The Turning Year
Start
May
(Key Phrygian mode/E maj SATB , flute, oboe (bass) clarinet triple time / minuet ^{Started 18 March 2008})
This is the laughing-eyed amongst them all:
My lady's month. A season of young things.
She rules the light with harmony, and brings
The year's first green upon the beeches tall.
How often, where long creepers wind and fall
Through the deep woods in noonday wanderings,
I've heard the month, when she to echo sings,
I've heard the month make merry madrigal.
How often, bosomed in the breathing strong
Of mosses and young flowerets, have I lain
And watched the clouds, and caught the sheltered song -
Which it were more than life to hear again -
Of those small birds that pipe it all day long
Not far from Marly by the memoried Seine.^{finished 24 Mar 01:00}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Choir performance : http://www.box.net/shared/xur4wumg4c


June
(Key B maj - SATB unaccompanied - very simple - ^{started 4 Feb 2008})
Rise up, and do begin the day's adorning;
The Summer dark is but the dawn of day.
The last of sunset fades into the morning,
The morning calls you from the dark away.
The holy mist, the white mist of the morning,
Was wreathing upward on my lonely way.
The way was waiting for your own adorning
That should complete the broad adorned day.
Rise up, and do begin the day's adorning;
The little eastern clouds are dapple grey:
There will be wind among the leaves to-day;
It is the very promise of the morning.
Lux Tua Via Mea: your light's my way -
Then do rise up and make it perfect day.^{finished 13 Feb 01:30}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Choir performance : http://www.box.net/shared/w40nae7i8s

Midsummer
(Key Amaj - SATB oboe ^{30 March 2008}
wordless humming chorus - inspired by bees on the heather moors of Northumbria
the oboe solo inspired by an analysis of the song of a skylark
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Choir performance : http://www.box.net/shared/vy0qlhwkk8

July
(Key E maj - SATB Mezzo-Soprano solo /flute ^{started 6 Apr 2008}
Main theme adapted from "Agincourt Tune"
The Kings come riding back from the Crusade,
The purple Kings and all their mounted men;
They fill the street with clamorous cavalcade;
The Kings have broken down the Saracen.
Singing a great song of the eastern wars,
In crimson ships across the sea they came,
With crimson sails and diamonded dark oars,
That made the Mediterranean flash with flame.
And reading how, in that far month, the ranks
Formed on the edge of the desert, armoured all,
I wish to God that I had been with them
When the first Norman leapt upon the wall,
And Godfrey led the foremost of the Franks,
And young Lord Raymond stormed Jerusalem. ^{finished 8 Apr 2008 23:00}
Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Choir performance : http://www.box.net/shared/hteur0w9ww
August
(Key A maj/E maj SATB Tenor & Baritone Solos - Bass Clar / oboe/ flute)

SATB intro slow declamatory
(August is the soldier month) ^{Started 24th March 2008}
March constant pulse
The soldier month, the bulwark of the year,
That never more shall hear such victories told;
He stands apparent with his heaven-high spear,
And helmeted of grand Etruscan gold.

Our harvest is the bounty he has won,
The loot his fiery temper takes by strength.
Oh! Paladin of the Imperial sun!
Oh! crown of all the seasons come at length!
This is sheer manhood; this is Charlemagne,

When he with his wide host came conquering home
From vengeance under Roncesvalles ta'en.
Or when his bramble beard flaked red with foam
Of bivouac wine-cups on the Lombard plain,
What time he swept to grasp the world at Rome.

