M. Berkeley: Touch Light

• Composer: Michael Berkeley (1948-)
• Format: Full Score - Format guide
• Instrumentation: Soprano, Countertenor, Strings
• Work: Touch Light (2005)
• Binding:
• Work language: English
• ISBN: 9780193352858
• Size: 8.9 x 12.0 inches
• Pages: 10

Description

The idea of writing a duet for soprano and counter-tenor immediately put me in mind of Monteverdi and Handel but when I looked more closely at the scores, the texts (and music) they employed for rapturous moments can usually be boiled down to a very simple language - a caro mio or mi tesoro. in other words it was going to be hard to find a text or a poem that was sufficiently spare and that would offer opportunities for two voices. So I decided to distil the essence of some of these ecstatic moments into my own words and also employed a variation on the ground bass which lies at the heart of some of my favorite arias and duets - Dido's Lament by Purcell or the final great duet from Poppea by Monteverdi. Touch Light is, then, a homage to these masters of early opera and though originally envisaged with a counter tenor and soprano it is not exclusive to these voices.