Description
for SATB choir and small orchestra Bird Songs is a playful and uplifting work centred around bird-themed texts. 'Two Owls' presents a whimsical children's rhyme in a lightly swung style, with characterful interplay between the voices reflecting the dialogue between the protagonists. The swan is the central character of the second movement, which sets a sixteenth-century Italian text that is at once elegiac, sad, and serene. These moods are captured through stately rhythms, emotive harmonic language, and homophonic textures. The third movement brings Samuel Taylor Coleridge's joyous depiction of the lark, with lilting, waltz-like music and an orchestral interlude. The final movement sets Emily Dickinson's 'Hope is the thing with feathers', which offers the image of birds as a symbol of the hope we must cling to in the darkest times. The musical style is poignant and simple, demonstrating Rutter's characteristic melodic grace and bringing the work to a reflective but hopeful close.
About the Author
John Rutter studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and first came to notice as a composer and arranger of Christmas carols and other choral pieces during those early years; today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. John edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir The Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings on the Collegium Records label, and he appears regularly in several countries as a guest conductor and choral ambassador. John holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and in 2007 was awarded a CBE for services to music. In September 2023, he received the Ivors Academy Fellowship, and in 2024 he was knighted in the King's Birthday Honours.
Book Information
ISBN 9780193582132
Author John Rutter
Page Count 28
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
About the Author
John Rutter studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and first came to notice as a composer and arranger of Christmas carols and other choral pieces during those early years; today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. John edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir The Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings on the Collegium Records label, and he appears regularly in several countries as a guest conductor and choral ambassador. John holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and in 2007 was awarded a CBE for services to music. In September 2023, he received the Ivors Academy Fellowship, and in 2024 he was knighted in the King's Birthday Honours.
Book Information
ISBN 9780193582132
Author John Rutter
Page Count 28
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
