Solemn Melos
Notes
Solemn Melos is a collection of choral pieces that set the constraint-driven poetry of Anthony Etherin. Etherin's work includes many palindromes, anagrams, and tight formal structures, inviting musical treatments that are both precise and expressive. Each setting explores a different facet of his poetic logic. Rather than merely re ecting the text, the music engages in dialogue with it by treating its constraints as compositional tools. The set comprises: Of Music and Memory, Colourscape and The Main, which may all be found in the collection Slate Petals, published in 2021 by Penteract Press. That volume's title, it will be noted, is a palindrome, something that I have also used when naming my settings "Solemn Melos".
Performance notes
Solemn Melos is written for unaccompanied SATB choir . Colourscape includes parts for optional percussion (tam tam and two tubular bells tuned to B and E) which should be used when performing in spaces that are not very resonant, but may be used in any performance. Solemn Melos was composed in 2025 for Paul Jackson and the St. Augustine's Singers.