for sixteen voices and two percussionists

 

Flower Songs is a choral maninya (dance/chant). Its text consists of the scientific names (in Latin and ancient Greek) of a selection of central eastern Australian wild flowers. Jonathan Mills once summarised my attitude to word setting as being “averse to texts that are philosophical, psychological, dramatic or descriptive (and) only interested in ones that allow (him) to invoke some kind of timeless spirituality in setting them to music … (His) essential vocal style, most evident in the vocal maninyas and Flower Songs, is characterised by modified repetition of rhythmic patterns centered on drones – a sort of hypnotic incantation.”

Flower Songs is dedicated to Nicholas Routley who commissioned it, with Australia Council assistance, for the Sydney Chamber Choir. The work is in two movements: the first vigorous and ecstatic; the second hazy and dream-like.

 

Recordings:

Recorded by The Song Company, conducted by Roland Peelman:

On the CD The Green CD
View this CD on iTunes.

On the CD Ecstatic Dances
View this CD on iTunes.

Recorded by the University of New Hampshire Chamber Singers, conducted by William Kempster:

On the CD Resonance: contemporary choral music from Australia and the United States
UNHCS0104

 

Watch:

 

Listen:

I. Ecstatic

[audio:https://www.rossedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/10-Flower-Songs-I.-Ecstatic.mp3]

II. Tranquil

[audio:https://www.rossedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/11-Flower-Songs-II.-Tranquil.mp3]

 

Score:

Available through the Australian Music Centre
View a sample of this score.