Score and parts for hire

Much of this work is based on a song about the turning of the year, in two different harmonisations by J S Bach. But the piece soon wanders off this path and into dark woods which echo with other songs: Gesualdo (‘Ecco moriro dunque!/Ne sia che pur rimire/Tu ch’anci di mirand’/il mio morire), Monteverdi (O chiome d’or from his Sestina), and Stravinsky (fleeting ghosts of Agon, The Soldier’s Tale, Canticum Sacrum and the death chord from Requiem Canticles). 'The Old Year' was commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia with funds from the BBC, Arts for Everyone and Sound's New.

© John Woolrich