THE HART (2025)
for soprano and orchestra
Duration: 20 minutes
Commissioned by Liverpool Philharmonic Society
First performed by Sophie Bevan and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Wigglesworth, June 5th 2025 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
I. If I had gone before
II. And suddenly, I am in the woods again
III.Out of the Mid-wood’s Twilight
IV. The White Deer
V. Evening, and all the birds
‘THE HART (2025) is a song cycle for soprano and orchestra inspired by nature and folklore. From Arthurian Legend to Hungarian and Celtic mythology, a white stag, or a white hart, has featured in folktales as an otherworldly messenger, or a sign of hope, due to its rare and elusive nature. THE HART explores these themes and, through poetry from Sara Teasdale, Oscar Wilde, and myself, portrays an impressionistic retelling of a tale inspired by folklore across its five movements in which the narrator, void of direction, reflects on her previous, mysterious encounter and strives to see the deer in the forest, once more.
The first movement, If I had gone before, opens with a mystical yet pensive sound-world with a setting of Teasdale’s Late October, in which the narrator instructs us to ‘listen’ to the ghostly sounds of the woodland around her. This is followed by the shadowy and reflective second movement, And suddenly, I am in the woods again, in which the narrator laments about her previous encounter with the deer, a vestige of beauty and magic, from an earlier time. The livelier third movement, Out of the Mid-Wood’s Twilight, is a setting of Wilde’s In the Forest depicting the sudden appearance of the deer, which brings a fleeting moment of joy, before vanishing again. In the fourth movement, with words after Teasdale’s The Star, the narrator returns to the woods describing a glowing star seeking its reflection in a pool, before the deer gently reappears and they reunite from afar. In the final movement, Evening, and all the birds, a setting of Teasdale’s Dusk in June, the narrator expresses her enduring enchantment with the world as the birds ‘ease their hearts of joy for miles around’ and she, ‘like the birds,’ sings before the night.’ ©G.E.M.2025
©Cover Image: 'Forest Deer' Digital Painting by Grace-Evangeline Mason 2025
“Mason writes music as exquisite as her name, made of bright sounds that wheel round each other like colours in a kaleidoscope. Her five songs set poems by Oscar Wilde, the early 20th-century American nature poet Sara Teasdale and Mason herself. They trace a loose narrative of being immersed in nature and feeling entranced, venturing into the woods, catching sight of the magical white deer of myth and folk-tale, and feeling entranced once again by birds. ... one could just sit back and enjoy the delicate flute and oboe tracery and the uncanny sound of metal percussion played with a cello bow, suggestive of light through trees. Occasionally, a soft thunder of bass drum and a brief efflorescence of brass hinted at nature’s power. The fourth song was the most striking and also the simplest, conjuring strange sounds from a wine glass and kettledrum.”
“A beguiling song cycle soaked in nature. Sitting in Liverpool’s gorgeous art deco Philharmonic Hall amid a large audience clearly listening intently to a new song cycle by a young British composer was both reassuring and rewarding. ... And rewarding because Grace-Evangeline Mason, who has been championed over several years by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, has responded here with a piece, The Hart, that strikes me as a leap forward in her handling of a big orchestra. Her basic harmonies and melodies are tonal, but she has become adept at overlaying them with a web of polyphony built up by echoing and re-echoing phrases, creating a shimmer of complexity that’s often enhanced by ethereal string clusters, overlapping woodwinds reminiscent of the American minimalists, and a dash of microtonality here and there. It’s an ideal style for evoking what seems to be her favourite subject matter: the natural world of forests, fauna, deer and birdsong, here conjured up in poems by Sara Teasdale, Oscar Wilde and Mason herself.”