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Night Music (1969) |
for soprano and orchestra - c. 15'
The selection of poetry for this work relies mainly on the collection of 73 Poems by E. E. Cummings – his last published works. THe volume surveys a consummate expression of Cummings’ thought and aesthetic. His experiments with typography and punctuation create nuances of multiple interpretation which give his poetry a colour and life full of material for musical adaptation.
Gordon Bottomley is the only other poet represented – by one poem only. Although stylistically alien to Cummings, this particular item goes well with the mood and subject matter of the other poems. As the third of five in the piece it forms the apex of the pyramid, each poem describing an experience of night in one form or another.
1. Erotic love.
2. A piquant episode metaphorically describing the moon as a woman.
3. An expression of mental unrest.
4. Another episode based on the material of (2) – a thought on silence in moonlight.
5. A poem which synthesises the substance of all the others and closes with words which only Cummings could muster to describe grey light and morning.
© Edwin Roxburgh