James MacMillan

Birds of Rhiannon (2001)


Plays: 2178


Tone poem for orchestra with optional chorus
(excerpt)
Duration: 04 mins 26 secs
BBC Singers / BBC Philharmonic Orchestra / James MacMillan
(p) and © 2002 Chandos Records Ltd.
Chandos 9997

To purchase this CD from our Online Shop, click here now.

http://www.chandos.net

Text heard on Sample:
Hauls of fish are clenched
in rock pools' carapace of ice.

Tide is always low, so gales turn
kelp and wrack to snake skins.

Shadow gulls on sand-ribs
are a vanishing calligraphy,

and high above, their mimics loop
like voiceless acolytes,

whose song died when our king
gave his throat to the blade.

East means nothing now,
nor west, no happenstance

of rock can bear the name of Britain
now that he lies broken.

O Bran, land and sea lay waste
to one another, sky can only light itself,

O head, rocked to sleep,
nuzzled and fed like a baby,

O warlord, O wean, gentle in
an arms's crook, lulled by old songs

             Michael Symmons Roberts

Further Information on this Work:

• The Birds of Rhiannon

Any reproduction, publication, further distribution or public exhibition of audio materials provided at this site, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited.