Exquisite Spirit: Three Katherine Mansfield Songs
for mezzo soprano and piano, poems by Katherine Mansfield, music by Anthony Ritchie, Opus 222
Watch the first performance on the SOUNZ website
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Programme Note
During her short life, Katherine Mansfield became well-known for her short stories and today her literary reputation still rests on them. However, she also wrote numerous poems, most of which were left unpublished at her death. She had indicated that they should remained unpublished but her partner, Middleton Murry decided they were significant enough to ignore Mansfield’s request. In 1923 he published a collections simply titled Poems. Exquisite Spirit was how Middleton Murry described Mansfield in his notes to this volume. From this I have selected three poems to set to music.
I To L.H.B. (1894-1915)
Written about her brother, Leslie Heron Beauchamp, who died in active service during World War I.
Katherine's dream about her brother is evocative of their childhood and shows a deep longing to turn the clock back.
The final line is a reference to the biblical Last Supper. The first half of the song is fragmented as if remembering snatches of
incidents in the dream, while the second half flows more as the poet searches for a mystical path with which to reunite with her brother.
II The Sea-Child
The Sea-Child creates a mythical and symbolic narrative around a Sea Mother sending her daughter into the world, 'the darkling land',
where she suffers alone, loses everything and creeps back home.
The music combines a sense of watery flow with an underpinning of melancholy.
Blurred scale passages near the end depict the oblivion that awaits the Sea-Child if she stays home.
III Loneliness
Like The Sea-Child, Loneliness is also personified by an older woman who has suffered in her life,
and appears by the poet's bed. While the poet seeks refuge with Loneliness, even clinging to her, she knows the rain will come.
What does this symbolize? It is difficult to say, but in my interpretation the dreary reality of the external world has to be faced,
and the poet must leave her solitude.
Duration: 12 minutes approximately
Dedicated to Sherry Grant
Link to the composer introducing the pieces at the first performance.
Buy the right to download a single pdf containing the 3 songs, online, and permission to duplicate or print it as required for one performer: NZ$20.00
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