Tree Carols
Composition Date: 2014
Instrumentation: Bar, 2Vln, Vla, Vc
Information:
Commissioned by the University of Warwick. First performance by the Coull Quartet with Roderick Williams, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, 5 March 2014.
Programme Note:
Tree Carols
Poems: Fiona Sampson
Music: Sally Beamish
The idea for this collaboration first came about in 2009, when the Coull Quartet approached me about writing a work with Fiona Sampson. The quartet, Fiona and I discussed at length what form the piece might take, and after some months, Fiona sent me three ‘tree’ poems. I felt I could respond to them immediately. Once I started to write the music, though, I realised more poems would be needed, and Fiona created to more to complete the set.
I asked to write for Roderick Williams, and the settings are written very much with his voice in mind. I know Roddy’s voice well, as he created the role of Byron in my opera with Janice Galloway, Monster, in 2002. The songs tend to feature the higher register of the baritone range.
The first poem is set against a string ‘shimmer’ with small solos breaking through. The second is a canon, building in gusts which hover around an unsettled ‘heartbeat’ rhythm in 5/8 time. The central movement is recitative-like, with aggressive chordal interjections from the strings, containing a brief lullaby interlude before the angry mood returns. The fourth song is characterised by wide, searching intervals and pulsing chords. The work finishes with a song accompanied by birdcalls overlapping in a circular canon, with raw rising fifths.
Tree Carols was commissioned by the University of Warwick for the Coull Quartet.
Sally Beamish 2013
Tree Carols
Fiona Sampson
1. The Miracle Tree
The true Rood
is in the tree –
white
as rising sap,
the Christ-white blood
The true tree
is in the Rood –
red
as the breaking bark
where the yew bleeds
The Rood
holds up life
in blood-red apple
and bruised pear,
sweet fruit
The tree
holds up death –
ransacked body,
hunger and juice
The graveyard miracle
2. The trees are troubled…
The trees are troubled by a wind
that blows from the heart
of each tree, a troubled wind
speaking the word Loss,
taking a breath to speak the word
again, speaking Loss
as if it were the only word –
and at its heart
the swaying O of the heartwood
where death opens
Strange birth, when living wood
is forced open
by this world
as it changes into world
3. Vigil
God – crush this
stem of anger,
crumple my neck
like paper
Lord of Envies –
Vinegar King –
refuse me
your unceasing heaven
but make me sleep –
hopeless, whole,
attended
by each nightly ghost –
to wake at last
in borrowed skin
clothing a shame
that Love let in
You whose daylight
thrills the nerves –
burn me now
as I deserve
4. The tree is a changing sky…
The tree is a changing sky
starred with light
Dizzy with apple picking
I place my ladder
so it rises
so its stiles go breaking
and entering this bright
constellation – built in air
as constellations are –
Among the sway and surge of leaves
I rise in a leaf-lather
Green is the colour of grief
but for one season
I have ascended to tree heaven
Bushes and Briars
If I showed to him my boldness
He’d ne’er love me more.
‘Bushes and Briars’ (trad.)
Liquid voice
from the ash
a bird sings
Leaves gleam
Old voice
your sweet fall
tells over
an old story
A girl lost
in the copse
Her baby cries
Leaves lean down
Her baby cries
with the thrush’s voice
from every bush
every tree
Sing lullaby
on the ash-branch
sing lullaby
your mother sleeps
The tears she weeps
are blood
Available Recordings:
Tree Carols: No. 1, The Miracle Tree
Tree Carols: No. 2, The Trees are Troubled
Tree Carols: No. 3, Vigil
Tree Carols: No. 4, The tree is a changing sky
Tree Carols: No. 5, Bushes and Briars