The Land of Counterpane
A song-cycle to poems by Robert Louis Stevenson for male speaker, film (optional), choir and orchestra
First Performance: Smithy Bridge Primary School, Symphony Hall Birmingham, 8 July 2008.
The role of Robert Louis Stephenson as a man should be spoken by a male narrator and as a boy by a boy of about 8.
Number 22 of the collection ‘Lifecycle’ is a piano transcription of the song ‘Night and Day’.
NOTE EXTRACTED FROM THE ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON ARCHIVE:
Blake, Howard (1993). ‘The Land of Counterpane’, op. 451.
[First Performance: Usher Hall Edinburgh with David Rintoul and the choir and orchestra of Mary Erskine School conducted by Helen Mitchell 25th March 1995. For boy speaker (RLS as a boy), Male speaker (RLS as a man), children’s chorus,
6 woodwind players, 2 percussionists, 1 keyboard player and strings.]
Prologue: ‘The Land of Counterpane’ (RLS as a boy speaks over the orchestral prologue), 1: ‘Windy Nights’, 2: ‘Singing’, 3: ‘Where go the boats?’, 4: ‘Marching Song’, 5: ‘From a Railway Carriage’, 6: ‘Night and Day’, 7: ‘The Swing’, 8: ‘Young Night Thought’, 9: ‘Looking-glass River’, 10: ‘The Land of Counterpane’, Epilogue: ‘To any reader’ (spoken as if by Stevenson himself in his mid-thirties)
http://www.howardblake.com/music/Choral/Childrens-Chorus-Orchestra/684/THE-LAND-OF-COUNTERPANE.htm
[The work is considered by Blake among his best compositions. It was commissioned by the Mary Erskine School, Edinburgh for their tri-centenary. An animated film was later planned to accompany the music, a script was written and Pat Gavin produced drawings but then The Scottish Film Board pulled out and BBC2 and BBC Enterprises followed them. To be performed 24th March 2007 by the Mary Erskine Choir & Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the composer at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, during which a recording will be made. ‘A CD will initially be made available through the Edinburgh school [Erskine Stewart’s Melville Schools], but all parties hope it will eventually find its way into full commercial distribution. It is to be launched in September [2007], when the same forces give another live performance to mark the opening of the school’s new £3.5 million Performing Arts Centre.’]
Movements
- 1:
- The Land of Counterpane
- 2:
- Windy Nights
- 3:
- Singing
- 4:
- Where Go the Boats?
- 5:
- Marching Song
- 6:
- From A Railway Carriage
- 7:
- Night and Day
- 8:
- The Swing
- 9:
- Young Night Thought
- 10:
- Looking-Glass River
- 11:
- The Land of Counterpane
- 12:
- To Any Reader
Recordings