Morfudd - Three Welsh Songs by Patrick Hawes for solo soprano and piano. First performed as part of the 'Concerts at the Crossroads' series on 2 June 2012 in Beulah United Reformed Church Rhiwbina Cardiff by Elin Manahan Thomas (soprano) and John Reid (piano).

for soprano and piano. Par CASKEN JOHN. Chansons de Verlaine were completed in 2006. The third song, Colloque sentimental, was written in 2003 for Alison Smart and Katharine Durran’s New French Song project. It was as a result of having written one short song to words by Verlaine that I subsequently decided to set two further poems to make a group of three. All three were also set by Debussy: L’ombre des arbres and Chevaux de bois appear in Ariettes Oubliées, while Colloque sentimental belongs to Debussy’s second set of Fêtes Galantes. The poems I have grouped together are linked by the idea of three different landscapes. In the first, Verlaine precedes the words of his own sad, pale landscape with words from Cyrano de Bergerac about a nightingale who fears himself about to fall into a river and drown. In the second poem the landscape has been occupied by a fairground where men, women and children watch as the hobby-horses go round and round before night falls and the church tolls a passing-bell. The third poem takes us into an old park where two ghosts recall their past. The one wonders if the other remembers the happy days of their past lives, but the other doesn’t want to remember, barely acknowledging the closeness they once shared, seeing only that ‘hope has fled, defeated, towards the dark sky.’ I am very grateful to Roger Nichols and Dominique Mols for their advice with the setting of the French texts and with the translations. John Casken Colloque sentimental was first performed by Alison Smart and Katherine Durran at the Purcell Room in London on 13 July 2004/ Répertoire / Soprano et Piano

Par SAARIAHO KAIJA. These three songs, written for the Finnish operatic soprano, Anu Komsi, take texts by Pentti Saarikoski, one of the most important poets in the literary scene of Finland during the 1960s and 1970s. / Date parution : 2022-04-26/ Répertoire / Soprano et Piano

Wombed Souls set three poems by Thomas Hardy. Recorded by Diana Damrau (soprano) and Helmet Deutsch (piano).

The songs in this collection include the modern art song Legend of Rosemary (verse by Reginald Arkell) a bluesy Stop All The Clocks (W H Auden) the droll dizziness of desire The Bakery (13th Korean courtesan) creepy evocation of mother’s love juxtaposed with evil using three keys simultaneously in Infant Song (Charles Causley) and the poignant My Boy Jack haunting modal Harp Song of the Dane Women and a contemplation of wrongdoing using constantly shifting key and time signatures in Gertrude’s Prayer (all Rudyard Kipling).Contemporary English composer singer and Vocal coach Betty Roe is best known for her church and Choral music revue songs music for schools and solosongs like these. She has a particular affinity for setting poetry imaginatively and sensitively.

Composé en 2007 pour le festival de Lieder de Leeds, Shimmerwords et les chansons au ralenti pour soprano et piano de Hesketh est un cycle de chanson de 18 minutes composé de six chansons en quatre sections. Le texte est tiré d'un recueil de poésie chinoise des VIIIe et IXe siècles qui couvrent divers sujets de nature et de voyage à la vie elle-même. La musique est coloré et directe avec une abondance d'humour et de clarté. / Soprano Et Piano

'. . .a skirling reedy accompaniment to a patter-song collected in Turkey by Bartok beautifully proportioned and realised.'Andrew Clements Financial Times 21 November 1989