Echo for Mezzo-soprano and Lute by Ben Rowarth.
Commissioned by Helen Charlston and York Early Music Festival. First performed on 12 June 2024 by Helen Charlston (mezzo) and Toby Carr (lute) at Purbeck Art Weeks Festival.
- Prelude
- Dream
- Interlude
- Echo
Programme Notes
'Echo' sets the poem of the same name by Christina Rossetti to music in for voice and lute.
The music looks to capture the often trance-like feel of the poetry ...the effect, created by Rossetti, of someone lost in their own thoughts, entirely swept up in a memory.
The songs quote other music by Robert Dowland, in some ways mirroring, in others directly contrasting the existing pieces.
These pieces were originally written to work alongside songs by John Dowland but can also be performed as a complete cycle from start to finish.
The two movements that directly interacted with Dowland Songs are: No. 3, which is designed to run seamlessly out of ‘Weep you no more sad fountains’ and No. 4 which is designed to run seamlessly out of ‘In darkness let me dwell’. If not performing them in this way, simply choose the [mm] text in bar 1 of No. 4.
© Ben Rowarth
Duration: 12 minutes