Jabberwocky (and other fantastic tales) (2010, rev. 2025)

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Three settings of Lewis Carroll for children’s choir.
1. Crocodile
2. Life is but a dream
3. Jabberwocky

SA, piano

Commissioned by Chester Music Service Junior Choir.

Duration:
9′

First Performance:
10 July 2010
Chester Music Society Junior Choir, Helena Thomas, All Saints Church, Chester, UK

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Score

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Programme note

Jabberwocky (and other fantastic tales) was written at the behest of my university friend Helena Thomas for her choir, the Chester Music Society Youth Choir. The theme of the concert was children’s literature and she suggested the works of Lewis Carroll (which were handily for all concerned, out of copyright) and I chose three suitable texts. The opening piece ‘The Crocodile’ is full of sharp dissonances and spiky rhythms, hopefully emulating somewhat the fearsome creature’s most distinctive features. The second piece, ‘Life is but a dream’, is the opposite of the frenetic energy of the first with a dreamy, sustained texture throughout with repeated melodies coming in and out of focus. The final song, ‘Jabberwocky’, is a spirited dash through Carroll’s nonsense verse with a powerful piano refrain helping to tell the dramatic story of the Jabberwock and its untimely end.

PAC

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Recording