Winter Words is a setting of eight poems by Thomas Hardy, the title’s taken from Hardy’s final published collection of poems; it was composed in 1953.
Unlike the Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings or Les Illuminations, Winter Words is written for the slightly(?) more monochrome combination of high voice (normally tenor) and piano. Compared to Schubert’s Winterreise or Schumann’s Dichterliebe, the work isn’t technically a song cycle, in that it doesn’t have an over-arching narrative, nor are the songs connected by any musical motifs. It’s one of several pieces written for this combination of performers by the composer.
0:00 1. At day-close in November
1:45 2. Midnight on the Great Western (or The Journeying Boy) 6:25 3. Wagtail and Baby (A Satire)
8:31 4. The little old table
9:59 5. The Choirmaster’s Burial (or The tenor man’s story)
13:43 6. Proud Songsters (Thrushes, Finches and Nightingales) 14:47 7. At the Railway Station, Upway
(or The Convict and Boy with the Violin)
17:44 8. Before Life and After
An opportunity to evaluate both the work and it’s interpretation:
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Performance:
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Pantygwydr!
The Art of Listening 