Every Day You Play (1995) Cantata for high voice and piano

Text by Pablo Neruda (from Viente Poemas de Amor (1924) trans. W. S. Merwyn)

Duration: c.10 minutes

Every day you play with the light of the universe
Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water
You are more than this white head I hold tightly
As a bunch of flowers, every day, between my hands

This cantata, commissioned by The Northlands Festival, is in form like the sequence of varied sections found in a Purcell Ode or a work like Tippett's "Boyhood's End". The responses of the lovers are characterised in the singer's part as a male-female dialogue; associating their passion with natural phenomena such as wind, rain, birds and plants. The work requires considerable virtuosity from both singer and pianist.

Other Vocal and Choral Music:
Dreams for Marcie
Judith's Doubt and Resolve
Diversity
La belle dame sans merci