Silence Op. 16 (2022) c.4' (SATB)
Text by Edgar Allan Poe
Text by Edgar Allan Poe
Seasonal Reflections Op. 13 (2019) c.9' (SSA)
Text by John Clare
Text by John Clare
Missa Brevis Op. 4 (2011-12) c.14' (TTBarB)
Traditional Latin Text
Traditional Latin Text
The Angel (2003) c.3 ' (SATB)
Text by William Blake
Text by William Blake
A setting of William Blake's poem, this piece for unaccompanied chamber choir takes as its premise the six possible triads that can be formed around a single note. This single note remains in 1 part, while the other parts move through all the chords. The slow moving, almost hypnotic harmonic sound focuses the attention of the listener on the words.
Seasonal Reflections is a setting of 4 poems by John Clare (1793-1864) that take the listener through the seasons of the year. The poems are Early Spring, Sonnet: I love to see the summer beaming forth, Autumn and Winter Fields.
Commissioned by Voces Capituli after a performance of an arrangement I had made for them of Puer Nobis Nascitur, This Missa Brevis in E flat minor takes as it's main premise the exploration of close-knit chords, often dissonant, but opening out into unexpected harmonic directions, it is not a mass for huge celebration but one much more personal and private in sound.
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© Jonathan Ellson 2023
Buy Score at Score Exchange
Buy Score at Score Exchange
Buy Score at Score Exchange
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This piece began on a whim: to set a piece of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry for SATB a cappella. It was written fairly quickly over the course of about ten days straddling November and December 2022, and I had no real idea of what the piece would be until I had completed the main elements of word setting. I then realised that what I had written was essentially a quest for a clear, unambiguous chord of E major. So I went back and altered some parts of the harmony to make this the point of the piece.
Ultimately, E major is reached at the words "No More!", (although spelled in the piece as F flat major), Poe's moment in the poem of declaring himself no longer scared of death and the silence of the grave, the "corporate silence" found in "... lonely places / Newly with grass o'ergrown". The rest of the piece deals with the acceptance of death as a necessity, ending with a hard-won return to the same E major chord at the end of the piece, on the word "God" from where the piece fades to nothing.
Buy Score at Score Exchange
Ultimately, E major is reached at the words "No More!", (although spelled in the piece as F flat major), Poe's moment in the poem of declaring himself no longer scared of death and the silence of the grave, the "corporate silence" found in "... lonely places / Newly with grass o'ergrown". The rest of the piece deals with the acceptance of death as a necessity, ending with a hard-won return to the same E major chord at the end of the piece, on the word "God" from where the piece fades to nothing.
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Jonathan Ellson
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