SATB outro slow declamatory
(August is the soldier month) ^{Finished 31th March 2008}
Link to fabulous Electro-Synth Choir : http://www.box.net/shared/78fc424g0g

September
(Key Dorian mode & D minor) SATB , Bass solo, oboe, flute, clarinet ^{started 9 March 2008}
I, from a window where the Meuse is wide,
Looked eastward out to the September night;
The men that in the hopeless battle died
Rose, and deployed, and stationed for the fight;
A brumal army, vague and ordered large
For mile on mile by some pale general,-
I saw them lean by companies to the charge,
But no man living heard the bugle-call.
And fading still, and pointing to their scars,
They fled in lessening clouds, where gray and high
Dawn lay along the heaven in misty bars;
But watching from that eastern casement, I
Saw the Republic splendid in the sky,
And round her terrible head the morning stars. ^{finished 12 March 2008}
Link to fabulous Electro-Synth Choir : http://www.box.net/shared/0bil6nvy88

October
(Key Mixolydian mode SATB Sop/Cont solo, clarinet) ^{started 30 March 2008}
Look, how those steep woods on the mountain's face
Burn, burn against the sunset; now the cold
Invades our very noon: the year's grown old,
Mornings are dark, and evenings come apace.
The vines below have lost their purple grace,
And in Forreze the white wrack backward rolled,
Hangs to the hills tempestuous, fold on fold,
And moaning gusts make desolate all the place.

Mine host the month, at thy good hostelry,
Tired limbs I'll stretch and steaming beast I'll tether;
Pile on great logs with Gascon hand and free,
And pour the Gascon stuff that laughs at weather;
Swell your tough lungs, north wind, no whit care we,
Singing old songs and drinking wine together. ^{finished 4 April 2008}

Link to fabulous Electro-Synth Choir : http://www.box.net/shared/hh7yw3y4g8

November
(Key Cmaj, Hypolydian, Amin SATB choir Sop/Tenor solo oboe clarinet)^{started 9 April 2008}
Pompous French Overture 4/4 Cmaj
November is that historied Emperor,
Conquered in age, but foot to foot with fate,
Who from his refuge high has heard the roar
Of squadrons in pursuit, and now, too late,
Stirrups the storm and calls the winds to war, Fast 6/8 not too serious Fmaj/Hypolydian
And arms the garrison of his last heirloom,
And shakes the sky to its extremest shore
With battle against irrevocable doom.
Till, driven and hurled from his strong citadels,
He flies in hurrying cloud and spurs him on, chromatic - more serious
Empty of lingerings, empty of farewells
And final benedictions, and is gone. slower - on to monotone A
4/4 double dotted style in Aminor
But in my garden all the trees have shed
Their legacies of the light, and all the flowers are dead. ^{Finished 11 April 23:00}
Link to fabulous Electro-Synth Choir : http://www.box.net/shared/kktitcuwws
The Electros found this quite hard and can't sing the triplets or the tempo in the second section which should be faster

December
(Key F minor SATB choir SATB solo flute oboe (bass) clarinet)^{Started 13April 2008}
Hoar Time about the house betakes him slow,
Seeking an entry for his weariness.
And in that dreadful company distress
And the sad night with silent footsteps go.
On my poor fire the brands are scarce aglow,
And in the woods without what memories press
Where, waning in the trees from less to less,
Mysterious bangs the hornaed moon and low.
For now December, full of aged care,
Comes in upon the year and weakly grieves;
Mumbling his lost desires and his despair; .
And with mad trembling hand still interweaves,
The dank sear flower-stalks tangled in his hair,
While round about him whirl the rotten leaves.^{Finished 20 April 23:00}
Deo Gracias
Link to fabulous Electro-Synth Choir : http://www.box.net/shared/77vqjbd444

The Night
(Key Fmin / Aflat maj oboe obbligato Sop solo SATB)
Most Holy Night, that still dost keep
The keys of all the doors of sleep,
To me when my tired eyelids close
Give thou repose.

And let the far lament of them
That chaunt the dead day's requiem
Make in my ears, who wakeful lie,
Soft lullaby.

Let them that guard the hornàed Moon
By my bedside their memories croon.
So shall I have new dreams and blest
In my brief rest.

Fold thy great wings about my face,
Hide day-dawn from my resting-place,
And cheat me with thy false delight,
Most Holy Night.

^{Finished 26th February 2008}

Link to Fabulous Electro-Synth Choir performance : http://www.box.net/shared/jzx6oz6ass