Score
The spring of joy : for solo piano / Miriam Hyde.
Library shelf no. 786.2/HYD 23 [Not for loan]
Work Overview
Miriam Hyde and her husband, Marcus Edwards, were married in
December 1939, immediately before he left Australia for active
service in World War II. They were separated for the next five
and a half years, during much of which time he was a Prisoner of
War. They were reunited in June 1945.
She composed The Spring of Joy at the piano during
March-April, 1946, but none of it was written down until May.
Such feats of memory were normal for her. When she had finished
it she played it to her husband and sought his impressions. He
said, "It sounds happy ... quite ecstatic at times", so she gave
it the title The Spring of Joy. The composer noted, "It
was written at a time when my war worries were cast off and the
surprisingly brief period of readjustment (actually beginning
married life), after such a long separation, had passed into the
realisation of a great inward joy".
This work is thus a personal expression of a range of emotions
around her joy. She described the music as 'rather veiled'
initially, 'hinting at something exquisite, perhaps transient,
which is grasped firmly ... when the realisation of the new joy
is overwhelming. The spring wells over.' Along the way there are
fluctuations including 'a tinge of doubt ... the sweetness of a
subtle joy, inseparable from faint pain ... a sweet-sad blend
becoming more wistful ... the exciting impact of an emotion that
is new, but soon to be absorbed into one's experience ...
sometimes a calm, inward joy which bubbles up like a spring.'
Work Details
Year: 1946
Instrumentation: Piano.
Duration: 6 min.
Difficulty: Advanced — AMEB L.Mus.A level
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