Daniel Basford - Four Rossetti Songs

Four Rossetti Songs

2014. Duration 14' approx. Published by Maecenas Music (details coming soon)

Commissioned by Mid Hertfordshire Music Centre.

First performance - May 2014, Edward Guiness Hall, Dame Alice Owens School, Potters Bar

Mid Herts. Youth Concert Band, cond. Bernard Bean

Baritone - Tim Hobman

I. Dawn on the Night-Journey

II. Love's Last Gift

III. Silent Noon

IV. Remember Me

Scoring (NB Wind Ensemble: one player to a part)

A version for Small Orchestra is now available - click here for info

2 Flutes

Oboe

E flat Clarinet ad lib.

Clarinets 1, 2 & 3 in B flat

Alto Clarinet ad lib.

Bass Clarinet

2 Bassoons

Alto Saxophones 1 & 2

Tenor Saxophone

Baritone Saxophone

4 Horns

3 Trumpets

3 Trombones (3=bass)

Euphonium/Baritone (T.C./B.C.)

Tubas

Timpani (3 drums)

Percussion (2 players): 4 Crotales (C6, Eb6, Ab6, Bb6), Glockenspiel, Bass Drum, Tam-tam, Triangle, Pair Cymbals, Suspended Cymbal

Programme Note

Four Rossetti Songs is conceived as a kind of sequel to my large-scale cantata Night Journey. Indeed, the first movement begins in the same key in which Night Journey ends, as if following on immediately after the cantata. Unlike that work however, each of the Songs functions individually, since they are not designed to describe a single narrative thread across the four movements.

Whilst certainly owing something to the gentle song-writing of English composers - Vaughan Williams and Ivor Gurney in particular - the piece contains much chamber-like scoring and timbral changes within a more pastoral harmonic framework.