Adlestrop

Tenor voice and Piano; 4 minutes

In 2001, my good friend John Bacon approached me with a poem, Adlestrop, by Edward Thomas. He suggested I use it to compose a piece he would perform. Of course, I agreed and this song was born. The poem reminds me of an old black and white photograph - a snapshot of a moment in time. A nostalgic and traditional tone permeates the song.

Text by Edward Thomas, 1878-1917 (below).


Premiered April, 2001 at the U.B.C. Recital Hall, Vancouver, B.C.


John Bacon, tenor
Karen Lee-Morlang, piano



Listen

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop -- only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.