughout this evening’s programme. The words are silly and the music is silly!
John Keats (1795-1821) - To Sleep
O soft embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,—
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.
Josef Rheinberger (1839-1901) - Abendlied
Abendlied (Evening song), is a sacred motet for six part choir. Rheinberger wrote the first version in 1855 at the age of just 15, revising the motet at age 24. The text is from the gospel according to Luke 24.29, where the disciples meet the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, not recognising him at first, and invite him to come and eat with them:
Bleib bei uns,
denn es will Abend werden,
und der Tag hat sich geneiget.
Stay with us,
for it is almost evening,
and the day will soon be over.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Cymbeline: Act V, scene iv
‘He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache.’
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960) - Three Nonsense Songs: No.2 There Was An Old Person Of Cromer
Ēriks Ešenvalds (1977- ) - Only in Sleep
Only in Sleep was written in 2010 for the University of Louisville Collegiate Chorale and
Cardinal Singers. Sara Teasdale’s nostalgic vision of childhood re-experienced through dreams is expressed in simple verse in regular metre, and Ešenvalds matches this in music of regular four-bar phrases. But infinitely subtle are the chord voicings; a change from humming to vocalise to spotlight a phrase here, or internal doublings to highlight a particular line in the texture there — all serve to sustain the freshness, and the soaring descants are achingly expressive. The soprano soloist heard at the opening returns at the close, lost in reverie, as her musing, florid arabesques float over one last pair of chordal oscillations, winding down to nothing.
from notes by Gabriel Jackson © 2015
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) - To Sleep
A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky —
I've thought of all by turns, and still I lie
Sleepless; and soon the small birds' melodies
Must hear, first utter'd from my orchard trees,
And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry.
Even thus last night, and two nights more I lay,
And could not win thee, Sleep, by any stealth:
So do not let me wear to-night away.
Without thee what is all the morning's wealth?
Come, blessed barrier between day and day,
Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health!
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960) - Three Nonsense Songs: No.3 There Was An Old Man In A Tree
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – The Tempest: Act III, scene ii
Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had wak’d after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I wak’d
I cried to dream again.
Camden Reeves (1974- ) - The Maze of Sleep
Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was an author, poet, visual artist and sculptor. As an author of weird fiction, he was associated with the Lovecraft circle and the pulp magazine Weird Tales. It is for these short stories – which range from tales of the macabre to fantasy and science fiction – that he is largely known today. But his true vocation was poetry. I have set several of Smith’s poems, with kind permission from his estate. It is my hope that these settings will play some part in drawing greater attention to the extraordinary qualities of Smith’s poetic work.
The Maze of Sleep is my second choral work to use Smith’s words, setting his poem of the same name. The music here combines Smith’s words with melodies of pure vocalising, tracing these through a dreamscape of shifting harmonies.
The score is dedicated to my friend & colleague, the conductor Rob Guy.
Camden Reeves
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – Sonnet 27
Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts (from far where I abide)
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see:
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo, thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee, and for myself, no quiet find.
Kristina Arakelyan – Train Ride (World premiere)
The line between a dream and a day-dream is blurred as this composition reflects on the experience of living in a big city and spending much of one’s life on the train, as well as the experience of nonsensical dreams where one disparate episode leads to the next. Much like an absurd dream, Train Ride weaves its way through a game of musical (and some extra-musical) associations. Each ‘stop’ reveals something new–the phrase ‘Train Ride’ turns into consonants ‘t’ and ‘r’, which then morph into ‘d’ and ‘r’, which morph into (Jacques)Derrida. The next ‘stop’ subsequently reveals a dance of tango, then a vocalisation on da-ri-da (a play on Dada and Derrida), followed by the choir telling their dreams over a refrain, before the return of the opening idea, and a final (paraphrased) citation about dreams from the philosopher Zhuangzi: Am I a man dreaming that I am a butterfly? Or a butterfly dreaming that I am a man? A binding element is the idea of being on the train, however it is not a lucid experience, but rather possessing a quality of dream-like vagueness. The choir and/or audience are invited to take part in this composition by sharing their nonsensical dreams, which are read out by the choir towards the end. The idea is not to hear these dreams individually, but to create a sonic effect of a busy mind/dream.
