Robert Peate‘s unaccompanied choral piece ‘Sweet Silence After Bells’ will premiere on Sunday 22nd May 2016. The composition, setting text by Christopher John Brennan, will be premiered by the Sidney Sussex College Cambridge choir, conducted by Dr David Skinner.
Robert describes the creative background behind this piece: “Written after completing a large scale setting of ‘The Bells’ by Edgar Allan Poe, this generally more meditative setting uses similar bell-like harmonic material, and served as a kind of resolving coda to my work on ‘The Bells’. Another two models for the music came from the combination of a certain suspension I heard in an anonymous Tudor motet, coupled with the image and character of the small church at Cymyoy in Monmouthshire, which has a distinctive lean to it as it has been gradually sliding down the hill side for generations. There is also a certain Renaissance flavour to the music due to the choirs repertoire. The text was chosen to suit both sacred and secular performance, however a church acoustic very much fed into my approach.”
Tags: Christopher John Brennan, premiere, Robert Peate, Sweet Silence After Bells