I am excited to have set my first Shakespeare lyrics to music! As a part of Johannebergs Vokalensemble’s celebration of Shakespeare, commemorating the death of the author 400 years ago, the ensemble will premiere my “Three Shakespeare Nocturnes” based on text from Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing. In fact, one of the portion I felt that I simply could not avoid doing my own version of is the same that Patrick Doyle set beautifully for the Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of the latter, Pardon, Goddess of the Night, in my version titled Heavily, Heavily. The other two are Over Hill, Over Dale (yes, I know that I’m up against Ralph Vaughan Williams and many others who also set this to music) and Night of Our Solemnities, which despite its brevity is my personal favorite of the texts chosen:

Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.

My three Shakespeare pieces also mark the first time that I’ve written choral music incorporating piano. I happen to be a huge fan of true a cappella music, and choral pieces with piano accompaniment seldom triggers my enthusiasm. But as I started out working on these compositions, I realized that the first ideas that came to me were essentially suited for the piano. So… there is a first time for everything!

Johannebergs Vokalensemble will premiere the cycle under the direction of Jan K. Delemark in concert on April 17, 2016.