Brian Noyes
Death in Leamington Spa
Short instrumentation: 2 2 0 1 - 1 0 0 0, perc(3), vc(4)
Duration: 9'
Instrumentation details:
piccolo
1st piccolo
oboe
cor anglais
bassoon
horn in F
percussion (3 players)
1st violoncello
1st violoncello
1st violoncello
1st violoncello
Death in Leamington Spa
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
This poem describes the quiet death of an elderly lady and the discovery of her death by a nurse. The circumstances outlined in the poem are similar to those which surrounded my mother's passing, and so I felt an immediate empathy, which I wanted to record as a statement for myself. The music is slow moving and juxtaposes the lyricism of woodwind instruments - two piccolos, oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, - with the dark sonorous string colour of four cellos. This sets the backdrop to the tenor voice describing the circumstances of the nurse's discovery, while bringing her the morning tea, and the way that she quietly accepts the old lady's death, retreating from the room after turning "down the gas in the hall'.