A3 Size Score-Edward Thomas was born in Lambeth on 3rd March 1878 and spent most of his childhood in London. His holidays however were spent with relatives in Swindon and it was there that he developed his abiding love of all things rural. He was educated at St Paul's Hammersmith and was encouraged in his creative writing by James Ashcroft Noble whose daughter he secretly married after her father's death and to the great disapproval of her family. Despite growing anxiety over poverty ill health and literary discouragement which exacerbated a natural tendency to depression Thomas worked unstintingly as a reviewer and wrote and published over 30 books between 1897 and 1917.'Adlestrop' was written with four other poems between 7th and 9th June 1915. He enlisted in 1915 at the age of 37 and was called to the Front in 1917. He arrived at Arras on 9th February 1917 and was killed on the 9th April Easter Monday by a shell blast in the opening minutes of the offensive.This work for Soprano and Piano is set to the text of Edward Thomas.

All the songs in The Voice of Desire are conversations between humans and birds. In each case the birds seem to have a more sophisticated viewpoint that their human hearers.One of the highlights is Written OnTerrestrial Things set in a dead landscape at the dead of winter. Suddenly a joyus thrush melody breaks out it's ecstatic expression is completely at odds with human perceptions of such a dismal evening has nature somethingto remind us if only we'd listen. The song cycle was commissioned by the BBC for Alice Coote and first performed by her and Julius Drake (piano) in a BBC Proms Chamber Music concert in London on 11 August 2003.