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Work Overview
Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem opens on a beach with him hearing two sounds simultaneously; the sea on his right, and a skylark on his left.
Hopkins then describes both sea and skylark, in two seperate stanzas. He describes both their natural beauty and the musicality of their sound.
He then contrasts them, in the next two stanzas, with the town and then man(kind). He regards both sea and the skylark as shaming the town with their purity. It is a reflection perhaps of our lost appreciation of the sounds of creation. The last stanza concludes with man's descent and return to dust and slime.
I have followed the structure of the poem closely with four sections mirroring the four stanzas: sea, skylark, town and man.
The opening theme by the bassoon (and later joined by the oboe) is the sea theme. The solo theme later on (played by the oboe) is the skylark theme. This leads to an interlude of interplay between the two instruments and themes. Then a more rhythmic rendering of the sea theme, which represents the town, leads to the climax. Concluding the piece is the opening theme in reverse, resulting in a descending melodic line.
Work Details
Year: 2023
Instrumentation: Bassoon, oboe.
Duration: 7 min.
Difficulty: Advanced
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