|
COMPOSITIONS INSPIRED BY THE WRITER
JOHN COWPER POWYS
(1872 - 1963)
3 ORGAN PIECES: “Aubade”; “Ghosta and Lilith”; “Cortege” from “The Brazen Head” (1987/9)
“WHITENESS” (poem by JCP) for soprano, baritone and piano (1988)
“SHILLY SHALLY”- a children’s opera based on the late short story for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1989/1992)
“FOR MYSHKIN” JCP’s dramatisation of “The Idiot” by Dostoievsky: for actors, solo piano and chamber ensemble (1991)
“WOLF SOLENT SUITE” for 2 flutes/ clarinets and strings (1992):
1. Christie must wait; 2. Mr Malakite’s Disorder; 3.An Ounce of Civet Good Master Jason*;
4. The Iniquity of Oblivion;* 5.Elegy for Jimmy Redfern*
THREE POWYS VIGNETTES *for alto and strings: based on “Weymouth Sands”;
“Maiden Castle” and “A Glastonbury Romance” (1992)
“JOURNEY TO LOST TOWERS ” (The Brazen Head- 1992) for 5 viols (also for chamber orchestra)
“OUT OF NEVILTON”* + “LACRIMA FOR TRAFFIO”* for 2 clarinets or descant recorder and viols from “Wood and Stone” (1994)
TWO ORCHESTRAL PIECES : “ The Stone Circle”+ “Sir Mort Abyssum, His Ritual”: from “The Brazen Head” (1994)
“POWYS IN AMERICA I” for cornet and piano (1999)*
“POWYS IN AMERICA II” for 2 clarinets, cornet and piano (1999)*
“EIDOLON VULGARIS” for lute, mandolin and 3 viols from “After My Fashion” (2010)
“MR POWYS HIS DELIGHT” for solo bass viol from “Autobiography “(2010)
“WALKING MUSIC FOR JCP” for 2 bass viols from “Autobiography” (2010)
“DITCHLING ROAD” (unpublished poem) for soprano and chamber ensemble (2010)
*unperformed
|
fifty people, it took place in the lecture room at the Friends Meeting House. The Pastores Ensemble, comprising five dedicated musicians — Domenica Lewkow, Marion Pilbeam, Jacques Ruijterman, Paul Neville and Robert Carrington — played string instruments, Bass and Tenor Viols, Lute and Cello, Mandolins and Guitar as well as the Cornemuse. After a brilliant overture written by Robert, “Mr Culpeper His Praeludium”, Rob Timlin and Kieran McCann in turn read with gusto excerpts from chapters of Autobiography in which Southwick, Court House and Burpham were described. Each reading was followed by a musical interlude including some pieces by 16th century composers such as Antony Holborne, Clement Woodcock, Christopher Tye or Elway Beven, together with pieces composed by Robert Carrington, mostly inspired by JCP and some performed for the first time. The readings offered the pleasure of hearing the characteristic cadences of the Powysian style, enhanced by inspiring musical compositions. One new Carrington piece which the writer of these lines liked very much was To the Ditchling Road (taken from the ‘Court House’ chapter), superbly sung by soprano Sue Mileham. Sue also sang as a homage by Robert to Alfred de Kantzow a setting of one of his poems, ‘The Pantheist’. The evening ended with the bewitching première of Robert’s ‘Mr Culpeper His Goodnight’. The guest readers and musicians were enthusiastically and rightly applauded. It is to be hoped that some at least of the new-comers to Powys in the audience will now be tempted to turn to Autobiography or another of Powys's novels. Who knows? 