Constantin Silvestri (1913 – 1969) was born in Bucharest, Romania. As a young pianist he built a reputation for his brilliant public improvisations in the styles of famous composers. At 27 he was conducting the Bucharest Philharmonic in his own work, Prelude and Fugue (Toccata). As a composer of some 40 orchestral, chamber and vocal works Silvestri was considered avant-garde. Many of his works are influenced by traditional Romanian folk music and appear to be Bartokian in style. Music critics also compared various of his works to Debussy, Szymanowski and Stravinski. Silvestri died in London and is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter’s, Bournemouth. The two cycles of Lieder set on verses by Heine were Silvestri’s Op. 1, written and published when he was 15.

What torture I have suffered
What torture I have suffered,
What an anguish thro’ and thro’,
From some who with love pursued me,
From others whose hate I knew.

The bread I ate has been poisoned,
My cup has held poison too,
From some who with love pursued me,
From others whose hate I knew.

But she who made me wretched,
All other mortals above,
She never deigned to hate me,
Nor blessed me with her love.

Mortal, sneer not at the devil
Mortal, sneer not at the devil;
Life’s a short and narrow way,
And perdition everlasting
Is no error of the day.

Mortal, pay thy debts precisely,
Life’s a long and weary way;
And tomorrow thou must borrow,
As thou borrow’dst yesterday.

Through the forest
Through the forest in the moonlight,
I saw elves go riding proudly;
And I heard their trumpets sounding,
And I heard their bells ring loudly.

Their white horses had upon them
Golden stag-horns brightly gleaming,
Swift as wild swans in their passage,
Thro’ the air the train went streaming.

Smilingly the queen bent towards me,
Smiling as the band rode by me;
Is’t a sign that new love's coming,
Or a sign that death is nigh me?

Dost thou hate me then so fiercely?
Dost thou hate me then so fiercely?
Hast thou really changed so blindly?
To the world I shall proclaim it,
Thou couldst treat me so unkindly.

O ye red lips, so ungrateful,
Say, how can ye speak in scorning
Of the lover who so warmly
Kissed you only yester morning.

Softly, stars on high are wandering
Softly, stars on high are wandering.
With their golden footsteps light,
That the Earth be not awakened,
Slumbering in the arms of Night.

Listening, stand the silent forests,
Every leaf a tiny ear;
And behold. two arms of shadow
From the dreaming hill appear!

What called yonder? In my bosom
Rings an echo from the vale.
Was it my beloved one calling;
Was it but the nightingale?

How canst thous slumber calmly?
How canst thou slumber calmly,
Whilst I alive remain?
My olden wrath returneth,
And then I shatter my chain.

Knowst thou the ancient ballad
Of that dead lover brave,
Who rose and dragged his fair lady
At midnight to his grave?

Know thou that I am living;
And I am stronger far,
Most pure and most radiant maiden,
Than all the dead men are.

Peter Nickol (1946-) studied music and composition at the Universities of York, Exeter and Manchester. He is also a professional freelance book editor, designer and music engraver, specializing in music education. Sea, Shore and Tide reveals the composer’s inquisitiveness about the action between the three elements and his perception of their movements: ‘If we watch over an estuary, we see a constantly developing drama enacted between water and land, driven by forces more powerful than we can resist.’

The Grand Exciting Cause of Tides
Sea,
Sea and land are wonderfully like,
with mountains and valleys,
volcanoes and prairies.

Twice in every day
The sea advances and recedes.

The grand exciting cause of tides
Is the force called gravitation;
the moon being the chief agent
through which it acts.
[adapted from The Common Objects of the Sea-Shore by J.G.Wood (1892)]

Lincolnshire Shores (at Mablethorpe)
Here again I come, and only find
Gray sandbanks, and pale sunsets, dreary wind,
Dim shores, dense rains, and heavy-clouded sea!

A still salt pool, locked in with bars of sand,
Left on the shore; that hears all night
The plunging seas draw backward from the land
Their moon-led waters white.

As the crest of some slow-arching wave,
Heard in dead night along that table-shore,
Drops flat, and after the great waters break
Whitening for half a league, and thin themselves,
Far over sands marbled with moon and cloud,
From less and less to nothing.
[lines from Lincolnshire Shores (at Mablethorpe) by Alfred Tennyson]

The Sands of Dee
‘O, Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee.’
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
And all alone went she.

The western wind crept up along the sand,
And o’er and o’er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see.
The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
And never home came she.

‘Oh! Is it weed, or fish, or floating hair –
A tress of golden hair,
A drowned maiden’s hair
Above the nets at sea?
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
Among the stakes on Dee’
They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
The cruel crawling foam,
The cruel hungry foam,
To her grave beside the sea:
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee.
[Charles Kingsley]

Forever
I am forever walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain
Forever.
[Kahlil Gibran, from Sand and Foam]

Philip Cashian (1963 -) became Head of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in 2007 and his music has been commissioned, performed and broadcast worldwide. Recordings are available on the NMC, Usk, Riverrun and BGS labels. He wrote the Three Baudelaire Songs at the invitation of the London Schubert Players with support from the Britten-Pears Foundation, as a consequence of his keen association with the Invitation to Composers project as Chair of the workshops and forums.

La Musique
La musique souvent me prend comme une mer!
Vers ma pâle étoile,
Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther,
Je mets à la voile;
La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonflés
Comme de la toile
J'escalade le dos des flots amoncelés
Que la nuit me voile;
Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions
D'un vaisseau qui souffre;
Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions
Sur l'immense gouffre
Me bercent. D'autres fois, calme plat, grand miroir
De mon désespoir!

Les Hiboux
Sous les ifs noirs qui les abritent
Les hiboux se tiennent rangés
Ainsi que des dieux étrangers
Dardant leur oeil rouge. Ils méditent.
Sans remuer ils se tiendront
Jusqu'à l'heure mélancolique
Où, poussant le soleil oblique,
Les ténèbres s'établiront.
Leur attitude au sage enseigne
Qu'il faut en ce monde qu'il craigne
Le tumulte et le mouvement;
L'homme ivre d'une ombre qui passe
Porte toujours le châtiment
D'avoir voulu changer de place.

La Cloche fêlée
II est amer et doux, pendant les nuits d'hiver,
D'écouter, près du feu qui palpite et qui fume,
Les souvenirs lointains lentement s'élever
Au bruit des carillons qui chantent dans la brume.
Bienheureuse la cloche au gosier vigoureux
Qui, malgré sa vieillesse, alerte et bien portante,
Jette fidèlement son cri religieux,
Ainsi qu'un vieux soldat qui veille sous la tente!
Moi, mon âme est fêlée, et lorsqu'en ses ennuis
Elle veut de ses chants peupler l'air froid des nuits,
II arrive souvent que sa voix affaiblie
Semble le râle épais d'un blessé qu'on oublie
Au bord d'un lac de sang, sous un grand tas de morts
Et qui meurt, sans bouger, dans d'immenses efforts.

Michael Cretu was born in Bucharest and has a busy career as a double bassist. After graduating from the Bucharest Music Academy he completed postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College in Manchester. As a composer, he was commissioned to write a solo Double Bass work for the Josef Prunner International Double Bass Competition and has also transcribed Paganini’s Violin Capriccios for the double bass. His works for the theatre and for Solo double bass have received national and international acclaim. However, in Beyond the valley, it is the Viola that takes centre stage and the work uses elements of Romanian folk music.

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