Muse of Fire

Muse of Fire (2016)

for SATB choir

Commissioned by Ty Cerdd – Music Centre Wales

Duration: c. 7 minutes

1 Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 2, scene 7)

2 O for a Muse of fire (Henry V, Prologue)

3 Doubt thou the stars are fire (Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2)

4 I am bound upon a wheel of fire (King Lear, Act 4, scene 7)

In summer 2015, Ty Cerdd approached me regarding the possibility of writing a new work for the National Youth Choir of Wales to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Rather than using one of Shakespeare’s sonnets as my text, or a speech from one of his plays, I thought it might be interesting to gather together various fragments, or rather metaphors, from his works that contain references to a single theme.

The idea of “fire” seemed to be a rich source and from dozens of quotations, I selected four which spoke to me directly on a number of themes: love, inspiration, destiny and death.

The music for the texts has grown out of my interest in Renaissance vocal music as well as more recent research into the music composed for early productions of Shakespeare’s plays.

First performed by the National Youth Choir of Wales and conductor Paul Mealor at St Mary’s Church, Conwy Classical Music Festival on 29 July 2016