Heavenly Things for Baritone And Piano

Composer's Notes:
Heavenly Things is my fourteenth song-cycle, but the first with piano accompaniment. I mention this because, when I was asked to write this piece my first reaction was ‘what can I make of amediumthat seems to me quintessentially 19th century’ and I was doubtful that I could produce anything that I would be happy with. Then I went to hear Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau and was so impressed by the magicandintensity of their performance that I saw a ‘way in’ to what at first had seemed a problem. The choice of poems was obviously going to be crucial, and I chose the Donne Holy Sonnets because of the dramatic possibilities theyofferand the huge range of emotion that they encompass. In these settings the piano is always more than a mere accompaniment, it tends either to be in dialogue with the voice, or to have its own musical agenda which the voicereacts toin an independent but parallel way. Geoffrey Burgon