Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Geoffrey Burgon
Heavenly Things (2001)
- Chester Music Ltd (World)
Programme Note
Heavenly Things
Seven songs to poems by John Donne
Heavenly Things is my fourteenth song-cycle, but the first with piano accompaniment. I mention his because, when I was asked to write this piece my first reaction was ‘what can I make of a medium that seems to me quintessentially 19th century’ and I was doubtful that I could produce anything that I would be happy with. Then I went to hear Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau and was so impressed by the magic and intensity of their performance that I saw a ‘way in’ to what at first had seemed a problem. The choice of poems was obviously going to be crucial, and I chose the Donne Holy Sonnets because of the dramatic possibilities they offer and the huge range of emotion that they encompass. In these settings the piano is always more than a mere accompaniment, it tends either to be in dialogue with the voice, or to have its own musical agenda which the voice reacts to in an independent but parallel way.
© Geoffrey Burgon, 2001
Song titles:
1. This is my play’s last scene
2. Batter my heart three-personed God
3. Show me, dear Christ
4. Oh, to vex me
5. Since she whom I loved
6. Thou hast made me
7. Wilt thou love God?
Seven songs to poems by John Donne
Heavenly Things is my fourteenth song-cycle, but the first with piano accompaniment. I mention his because, when I was asked to write this piece my first reaction was ‘what can I make of a medium that seems to me quintessentially 19th century’ and I was doubtful that I could produce anything that I would be happy with. Then I went to hear Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau and was so impressed by the magic and intensity of their performance that I saw a ‘way in’ to what at first had seemed a problem. The choice of poems was obviously going to be crucial, and I chose the Donne Holy Sonnets because of the dramatic possibilities they offer and the huge range of emotion that they encompass. In these settings the piano is always more than a mere accompaniment, it tends either to be in dialogue with the voice, or to have its own musical agenda which the voice reacts to in an independent but parallel way.
© Geoffrey Burgon, 2001
Song titles:
1. This is my play’s last scene
2. Batter my heart three-personed God
3. Show me, dear Christ
4. Oh, to vex me
5. Since she whom I loved
6. Thou hast made me
7. Wilt thou love God?