Choir Secular
Countertenor Solo -
Children's Chorus - SATB
choir- 2 piano -
percussion
SKU:
PE.EP72698A
Cantata for Solo
Countertenor, Children's
Chorus, Adult Mixed
Chorus, Two Pianos and
Percussion. Composed
by Jonathan Dove. Choral
Works (inc. Oratorios).
Edition Peters. Book. 92
pages. Duration 00:25:00.
Edition Peters
#98-EP72698A. Published
by Edition Peters
(PE.EP72698A).
ISBN
9790577010519. 210 x
297mm inches.
English.
Commiss
ioned by Making Music
with funds from the
Nicholas Berwin
Charitable
Foundation
First
performance: 12th March
2016, Waltham Singers,
conducted by Andrew
Fardell, King Edward's
Grammar School,
Chelmsford.
Mus
ic runs through the story
of Arion, which begins
with a singing
competition in Sicily.
Arion wins the prize, and
this puts his life in
danger: his newfound
wealth excites the Greed
of the sailors who are
supposed to be bringing
him back to Corinth, and
they threaten to kill
him. They allow
Arion to sing one last
song, and the power of
his singing attracts
dolphins to the ship.
At The End of his
song, he jumps overboard,
and one of the dolphins
carries him to safety.
So Arion’s
musical gift gets him
into trouble, but it is
also his
salvation.
The idea of
being rescued by a
music-loving dolphin is
very appealing. In
Robert Graves’
account of the myth, the
dolphin could not bear to
be parted from Arion, and
accompanied him back to
court, where “it
soon succumbed to a life
of luxury.”
However, Herodotus
says that, after his
rescue and return to
Corinth, Arion failed to
return the dolphin to the
sea, and it died there.
Apollo placed the
dolphin among the stars,
and next to it,
Arion’s lyre, in
recognition of his
musical skill. This
is one of the mythical
explanations of the
origins of the
constellations Delphinus
and
Lyra.
It
seems natural to sing a
story that has singing at
its heart. When I
was asked by the Nicholas
Berwin Charitable Trust
to write a choral work
for Making Music,
something that would be
within reach of many
choirs, and involve
children, this story
struck me as ideal: the
men of the chorus could
be the bloodthirsty
sailors, and the women
could create an
atmosphere of mystery for
the arrival of the
dolphins, represented by
children’s voices.
There would be one
solo voice: Arion, the
marvellous singer.
Andrew Fardell, the
conductor who was advisor
to this commission, had
suggested that I might
use the same
instrumentation as a
popular arrangement of
Orff’s Carmina
Burana, a work that, as
well as using
children’s chorus,
features a solo
countertenor. I
thought the magical,
otherworldly quality of
this voice would help to
convey the extraordinary
effect Arion’s
singing had on all who
heard
it.
- Jonathan
Dove
Marvelous, Magical World
