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- John Corigliano
Fern Hill (full orchestra) (1960)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 2222/4220/timp.3perc/hp.pf/str
- SATB Chorus
- mezzo soprano
- 16 min
- Dylan Thomas
- English
- 18th May 2025, Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, TX, United States of America
Programme Note
Composer note:
I first encountered Dylan Thomas's work in 1959, my last undergraduate year at Columbia College. It was a revelation. Both the sound and structures of Thomas's words were astonishingly musical. Not by accident, either: "What the words meant was of secondary importance; what matters was the sound of them...these words were as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments," he wrote in his Poetic Manifesto of 1951. I was irresistibly drawn to translate his music into mine.
One poem captivated me: Fern Hill, about the poet's "young and easy" summers at his family's farm of the same name. I wanted to write this work as a gift for my high-school music teacher, Mrs. Bella Tillis, who first encouraged my musical ambitions. She introduced Fern Hill with piano accompanying her (and, once, my) school choir.
Fern Hill is a blithe poem, yet touched by darkness; time finally holds the poet "green and dying," but the poem itself, formally just an ABA song extended into a wide arch, sings joyously of youth and its keen perceptions. I set it for mezzo-soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra, aiming to match the forthright lyricism of the text. (The direction "with simplicity" is everywhere in the printed score.)
— John Corigliano
Related works (see More Info tab for links):
I first encountered Dylan Thomas's work in 1959, my last undergraduate year at Columbia College. It was a revelation. Both the sound and structures of Thomas's words were astonishingly musical. Not by accident, either: "What the words meant was of secondary importance; what matters was the sound of them...these words were as the notes of bells, the sounds of musical instruments," he wrote in his Poetic Manifesto of 1951. I was irresistibly drawn to translate his music into mine.
One poem captivated me: Fern Hill, about the poet's "young and easy" summers at his family's farm of the same name. I wanted to write this work as a gift for my high-school music teacher, Mrs. Bella Tillis, who first encouraged my musical ambitions. She introduced Fern Hill with piano accompanying her (and, once, my) school choir.
Fern Hill is a blithe poem, yet touched by darkness; time finally holds the poet "green and dying," but the poem itself, formally just an ABA song extended into a wide arch, sings joyously of youth and its keen perceptions. I set it for mezzo-soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra, aiming to match the forthright lyricism of the text. (The direction "with simplicity" is everywhere in the printed score.)
— John Corigliano
Related works (see More Info tab for links):
A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (1959-76, revised 1999)
Fern Hill (full orchestra)
Fern Hill (chamber orchestra)
Fern Hill (harp, piano, strings)
Poem in October
Poem in October (reduced orchestration)
Poem on His Birthday
Media
Scores
Discography
- LabelThe Dessoff Choirs
- Catalogue Number1101
- ConductorKent Tritle
- EnsembleThe Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra
- SoloistMary Ann Hart, mezzo-soprano
- LabelKoch Intl. Classics
- Catalogue Number7253
- ConductorGilbert Seeley
- EnsembleOregon Repetory Singers and Orchestra
- LabelNimbus
- Catalogue Number5449
- ConductorCharles Bruffy
- EnsembleKansas City Chorale / Fern Hill Orchestra
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8559299
- ConductorJames Morrow
- EnsembleUniversity of Texas Chamber Singers and Orchestra
- SoloistSusanne Mentzer, mezzo soprano
