To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Dylan Thomas' death, Professor John Goodby and Associate Professor David Lancaster presented the programme 'Singing Dylan Thomas: I sang in my chains like the sea' on Saturday 4th November 2023. The programme consisted of new settings of Dylan Thomas, performed by Christopher O’Gorman (Tenor) & David Pipe (Piano).

Programme Note
1.  For as long as forever is
2. Clown in the Moon
3. Mr Waldo’s Song

My choice of poems for ‘Cwmdonkin Songs’, named after the street in Swansea where Dylan Thomas grew up, offers a range of his poetry; these three short settings attempt to respond with differing musical approaches.  ‘For as long as forever is’ (1938) contains a stream of disconnected images; while their meaning is often quite obscure, they are united through their play on sounds.  ‘Clown in the Moon’ is a modest, romantic piece of juvenilia, sad and wistful, with some outbursts of teenage angst auguring the poet’s later existential concerns. ‘Mr Waldo’s Song’ from Under Milk Wood (1954), a ballad in a much more popular vein, reveals Thomas’s humanity, even his humour, with its joviality and double-entendres. (RS)

1.	For as long as forever is

For as long as forever is 
And the fast sky quakes in the web, as the fox in the wave,  
With heels of birds and the plumed eyes, 
Shakes in its stride the partridge fence and the sea-duck rows,  
And a flame in the wheel jumps the nave,  
As a dozen winds drop the dark by the one moonrise,  
And the stag through a trap grave,  
Forever the hunted world at a snail's gallop goes. 
 
Over the packed nests now, the snare and the she-bear's floes,
Through the cat's mountain and the cave 
By the market and a feather street near the townspires, 
Narrowly time's slow riders shave.  						

2.  Clown in the Moon 

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream. 

3.  Mr Waldo’s Song
 
In Pembroke City when I was young 
I lived by the Castle Keep
Sixpence a week was my wages
For working for the chimbley sweep.

Six cold pennies he gave me
Not a farthing more or less
And all the fare I could afford
Was parsnip gin and watercress.

Did you ever hear a growing boy
To live so cruel cheap
On grub that has no flesh and bones
And liquor that makes you weep?

Sweep sweep chimbley sweep
I wept through Pembroke City
Poor and barefoot in the snow
Till a kind young woman took pity.

Poor little chimbley sweep she said
Black as the ace of spades
Oh nobody's swept my chimbley
Since my husband went his ways.

Come and sweep my chimbley (2)
She sighed to me with a blush
Come and sweep my chimbley (2)
Bring along your chimbley brush!

Cwmdonkin Songs

To celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Dylan Thomas' death, Professor John Goodby and Associate Professor David Lancaster presented the programme 'Singing Dylan Thomas: I sang in my chains like the sea' on Saturday 4th November 2023. The programme consisted of new settings of Dylan Thomas, performed by Christopher O’Gorman (Tenor) & David Pipe (Piano).

Programme Note:
This poem deals with universal themes of life and death: the endless cyclic passing of time enables us to mature and grow - but also brings about our ultimate demise. Thomas takes us through a succession of scenarios which compare the power that is inside us all (‘that drives my red blood’) with that which moves the water in rivers and stirs quicksand; it is a force that has the ability to make life but also to destroy it. 

The poem comprises five stanzas, the first part of each is mainly constructed from monosyllabic words, so I have set them simply, without decoration. The second part of each stanza begins with a refrain (‘And I am dumb…’) which appears to express a deep frustration at man’s inability to communicate with these elements of the world and convey to them the destructive nature of time. The piano alludes to the sound of ticking clocks and tolling bells, and to the restless, unstoppable power of the forces of nature. (DL)

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman's lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather's wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover's tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

Recording by Jude Clark

The Force That Through The Green Fuse

Performed on Saturday 4th November by Christopher O’Gorman (TENOR) & David Pipe (PIANO) at Late Music Concerts, York. Programme curated by Professor John Goodby and Associate Professor David Lancaster called 'Singing Dylan Thomas:
I sang in my chains like the sea'.



Ilex or holly is a woody evergreen shrub associated with unconditional love, wise decisions, immortality, tenacity of life, and cycles of growth. Often used as part of Christmas decorations as a symbol of Christ’s crown of thorns and the crimson berries as a symbol of his blood, is used at this time to remind Christians of death and rebirth. In the spring, holly has white four-petaled flowers which could be it’s ‘snowy breast’, a symbol of hope and purity. (HJ)

You hold the ilex by its stem
And touch its petals one by one;
You make them glad and tender them
With lifted fingers to the sun.

The flower will not join the sky;
It was the oracle that told
You how the stem and leaves should lie,
Stem close to white, and leaf to gold.

And now the sun denies it rest,
You will have tears to carry bearer.

The ilex has a snowy breast;
There is not any flower fairer.

Recorded by Jude Clark

You Hold The Ilex By Its Stem (WP)

A setting of Dylan Thomas' lyric poem 'The force that through the green fuse' for tenor and piano. The poetry considers the effect of time on our lives: it enables us to develop and mature but it ultimately leads to our demise; Thomas also recognizes that we are 'dumb' to address the forces of nature or change the course of our destiny.

The force that through the green fuse - for tenor and piano

Lecturer of Music and Education at Sunderland University, composer, cunductor and researcher.  

This selection of work spans my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and now my professional endeavors.

My work tends to draw upon literature, history, myth etc. with strong programmatic elements.  These are just examples of instrumental works.

David Lancaster is a composer based in York (UK).  Originally from Wigan, David studied music at the University of York, and was for three years RVW Composer in Residence at Charterhouse.  During that time he won several awards for composition and enjoyed a number of high profile performances.  Following a long period of silence he returned to composition in 2007 and his music has been subject to a dramatic simplification of style in a search for greater clarity of form and expression.  

In November 2013 his Strata was given its first performance by the Orchestra of Opera North; it was recorded for CD by the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (under Mikel Toms) in June 2015.
In 2014 David’s Vertigo string quartet was performed in Hong Kong and at the Aspen Festival, Colorado and his large-scale choral work Apocalypse - which tells the story of the end of the world as depicted in York’s medieval stained glass - was given its premiere by The 24 conducted by Robert Hollingworth during York’s Festival of Ideas.  (Earlier this year Apocalypse was revived by the Danish Radio Vocal Ensemble at three concerts in Copenhagen and was broadcast by Danish Radio).

In 2015 the quintet Strike was performed in Hong Kong and York and the saxophone quartet Swan was revived in London by the Lunar Sax Quartet.  Premieres included Batubulan for solo piano, Art of War for soprano, oboe and bass trombone, and Public Order for concert band and tape.

His violin solo Rough Cut has been published by UYMP and received its first London performance in February 2016 given by Peter Sheppard-Skaerved; in July Late Music will present the premiere of Breathless, composed for the Orichalcum Brass Quintet. 

In 2016 he completed PhD in Composition at the University of York with Roger Marsh.

Dr David Lancaster is Associate Professor of Composition at York St John University, and is Artistic Director of York's Late Music concert series.

www.davidcomposer.com

Contemporary composers, performed live.

Concerts of new music on the first Saturday of each month, March to October.

New tracks tagged #Tenor and Piano