Endymion’s wide range, its genuine enthusiasm for the work of new composers combined with its irreproachable understanding of the classical repertoire, makes it the perfect ensemble to premiere The Cool Web.
Category: Robert Graves
Shell Shock: Robert Graves’ own description
Robert Graves describes the terrible deterioration of young officers at the front with a clinical clarity devoid of self-pity.
Robert Graves reading his poems
It is always fascinating to hear a poet read his own work. Particularly when you have been spending some considerable time using it; putting it in context; setting it to music. By the time you have finished working with…
David
David: A man loved by two of the great poets of his time; and fiercely mourned by them. But who was he?
BRSLI Talk on Oratorio on October 22nd.
The Cool Web is an oratorio based on the poems Robert Graves wrote at the front as a young officer. As such, it offers a moving glimpse of a poet struggling to write about an unbearable experience as it happened. In this talk Sue Curtis, the compiler, talks about the poems she and Jools Scott chose to include, why they are there, what they mean to her, and how they have informed the emotion, narrative and intensity of the music itself.
Introducing Robin O’Neill, The Conductor of ‘The Cool Web’
As the time for the actual performance of the Oratorio grows near, we want to celebrate the people involved with the first performance of this new work.
Robin O’Neill has been part of this project from the very beginning.
The Cool Web itself
There’s a cool web of language winds us in..
Retreat from too much joy or too much fear..
we grow sea-green at last and coldly die
in brininess and volubility..
The hot scent of the summer rose
Children are dumb to say how hot the day is,.
How hot the scent is of the summer rose..
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William Graves on Robert Graves and his experiences in WW1
A moving BBC interview with William Graves, who talks about the effect of WW1 on Robert Graves