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Programme Note

A Cantata for a Summer’s Day was planned in collaboration with George Bruce and Maurice Lindsay and was composed in 1954, in Paris. It is a setting of poems by the sixteenth century poet Alexander Hume and Maurice Lindsay for vocal quartet and narrator accomapanied by a small string group, flute and clarinet.

Hume’s poem 'Of the Day Festival' is given to the narrator, except for the very end, and is interspersed by Maurice Lindsay’s poetical comments which are sung either by a solo voice or by the ensemble.

The work describes a summer’s day in all its moods, including a glimpse of winter in the cool evening mist, and ends with an ensemble in a mood of quet thanksgiving.

A Cantata for a Summer’s Day was broadcast on BBC Scotland in 1954 and was also performed at the Edinburgh Festival in the following year.

Thea Musgrave

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