for mixed voices, organ (2014)
9′
Commissioned by The Organ Project, Union Chapel
Text: Anonymous 14thC English poem, modernised.
f.p. James McVinnie (organ), Eclectic Voices, Scott Stroman (conductor), Union Chapel, London, 18th April 2014
Programme Note
A tear is a piece about love and grief. The text is the first stanza of a fourteenth-century English poem on the crucifixion. The original reads:
Lovely ter of lovely eiye,
Why dostu me so wo?
Sorful ter of sorful eiye,
Thu brekst mine herte ato.
The music follows a clear structure: the poem is sung four times to the same melody, each time with different numbers of singers and in a slightly different way. In between these verses are organ ‘toccatas’. These toccatas are not embellishments or commentaries on the choral verses so much as spaces for reflection.