October and October and October (2022)
for soprano, violoncello and piano
Text by Chad Campbell from Stones and Sweeper. Used with permission.
written as part of the Songs of Sustainability project, in collaboration with the University of Manchester.
Premiered by Louise Wayman, Petr Prause and Richard Whalley on the 17th of June 2022 at Halle St Peters, Manchester.
Duration: 8mins.
Program Note
October and October and October sets text from Chad Campbell's poem Stones and Sweeper. The original text takes the form of a dialogue piece, with a structure of question and answer, but when I became most artistically interested in the poem was when I read the text instead as a monologue - imagining one character endlessly interrogating themselves. There's a sense of frustration in the voice when presented this way, almost as if the whole text is asking itself "am I doing enough?". The piano and cello act as a sort of binary chorus to this, conversing not with the singer but more with themselves.
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