Instrumentation
SSAA choir and piano
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Other Information
Setting of the poem by D.H.Lawrence for high voices (SSSA) with piano accompaniment.
Commissioned by Pamela Cook and her ´Cantamus´ girls´ choir, with funds provided by East Midlands Arts, to celebrate the birth centenary of D.H.Lawrence. First performed by Cantamus in their D.H.Lawrence Centenary Festival Concert, entitled "Shall We Sing Thee Summat?", on September l4th 1985 at St.John´s, Smith Square, London.
Cantamus subsequently recorded the work for two BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, and has regularly performed the song in their concerts throughout the UK and on tours in the USA, Japan and Germany. The Halesowen Girls´ Choir, conducted by Margaret Pickford, who have also performed the song on many occasions, were first prize winners at the Catshill (Worcestershire) and Dudley Festivals singing the work, and included it in their programme for the Sainsbury´s Choir of the Year Competition in 1994. Other performers of the song include Cheltenham Ladies College in the Cheltenham Competitive Festival in 1995 and in concerts at the College, and the South Hampstead High School for Girls Singers.
´Andrew Downes´ treatment of the poem was carefully crafted so as to echo musically the atmosphere of nostalgia and reminiscence bordering on strong passion, contained within the text.´
THE GUARDIAN
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