Adlestrop |
for Pierrot Ensemble (fl., cl., vln., vc., pno.) and soprano
Duration: ~5'30"
Premiere: December 7, 2015 by the SFCM New Music Ensemble; Natalie Image, soprano; Edward Hong, conductor, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Edward Thomas' poem Adlestrop recounts a train ride the author takes through the countryside of England that makes an unexpected stop. The opening stanzas eerily depict the emptiness of the train station, where he only sees the sign that says "Adlestrop." Despite the stillness, he is quick to appreciate the surrounding beauty. This poem is an expression of his love affair with nature and to a moment passed.
I tried to capture the feeling of solitude the poem first evokes with a hexachord that vaguely implies Eb diminished. The piece deviates from this harmony in various interjections and dramatic moments to portray Thomas' observation of the world beyond the train station; we eventually modulate to E minor, further detaching from the original tonality. As Thomas reflects on the lone blackbird in harmony with all the birds far away, I sought to fuse the harmonic material of the preceding sections to capture this reflective state in a closing recapitulation.
Duration: ~5'30"
Premiere: December 7, 2015 by the SFCM New Music Ensemble; Natalie Image, soprano; Edward Hong, conductor, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Edward Thomas' poem Adlestrop recounts a train ride the author takes through the countryside of England that makes an unexpected stop. The opening stanzas eerily depict the emptiness of the train station, where he only sees the sign that says "Adlestrop." Despite the stillness, he is quick to appreciate the surrounding beauty. This poem is an expression of his love affair with nature and to a moment passed.
I tried to capture the feeling of solitude the poem first evokes with a hexachord that vaguely implies Eb diminished. The piece deviates from this harmony in various interjections and dramatic moments to portray Thomas' observation of the world beyond the train station; we eventually modulate to E minor, further detaching from the original tonality. As Thomas reflects on the lone blackbird in harmony with all the birds far away, I sought to fuse the harmonic material of the preceding sections to capture this reflective state in a closing recapitulation.
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ADLESTROP
Yes. I remember Adlestrop-- The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express-train drew up there Unwontedly. It was late June. The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came On the bare platform. What I saw Was Adlestrop—only the name And willows, willow-herb, and grass, And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry, No whit less still and lonely fair Than the high cloudlets in the sky. And for that minute a blackbird sang Close by, and round him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. -Edward Thomas |
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