On Craig Ddu
In 2024, I was selected to participate in Choral Arts Initiative’s PREMIERE|Project Festival as a Composition Fellow. The experience culminated in the premiere of my piece, “There is sweet music here.” After sharing that Edward Elgar’s setting was a big inspiration in that piece, a friend who attended the premiere suggested I set more reflections of classic English part songs. My setting of “On Craig Ddu” is a reflection of Frederick Delius’ setting of Arthur Symons’ text. This work features multiple aleatoric passages utilizing un-pitched sounds to replicate the experience of walking through and gazing at the Welsh countryside. These devices are paired with melodic passages in irregular meter, replicating the character of the wind. The piece is the second of a five-movement cycle, English Vignettes; and is dedicated to the 2022-2023 Azusa Pacific University Chamber Singers.
Additional Information
Premiere Information:
On Craig Ddu was premiered by the USC Thornton Repertory Singers as part of a Doctoral Choral Conducting Recital on October 7th, 2025, with Brandon Chase Di Noto conducting.
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Text:
The sky thro’ the leaves of the bracken
tenderly, pallidly blue,
nothing but sky as I lie on the mountain top.
Hark! for the wind as it blew,
rustling the tufts of my bracken above me,
brought from below
Into the silence the sound of the water.
Hark! for the oxen low,
sheep are bleating, a dog barks,
at a farm in the vale:
Blue thro’ the bracken, softly enveloping,
Silence, a veil.
- Arthur Symons (1865-1945)