Recently reading A Shropshire Lad again, having found my old Vaughan Williams dissertation, and this one leapt out at me so I had to set it to music. Naturally it is FULL of big proud consecutives, and is absolutely meant to be! The harmonies of fourths and fifths have always had a mystic quality for me. The piano part is very hard with some close hand work in places (for me anyway)and William Baines springs to mind, but a competent pianist could pull it off…. (Please don’t use the una corda pedal unless it is an actual moving una corda action - a felt strip would just spoil it!)

I wanted the music to reflect the cold, white light of the moon and a certain turbulence of spirit. I hope it works for you as it does for me!