Kristina Arakelyan
Edmund Jolliffe (1976- ) – Be not afeard
In the summer of 2018, I spent ten weeks on an artistic residency at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. I wrote an extended choral piece 'Sleep Cycle' that was premiered later that year by the Nonsuch Singers. My aim was to set a number of texts that broadly represented the different stages of the sleep cycle and Be not afeard is the opening movement to this cycle. The words are from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ (Act III, scene II). This is the explanation Caliban gives to Stephano and Trinculo about the mysterious music they hear by magic, comparing this to a dream. It has strong imagery and seemed like a perfect introduction for the cycle. The music alternates between fast and calmer moods, echoing the light sleep of stage 1 where one can be awakened easily and experience sudden muscle contractions.
Edmund Jolliffe
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) – The Tempest: Act IV, Scene i
‘We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life,
Is rounded with a sleep.’
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) - The Cloud Capp’d Towers
Vaughan Williams composed ‘Three Shakespeare Songs’ for the 1951 National Competition Festival of the British Federation of Music which included a choral competition for choirs from around the UK to demonstrate their abilities by performing test pieces. Whilst No.1, ‘Full Fathom Five’, has tricky divisi voice part splits and interval pitching, and No.3 ‘Over Hill, Over Dale’, has tongue-twisting enunciation at fast speed, No.2, ‘The Cloud-Capp’d Towers’, is a test for the tuning skills of a choir. It has gorgeous harmonic colours, setting words from The Tempest, spoken by the sorcerer, Prospero. As he concludes the masque at his daughter’s wedding, he states that the characters will all fade away, and this play within a play itself becomes a metaphor for the transience of real life.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) - The Moon
The moon was but a chin of gold
A night or two ago,
And now she turns her perfect face
Upon the world below.
Her forehead is of amplest blond;
Her cheek like beryl stone;
Her eye unto the summer dew
The likest I have known.
Her lips of amber never part;
But what must be the smile
Upon her friend she could bestow
Were such her silver will!
And what a privilege to be
But the remotest star!
For certainly her way might pass
Beside your twinkling door.
Her bonnet is the firmament,
The universe her shoe,
The stars the trinkets at her belt,
Her dimities of blue.
Laura Mvula (1986- ) - Sing to the Moon
This beautiful arrangement by Laura Mvula of her own song from her 2013 album of the same name was created for the BBC Singers, who sang it at the Last Night of the Proms 2019.
In 2013, during an interview with Blues and Soul magazine, Mvula revealed the inspiration behind her song: "Well, the actual song Sing to the Moon came from a time when I was reading a book called 'Underneath a Harlem Moon', which is a biography of a jazz singer called Adelaide Hall, which is basically all about how she kind of was overlooked, or probably didn’t get the recognition she perhaps deserved. Plus it also talks about how she’d had a hard time growing up because her sister - who she was very close to - had died tragically of an illness... So anyway, there's a point in the story where she describes her close relationship with her father… which I think kind of resonated with me, where she talks about the conversations she had with him and how he used to say to her randomly 'Sing to the moon and the stars will shine'. Which kind of became her thing really that she just took with her everywhere. … And I don't know why, but for some reason it just struck some kind of chord with me - you know, it was just something I seemed to connect with at that time. And so because of that, it then became a saying that I liked to use myself. So yeah, because it's become something I personally like to express, I just thought Sing to the Moon would also make a good title for the album as a whole."
THE CHOIR
SOPRANO
Eleonore Cockerham
Felicity Hayward
Sarah Keirle
Elspeth Piggott
Lydia Wonham
ALTO
Louise Ashdown
Jessica Conway
Alison Daniels
Lucy Vallis
TENOR
Alistair Donaghue
Jonathan Maxwell Hyde
Charlie Perry
Matthew Pope
BASS
Sam Gilliatt
Jonny Hill
Patrick Osborne
Edmund Phillips
the research team
Ana Marta Pacheco Aguiar
Kate Andrews
Dan Baczkowski
Steve Ball
Alex Chapman
Dr Josie Kearney
Dr Michelle Phillips
Sam Roberts
Dr Jason Taylor
THE kantos TEAM
Artistic Director Ellie Slorach
General Director Claire Shercliff
Communications Coordinator Eve Powers
Design Sam Gee
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