• Judith Weir
  • Wake your wild voice (2008)

  • Chester Music Ltd (World)

Commissioned by the International Double Reed Society for the 2009 IDRS Conference

  • bn/vc
  • 10 min

Programme Note

Wake your wild voice is a duo for bassoon with cello accompaniment, lasting just under ten minutes. The bassoon plays a continuous virtuosic line, awakening, as the title suggests, a wilder, more passionate voice than the instrument is often allowed in classical music. The relationship between the bassoon and the accompanying cello could be compared to bagpipes; in this piece, the bassoon is the pipe (playing the melody) and the cello is the bag (providing a resonant chordal companion to the bassoon line).

The title is purloined from Sir Walter Scott's poem, 'Gathering Song of Donald the Black':

Pibroch of Donuil Dhu
Pibroch of Dunuil
Wake thy wil voice anew,
Summon Clan Conuil!
Come away, come away,
Hark to the summons!
Come in your war - array,
Gentles and commons.

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Weir: Wake your wild voice
Judith Weir: Wake your wild voice

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