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Reflections on ‘A Shropshire Lad’: A music forum project - The Open College of the Arts

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Reflections on ‘A Shropshire Lad’: A music forum project

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It was way back in Summer 2013 when some of the music forum members first decided to work on another collaborative project, roughly titled ‘A response to poetry’. Collaborative projects are such a worthwhile way of sharing your thoughts and music with other composers, as well as creating a new piece of work together.

Composers were tasked with creating a musical response to one of A. E. Housman’s poems from his sixty-three poem cycle A Shropshire Lad, with complete freedom over orchestration and other compositional matters. With such a diverse range of poetry and then orchestration to pick from, it was hoped that the resulting collaborative cycle would be equally as diverse with many different compositional voices and approaches.

Squeezing in a project such as this around other work and study is never easy but is always a valuable experience. In the end, the project had five entries from composers encompassing current and ex-OCA students. There has been a delay whilst audio and video files have been prepared for the project but, finally, the results of the project can be found below with links to both score videos and programme notes. Some of the pieces were originally written in late 2013 so this also represents an opportunity for the composer to look back as well as forwards.

Also, the delay has meant that the release of the project coincides with the war commemorations, a subject that is very much reflected in Housman’s poetry, and in the settings chosen by the composers. In terms of a narrative running through this cycle, it has been ordered to provide several potential scenarios, but without wanting to add extra weight or meaning to any one composition, or to influence any listener’s perception, they will remain unsaid and as a point for further discussion.

So without further ado, I give you the music forum member’s ‘Reflections on A Shropshire Lad’!

Any current OCA students or forum members wishing to join the next forum group project can sign up HERE.

#1 – ‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry’ (Elaine Goodall)

Programme notes can be found HERE.

#2 – ‘The Recruit’ (Chris Barchard)

Programme notes can be found HERE.

#3 – ‘The land of lost content’ (Deborah Johnson)

Programme notes can be found HERE.

#4 – ‘Be still, my soul’ (Chris Lawry)

Programme notes can be found HERE.

#5 – ‘Cherry Blossom’ (Petra Vergunst)

Programme notes can be found HERE.

The playlist of the whole cycle can also be found on YouTube HERE.


Posted by author: ChrisLawry

5 thoughts on “Reflections on ‘A Shropshire Lad’: A music forum project

  • Yes, many thanks, Chris, and thank you, too, to all the musicians involved. The timing feels absolutely right. I enjoyed the sequence as a whole and I especially liked the way in which it was book-ended by Elaine and Petra’s responses to ‘Loveliest of trees, the cherry now,’ And it’s the first time I’ve heard a Piano Harp – wonderful!

  • There is some very evocative music and settings here. Some very unexpected twists and little turns. Congratulations to all who were involved.
    I have always shied away from setting Houseman and yet he was born less than five miles from where I live, in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. I feel his poems have a weight of expectancy and history in them that I just can’t match in music, and yet his words are always raided and used. With Butterworth’s and Sommerville’s settings I feel I cannot add anything more and so steer clear of the poetry that means so much to me.
    I would probably have been one of those unfortunates who died on the battlefields of Belgium or France during the great war and would have been found with a copy of the poems in his uniform rather than a bible. At least they knew what they were defending I suppose, it is in the collection.
    Having said this congrats to all who have done a grand job in this project.

  • Thank you for all your work on this Chris. I am impressed with the result and find all the music expresses the moods of Houseman’s poems very effectively, evoking the sometimes very contrasting sentiments woven together into such laconic verse. It has been a privilege to have been part of this project and it has meant a lot to me.

  • I really appreciate all of your work on this Chris. Thank you too to everyone else who took part, as it’s fascinating to hear what other people have written, and also great to have a shared project that brings us together, even though we’re all working separately. I enjoyed all of the pieces, but it was particularly interesting to listen to Petra’s response to the poem that I also chose – Petra’s music sounds, to me, much darker than mine, and I really like the atmosphere her piece evokes.

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