A Toy for Tony

First performance: Robin Blaze (countertenor), Nicholas Brown (piano). Wigmore Hall, July 2005.

Programme note

A Toy for Tony is a poem by Seamus Heaney that was written in 2005 to mark the retirement of Anthony Smith CBE (1938-2021) from the office of President of Magdalen College, Oxford.

The musical setting was written to be performed by countertenor, Robin Blaze, with piano accompaniment, at a concert at Wigmore Hall in 2005. It sets three verses from the Hymnus Eucharisticus of Magdalen College and the lines of Seamus Heaney’s poem.