Music to Hear

"Music To Hear was commissioned for baritone Oliver Dunn and pianist Emma Abbate, by Peninsula Arts (Plymouth University) for the March 2014 Words and Music Festival, celebrating Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Shakespeare’s eighth sonnet was an easy choice for me, as its sentiments are bittersweet like my harmonic language! The poem is about a young man saddened by the cheerful beauty of music, because harmony and concord remind him of his obligation to marry and procreate. As with my other songs, I have paid close attention to word-painting – a repeated single note chimes sadly echoing the alluding to ‘In singleness’, ‘one string’ or ‘one pleasing note’ and the harmonies reflect every sentiment – jarring after ‘pleasure thine annoy’, soothing in ‘concord’ and ‘union’. My thanks go to Suzanne Sparrow who has generously sponsored both the commission and the festival and to Simon Ible or Peninsula Arts for choosing me to write this. The piece is dedicated to its commissioner and lasts approximately 4 minutes."