Stillness
1999
Unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir | 6'
First performance: BBC Singers, St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, London, 2000 (SPNM Anniversary Concert).
Text by Cecil Collins with the permission of TATE
Programme notes
Stillness sets two poems by visionary English artist-writer, Cecil Collins (1908-89), from his collection, In the Solitude of This Land. The piece is shaped as a triptych: ‘I walk in the silent glades of bone’ is bisected and each part is placed on either side of ‘Stillness, stillness./Turn a brown of loneliness’. The outer panels of the work are performed by a small group from within the choir. The central panel is sung by the whole ensemble and is a reworking of the famous madrigal Draw on, Sweet Night by John Wilbye (c1574-1638).
Performance: BBC Radio Broadcast, performed by the BBC Singers