Eternal Image
for soprano, clarinet, horn and piano (1998)

Listen to an excerpt (248K MP3)

A commission by the outstanding Brisbane-based Southern Cross Soloists, yielded a setting of a portion of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage for soprano, clarinet, horn and piano. This is the same epic poem that had inspired Berlioz’s Harold in Italy.

The line that particularly appealed to me was "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean roll!" In order to render it contextually, I chose to set the previous canto, miss out the following three and then set the next two successive cantos.

Because these verses are particularly rich in visual imagery they provided the challenge to produce a faithful reflection in musical terms and to capture the ever-changing temperaments of the sea, as well as Harold’s reactions to its fearful characteristics and the joys that it yields.

The four cantos of the text are delivered in a through-composed manner with musical interludes that serve to introduce and sustain ongoing sentiments and provide the means to establish and affect mood changes.