H94 The Sower (2021)
First performed by Psappha on 17 February 2022 at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.
Instrumentation: Alto Flute, Cello, Cimbalom, Piano
Duration: 20’
Programme note:
‘The Sower’ for alto flute, piano, cimbalom and cello is derived from a poem by Antonio Machado; 'Noviembre 1913’ from Campos de Castilla of 1917. I have written two other pieces that use this poem as a starting point: ‘Surcos’ for orchestra and ‘Cloud Shadow’ a chamber piece. 'The Sower' lasts approximately 20’ and is dedicated to Elizabeth Currie in memoriam; mother of the percussionist, Colin Currie and easily one of the most delightfully intelligent people I ever met.
I discovered the poem on one of several bronze plaques to commemorate Machado set up on the walkway along the outskirts of the town of Baeza in southern Spain. Machado moved there after his wife died and taught French in the town. In the poem he is essentially describing the astonishing landscape that lies beyond the plaque.
SH
15 August 2021
Noviembre 1913
Antonio Machado
Un año más. El sembrador va echando
la semilla en los surcos de la tierra.
Dos lentas yuntas aran,
mientras pasan las nubes cenicientas
ensombreciendo el campo,
las pardas sementeras,
los grises olivares. Por el fondo
del valle del río el agua turbia lleva.
Tiene Cazorla nieve,
y Mágina, tormenta,
su montera, Aznaitín. Hacia Granada,
montes con sol, montes de sol y piedra.
One year on. The sower casts seed into the furrows of earth.
Two slow oxen plough,
whilst ashen clouds pass overhead, overshadowing the land,
the brown, sown earth,
the grey olive groves. In the depths of the river valley,
the river flows, muddy.
Cazorla has snow, and Mágina, storms,
Aznaitín its cloth cap.
Turning to Granada,
sunny mountains, mountains of sun and stone.
[Translation: Simon Holt]
Past Performances:
17 February 2022 (World Première)
Psappha - Conrad Marshall (alto flute), Jennifer Langridge (cello), Tim Williams (cimbalom) and Benjamin Powell (piano)
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK
29 April 2022
Psappha - Conrad Marshall (alto flute), Jennifer Langridge (cello), Tim Williams (cimbalom) and Benjamin Powell (piano)
Music in the Round’s Sounds of Now series, Upper Chapel, Sheffield, UK
12 May 2022
Psappha - Conrad Marshall (alto flute), Jennifer Langridge (cello), Tim Williams (cimbalom) and Benjamin Powell (piano)
Hallé St. Peter’s, Manchester, UK
Reviews:
“Like a number of Simon Holt’s recent pieces, The Sower, for alto flute, cello, piano and cimbalom, is inspired by the poetry of Antonio Machado, in this case by a text found on a bronze plaque in the Andalusian town of Baeza, where Machado taught French between 1912 and 1919.
Holt’s 20-minute single movement is threaded through with long solo lines for the flute and the cello, to which the other instruments add flurries of commentary or combine with them to create passages of machine-like insistence. The sound of the cimbalom sometimes blends into that of the piano but more often adds its own distinctive twang to the textures. It’s a piece that seems by turns elegiac and hopeful, full of the crisp, vivid instrumental detail that is so typical of Holt’s music.”
Andrew Clements, Guardian, 18 February 2022
“In the closing item, flautist Conrad Marshall joined the other players to present a recent Psappha commission, The Sower, for alto flute, cello, cimbalom, and piano (2021) by Simon Holt, written in memory of Elizabeth Currie, mother of percussionist Colin Currie. The piece was inspired by ‘Noviembre 1913’, a short, elegiac text by the Spanish writer Antonio Machado that evokes the rural Andalusian landscape. The Sower pays tribute to Machado, his words and the terrain that gave rise to them. The score had a hypnotic strength, rooted in a series of obsessively repeated phrases. In a pre-concert talk, the composer referred to the grief that lay behind Machado’s poem and the claustrophobic, all-consuming quality of the music’s initial reiterations captured a sense of anguish. Eloquent soaring flute lines, bewitchingly accompanied by feathery cello harmonics transformed the mood at the work’s mid-point. A jangling piano solo initiated the closing section that returned us to the opening paragraphs’ troubled utterances. The Sower made effective use of the alto flute’s mellow, wistful qualities and drew compellingly upon the cello’s songlike properties. The cimbalom’s piquant sounds, judiciously applied, shaped the material’s character, which, in Psappha’s gripping account, might be described as one of melancholic unease. Simon Holt’s haunting score made a powerful closing item to a carefully compiled and resourcefully executed recital.”
Paul Conway, Musical Opinion, July-September 2022