Rain Songs

This work is sub-titled ‘Scherzo for soprano, counter-tenor, cello and harpsichord’ and is dedicated to the Lydian Ensemble. The words are taken from translations by Robert Kotewall and Norman L. Smith in the Penguin Book of Chinese Verse and are three short poems about rain. The songs are performed as a continuous and very short work, in which thematic material of a scherzando nature is heard throughout; each song ends with a very brief section for instruments, Nos 1 and 3 for cello and harpsichord, and No. 2 for cello, mostly pizzicato. John McCabe