Name: Monody for Corpus Christi, Part 1 - Birtwistle by sarahdacey
Duration: 14 min 40 s
Description: Live recording with the Octandre Ensemble, December 2012

Settings words from part of a letter by Edna St Vincent Millay to her lover Arthur Davison Ficke, this is a gentle, charming piece that celebrates our freedom to love. Dacey's rich harmonies and quirky melodies are presented in a rocking 5/8 time signature, and conclude softly with the central message as the phrase 'you and me' fragments and fades into the distance.

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Love Letter - Sarah Dacey

Gabriel Jackson's meditative Melancholy Processional, performed live at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol, by CoMA Bristol, 19th March 2014.

Gabriel Jackson Melancholy Processional

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from A Christmas Carol, Rose Theatre Kingston, 2015

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Preview the score at www.daletrumbore.com/newlyfreed.

As Laura Foley's poem “Like Something Newly Freed” progresses, we shift from observing blackbirds at sunset to narrating from their perspective as we imagine ourselves among them. This setting of Foley's text attempts to capture that desire for freedom and flight in our own lives.
​
Like Something Newly Freed was commissioned by California ACDA for the 2017 California All-State Mixed Honor Choir (Dr. Amanda Quist, Conductor). Preview the score or purchase it for performance through MusicSpoke: bit.ly/newlyfreed.
 
TEXT
 
When you watch blackbirds flocking
in silhouette
against bare trees, against
a salmon sky, you wonder
at the sight, at the lift
you feel inside, the wings
and all that space.
As night begins,
you raise black wings
like leaves, like the lightness of a song.
As night hurries in,
you streak across the darkening sky
like something newly freed
and gaining, gaining on the sun.
​
—Laura Foley

ACDA All-State Honor Choir Concert 2

Like Something Newly Freed

for Soprano and Bass Flute
First performed and recorded by Juliet Fraser and Helen Bledsoe May 2018 at The Gaol, Louth Ireland.

O Yes & I (2017)

Live BBC Radio 3 broadcast of Philip Venables' numbers 91-95 from Kings Place, London. 17.09.18

numbers 91 - 95 by Philip Venables

'birdman's song' is for clarinet in A and loop station, from my large-scale chamber music-theatre work based on an Inuit myth, 'sedna stories'. It's also available as a stand-alone work.

It was developed with and written for the wonderful musician Matt Dibble, who performed it here in the live performance from 2005 at the Rymer Auditorium, University of York. Matt accidentally squeaked on the last loop and marvellously incorporated it into his improvisation.

Matt died in spring 2021, and the piece is dedicated to the memory of him, my dear friend, bandmate and colleague.

Birdman's Song

Live recording with the Octandre Ensemble, December 2012

Monody for Corpus Christi, Part 1 - Birtwistle

Sarah is a singer, composer and arranger based in London. Trained at the University of York and Royal Academy of Music. Member of Juice Vocal Ensemble, Riot Ensemble, Twilight Ensemble and Ursula's Arrow.

Monody for Corpus Christi, Part 1 - Birtwistle

sarahdacey

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