Rossetti Songs (2005)
15 minutes
for SATB Chamber Choir
Texts by Christina Rossetti
1. Echo
2. Remember Me
3. Song
4. When I Am Dead
Commissioned by Eve vocal trio (Greta Bradman, Emma Horwood, and Christie Anderson)
First performance by Eve vocal trio on July 25th, 2005 at Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide, South Australia.
15 minutes
for SATB Chamber Choir
Texts by Christina Rossetti
1. Echo
2. Remember Me
3. Song
4. When I Am Dead
Commissioned by Eve vocal trio (Greta Bradman, Emma Horwood, and Christie Anderson)
First performance by Eve vocal trio on July 25th, 2005 at Pilgrim Uniting Church, Adelaide, South Australia.
The song cycle Rossetti Songs began life in early 2004 under the title White Sustenances, and didn’t settle into its current four-song format until Eve vocal trio (Greta Bradman, Emma Horwood and Christie Anderson) premiered the completed work in July 2005. The exquisitely beautiful poetry of Christina Rossetti was the defining force that brought the songs together into what I fell is a well rounded song-cycle.
Despite the themes of love, death and despair, I find an inherent beauty in these lyrics, and find the language Rossetti uses particularly feminine, strong and evocative. I have used both church modes and exotic modes to match the mood changes within the text, reflecting the narrator’s changing state of mind from light to dark, from hope to melancholy.
Despite the themes of love, death and despair, I find an inherent beauty in these lyrics, and find the language Rossetti uses particularly feminine, strong and evocative. I have used both church modes and exotic modes to match the mood changes within the text, reflecting the narrator’s changing state of mind from light to dark, from hope to melancholy.