Pursuing the Horizon

Programme Note

Pursuing the Horizon is a cycle of sixteen settings of the nineteenth-century American poet Stephen Crane. The songs are all brief – sometimes extremely brief – in duration, and are diverse in mood. They are united, however, by the quirky and sometimes humorous visions of the poems being set. The music is as a whole light and transparent, and many songs are characterised by an unusually close relationship between the soprano and piano parts, with the piano acting as an equal partner rather than as an accompanist.

Performances

28th November 2018
Jessica Summers, Jelena Makarova
St David’s Room, King’s College London

1st February 2018
Jessica Summers, Jelena Makarova
Ripon Cathedral

Year: 2013
Duration: 16′
Instrumentation: Soprano, Piano

Part 1
1 – Many red devils ran from my heart
2 – Three little birds in a row
3 – “Think as I think,” said a man
4 – If I should cast off this tattered coat
5 – I saw a man pursuing the horizon
6 – I stood upon a high place
7 – Yes, I have a thousand tongues
8 – Friend, your white beard sweeps the ground

Part 2
9 – I was in the darkness
10 – Once there came a man
11 – I walked in a desert
12 – The sage lectured brilliantly
13 – On the horizon the peaks assembled
14 – There were many who went in huddled procession
15 – There was set before me a mighty hill
16 – A spirit sped through spaces of night