Far Away Music (2012, rev. 2025)
Three songs from The Wind in the Willows for children’s choir.
1. Ducks’ Ditty
2. You Shall Forget
3. Mr Toad
SA, piano
Commissioned by Chester Music Society Junior Choir.
Duration:
9′
First Performance:
7 July 2012
Chester Music Society Junior Choir, Helena Thomas, All Saints Church, Chester, UK
Score
Programme note
Far Away Music is my second piece written for the Chester Music Society Youth Choir and their adventurous conductor Helena Thomas. The work is similar in construction and thought to my first (Jabberwocky, 2010) with two up-tempo songs being separated by a more introspective, slower one. The first song, ‘Ducks’ Ditty’ is quick and jovial aiming to capture some of the essence of frolicking ducks. The second ‘You Shall Forget’ is pensive and melancholic with a questioning ending. The final song ‘Mr Toad’ is a bit of a departure for me as it treads more humorous ground then my work usually does. Helena wanted the youngest choir, the Preludes, to have a part in the piece so I built the song around their participation. Alongside the verse they sing, they have actions and other noises to add to the mixture. For this final song I wanted to tap into the Edwardiana that characterises Wind in the Willows and came across this simple music-hall piano figure (which sounds remarkably like Knees Up Mother Brown) which is repeated over and over again to a hypnotic and rousing finale.
PAC
