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Thea Musgrave (b1928):
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Jake Gardner, baritone ~ Gayle Hunnicutt, narrator
London Sinfonietta ~ Thea Musgrave, conductor
Red Byrd ~ Fretwork ~ Scottish Ensemble

NMC D167

D167 Cover

  • 2011 is the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War.


  • Wild Winter I was commissioned to commemorate the siege of Lichfield, 1643 British Civil War.


  • Produced in association with BBC Radio 3.



    • Rich, powerful musical language and a strong sense of drama have made Thea Musgrave one of the most respected and exciting of living composers.   Born in Edinburgh in 1928, she studied at the University of Edinburgh then in Paris, where she spent four years as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger, before establishing herself in London with her orchestral, choral, operatic and chamber works.   She has lived in the US since 1970.

    Musgrave's 'opera for radio' sets a dreamlike tale of the American Civil War based on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a short story written in the late 19th century by Ambrose Bierce.

    Thea Musgrave says … These three works, though all very different and written decades apart, nevertheless share a common subject: conflict.   An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1981), a heart-breaking story from the American Civil war; Wild Winter I (1993), a setting of poems from many different countries and in several different languages about the inevitable losses and cruelties of war; and Green (2007), an abstract conflict of a life-giving force against its suffocating nemesis.


    TRACK LISTING

          An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - 31'23
          Jake Gardner, baritone ~ Gayle Hunnicutt, narrator
          London Sinfonietta ~ Thea Musgrave, conductor
    01. It happened during the civil war… - 5'18
    02. Company, halt! - 4'06
    03. Sergeant, is everything ready? - 4'19
    04. Sergeant! Are you ready? - 4'34
    05. Water is in my ears… - 2'15
    06. I can feel the sand, like diamonds - 2'31
    07. No, no! I must get away - 8'20

    08. Green - 13'40
          Scottish Ensemble

          Wild Winter I
          Lamentations for voices and viols     - 19'22
          Red Byrd ~ Fretwork
    09. Prologue - 1'29
    10. Lament I - 3'23
    11. Lament II - 2'51
    12. Lament III - 2'30
    13. Interlude - 1'49
    14. Lament IV - 2'36
    15. Lament V - 1'33
    16. Coda - 3'11


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