H112 a glass delusion (2025)

Instrumentation:
Oboe and Harp

Duration: 11.5’

Programme note:

King Charles VI of France (3 December 1368 to 21 October 1422), was known at various points i n his chaotic life as Charles the Beloved (le Bien-Aimé) or Charles the Mad (le Fou). During one of his bouts of psychosis, he became so utterly convinced that he was made out of glass that he had himself wrapped in blankets. Iron rods were sewn into his clothes in order to protect him from other people in case he might shatter on contact with them. Itʼs a condition that has become known as glass delusion. 

Robert Burton alludes to the phenomenon of glass delusion in his The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), “Fear of devils, death, that they shall be so sick, of some such or such disease, ready to tremble at every object, they shall die themselves forthwith, or that some of their dear friends or near allies are certainly dead; imminent danger, loss, disgrace still torment others; that they are all glass, and therefore will suffer no man to come near them; that they are all cork, as light as feathers; others as heavy as lead; some are afraid their heads will fall off their shoulders, that they have frogs in their bellies, etc.” 

The piece is composed of three panels each of approximately 4 minutes duration running continuously. Thereʼs one tempo marking; Fragile eppure maestoso (brittle yet majestic). It is dedicated ʻin admiration and friendshipʼ, to Melinda Maxwell (oboe) and Hugh Webb (harp) who kindly commissioned it. The piece was more or less finished close to the 657th anniversary of King Charles VIʼs birth; 3 December 2025.

S.H.
26 November 2025