Anthony Powers - Music - Vocal/Choral Works

Vocal/Choral Works

A Picture of the World (2001) was commissioned by the BBC and is a setting of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Powers' mentor Elisabeth Lutyens also set this text in her motet, Excerpta Tractatus. However, Powers points out that the reason he picked the text was not because of Lutyens, but because of the interest he had in the text - he felt it was complex and had been misinterpreted. In his article in The Guardian, Harry Eyres points out the strange instrumentation of the piece, which utilises unaccompanied choir, counter-tenor and clarinet. Powers explains that he uses a counter-tenor because 'Wittgenstein had an unusually high speaking voice' and the solo counter-tenor and clarinet act as the voice of the philosopher, supported by the unaccompanied choir.
Powers has written a number of works which utilise an unaccompanied choir. For example Lullaby (1991) and Lullo by Lollo (1993) were both written for unaccompanied SATB choir and also O Magnum Mysterium (1995), which was written for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir.

Airs and Angels (2003) was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival Society for the Three Choirs Festival held in Hereford in 2003. It was heard at the festival alongside works by great British composers such as Parry and Elgar. Airs and Angels is a setting of seven of John Donne’s (1572–1631) poems, scored for soprano, baritone, SATB chorus and orchestra (with the orchestra including an electric guitar and a bass guitar). At the work’s centre lies the ‘dark and intense’ setting of 'A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy’s Day' and the surrounding settings move towards and away from this central darkness. In the programme notes to the work Powers discusses Donne’s language as being ‘stunning in its immediacy, suggestive in its ambiguity and often surprising in its modernity... even if at times his imagery is knotty and 'difficult'.’ Powers goes onto pontificate on whether ‘music, with its greater expressive range, its forms unfolding in time, can help to explain such language.’

From Station Island (2003) is a setting of Seamus Heaney's set of poems entitled Station Island. The work is scored for male speaker, baritone, flute (inc. piccolo and alto flute), clarinet, percussion, harp, violin, and 'cello. Station Island consists of twelve "substantial" poems, which Powers had to abridge. He reduced the number of poems to nine and cut each of those down to suit his purposes. As in Another Part of the Island (see below), certain instrumental parts take on certain personas. Station Island is can be seen as autobiographical so Powers assigns the male speaker the "role" of the poet and the baritone acts as 'the numerous characters from past and present whom the poet meets'. At the West Cork Music Festival in Ireland in June 2005, the work received its Irish premiere and the male speaker role was performed by Seamus Heaney himself.