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Making a Name
For voice and keyboard
Words by Simon Armitage
Music by Nigel Morgan
Three Travelling Songs
For voice and instrumental trio (piccolo, alto sax, double bass)
Words by Simon Armitage
Music arranged and composed by Nigel Morgan
Commissioned by Yorkshire Sculpture Park
for the Barbara Hepworth Centenary Exhibition 2003
Poet Simon Armitage
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The poem Making a Name was commissioned from Simon Armitage by Yorkshire Sculpture Park to celebrate the launch of the Centre, June 2002.
Nigel Morgan’s setting of Making a Name was commissioned to celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of the Centre on 14 June 2003.
The musical setting is entirely derived from the name Simon Armitage using the Macintosh application Symbolic Composer to make the transformations into pitch and rhythm. The poet’s christian name and surname share surprisingly similar melodic contours: to see and hear these look at the right hand part of the keyboard score between bars 9 and 11 where the sequence of letters to pitches is presented exactly ‘as is’. Letters outside the 12 notes of the chromatic octave are transposed down to ‘fit’ inside a chromatic scale starting on F:
Simon reads B C# F G F#.
Armitage reads F Bb F C# C F B A.
The keyboard part is designed for the very special timbral qualities of a good electric piano, if possible a Fender Rhodes instrument. With care the part will work equally well on a concert piano or harpsichord.
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I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.
Hay and Biscuit and Hardwick White,
Buff and Berrington Blue.
Poverty’s a shame though, is a shame though,
is a shame it’s true.
Drab and Olive, Dead Salmon and Bone,
Down Pipe and Ballroom Blue.
Nobody’s to blame though, is to blame though,
is to blame but you.
Eating-Room Red and London Stone,
Fowler Pink, Cane and Hague Blue.
I can see the grain grow, see the grain grow,
see the grain grow through
© Simon Armitage 2002
Downloads
Travelling Songs – for voice and instrumental trio (1 [mp3] 2 [mp3] 3 [mp3]) [pdf]