In our Summer concert on Friday 21st June at 7pm in St Gabriel’s Church, Pimlico, we will perform  our composer-in-association Zoe Dixon’s Seasons Suite – a selection of settings of five classic poems inspired by the changing seasons.

Indeed, the title of the concert – Summer Schemes – is that of one of the two Thomas Hardy poems set by Zoe. Read on as she introduces her compositions…

Weathers (Thomas Hardy) describes an English landscape in two contrasting climates, and the impact of changes in the weather on the landscape’s inhabitants. The author devotes one stanza to each description. The similarities in the stanzas’ metres and rhyming schemes accentuate the contrast between the two descriptions. This is echoed musically by setting the two stanzas to similar rhythm and melody, but altering the harmony and tonality to match the descriptive tones in the text.

Lines written in early spring (William Wordsworth) laments the disconnect between the beautiful natural environment and the ill-will inflicted by humans on one another. The poem (first published in Lyrical Ballads, 1798) was authored against the backdrop of the French Revolution and its chilling aftermath, and uncertainty and despair are vividly conveyed. These sentiments continue to resonate on various levels in 2024, particularly in light of the unfolding conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle-East.

Summer Schemes (Thomas Hardy) is penned in strikingly simple language, almost resembling a folk song. The poem’s narrator cheerfully describes what they expect to do when Summer returns, though they acknowledge at the end of each verse that future events are by definition uncertain to unfold as planned. While the musical setting responds to the uncomplicated song-like feel of the text, it remains alert to the narrator’s gnawing underlying uncertainty about the future, that feels as relevant now as it would have done when the poem was composed.

To Autumn (John Keats) is arguably the quintessential representation of the harvest season in text. The poem is a deserved classic, full of richly sensory descriptions of the season’s progress. Keats does not suggest a perspective on the text from within via a narrator. In this respect, the musical setting aims to leave all responses open for exploration. However, it does suggest a degree of ambivalence reflective of the season itself: a season encompassing both the fulfilment of Summer’s labour, and the year’s maturity deepening into decline as the natural world prepares to survive the Winter. This is achieved by subtle variations in tonality and texture, partly inspired by shifts between low Autumn sunlight, gathering clouds and ever-earlier nightfall.

Earth Grown Old (Christina Rossetti) is an advent poem, which laments the cold of winter and anticipates the return of Spring. ‘Spring’ in this context can also be read as a metaphor for the Resurrection in the Christian tradition. Rossetti approaches her subject matter with startling directness, distilling equal measures of regret, reverence, and yearning into just enough well-chosen words to express them. The choral setting responds to this with similar concision, in a musical language sensitive to the poem’s mournful tone.

 

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More details and ticketing  information for our concert are on our Performances page. Do join us!