Geoffrey Burgon

Heavenly Things

Composer's Notes:
Heavenly Things is my fourteenth song-cycle, but the first with piano accompaniment. I mention this because, when I was asked to write this piece my first reaction was 'what can I make of a medium that seems to me quintessentially 19th century' and I was doubtful that I could produce anything that I would be happy with. Then I went to hear Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau and was so impressed by the magic and intensity of their performance that I saw a 'way in' to what at first had seemed a problem. The choice of poems was obviously going to be crucial, and I chose the Donne Holy Sonnets because of the dramatic possibilities they offer and the huge range of emotion that they encompass. In these settings the piano is always more than a mere accompaniment, it tends either to be in dialogue with the voice, or to have its own musical agenda which the voice reacts to in an independent but parallel way. Geoffrey Burgon