That now are distant

(2023)

  1. Feet! feet! (after Frank O’Hara)

  2. The Hug (after Thom Gunn)

  3. a million little diamonds (after Mary Frances Butts)

  4. lies on paper (after Patrick Gale)

  5. i will not comb my hair (after Hitomaro)

  6. That now are distant (after Adelbert von Chamisso)

for tenor and piano

The Commission is supported by the Richard Thomas Foundation, and by the Pride Network (BNP Paribas Banking).

  • Nicky Spence (tenor); Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano) at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Wales, as part of Musicfest Aberystwyth 2023, on 4 August 2023.

  • for Nicky and Andrew

    Commissioned as part of an ongoing collaboration with pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen, That now are distant is a collection of songs centred around love and loss. Setting a series of queer poems and writings from throughout history, these songs simply speak of a person’s love for another, the friendships they hold dear, and the loss they face throughout their life.

    For its initial outings, these songs are woven around Schumann’s cycle Frauenliebe und-Leben, highlighting and celebrating an important and often life-long relationship, that of a woman and her gay best friend.

    -njd.

  • tenor, piano

  • 10’

score sample