Anyone who has read any of the choral pages at my website, will have come across the name of Amy Lowell (1874-1925). She is my poet. I have set, and re-set, many of her works, and I am sure that I have not reached the end of my fascination for her poetry. Chamber, solo, and orchestral settings have emerged over the years in response to her work
She was a Boston Lowell, rich and privileged, but not very impressed by show and glitz. In fact her poem, « The Dinner-Party » is scathing in its depiction of the society into which she had been born. She was a member of a group of poets known as Imagists, and for good reason: in one poem she compares the heat and urgency of first love to « red wine and honey » that « burned my mouth with its sweetness »; in another she imagines an elderly craftsman who paints roses upon silk wishing he could paint them bursting into sound; and she says in another, speaking of her failed argument with a smug dinner guest, « …my weapon slithered over his polished surface ». These are memorable images indeed and « A Winter Ride » fully lives up to that standard.
As a former chorister, singing tenor for many years in a fine choir in Canada, I have learned much of what the voice can accomplish. And being married to Andrea Mellis, one of the finest voice teacher/directors extant helps too! Thus choirs will find this work admirably singable, if somewhat challenging rhythmically. The momentum is that of a charging horse and it must not be allowed to flag. Good luck and good fun to those who try it!
