Piano
SKU:
HL.234744
For
Piano Solo. Composed
by Peter Dickinson. Music
Sales America. Classical.
Softcover. Composed 2017.
8 pages. Novello & Co
Ltd. #NOV166122.
Published by Novello & Co
Ltd. (HL.234744).
9.0x12.0x0.035
inches.
Composer's
Note: The Lullaby from
The Unicorns arose from
an opera libretto I
commissioned from John
Heath-Stubbs (1918-2006)
in the late 1960s. In his
story two unicorns are
discovered in a remote
part of Africa. Both the
East and West want to
obtain them for research
so they send out rival
expeditions. The Western
technique is to lure the
unicorn with a young girl
singing a lullaby. Both
East and West capture
unicorns but the mythical
animals escape in the
end. I never completed
the opera but I made a
six-movement suite from
it called The Unicorns.
There are three songs and
three instrumental
numbers and the first
performance was given
with Elisabeth Soderstrom
and Solna Brass under
Lars-Gunnar Bjorklund at
Ekensbergskyrkan, Solna,
Sweden on 31 October
1982. This version was
recorded and my
arrangement of the three
songs for voice and piano
was recorded by Marilyn
Hill Smith. The career of
the Lullaby continued
with a version for
clarinet and piano, which
I premiered with Jack
Brymer aboard the Sea
Princess in the
Mediterranean on 29
September 1986. The oboe
version was for Sarah
Francis, and Duke Dobing
and I have recorded it
for flute an piano.
Lullaby can be played
with a variety of solo
instruments and is also
available for piano left
hand and piano solo.
