Care-charmer Sleep

A choral work for either four voices or a larger choir, the words are by Samuel Daniel (1562-1619), an English poet, playwright and historian in the late-Elizabethan and early-Jacobean eras. An innovator in a wide range of literary genres, in this poem (only a part of which I have set) he asks sleep to bring him peace. In my setting, there is much whispering of the word 'sleep' throughout - an invocation, an invitation. There is angst and darkness as the poet implores sleep to relieve his languish, there are moments of relief in anticipation of the granting of his wish, but sleep is yet to arrive as the work ends.

Commissioned by the Kapoor Chamber Concert Series and premièred there in 2012.

Singers on the recording: Soprano - Anna Dennis / Countertenor - William Towers / Tenor - Ben Breakwell / Baritone - Jonathan Brown