First Known When Lost

This short song sets parts of two poems by Edward Thomas – First Known When Lost and I Never Saw that Land Before – which are combined to create a statement concerning the destruction of the natural environment. The piano part is highly mechanistic; against this the voice relates concerns about the loss of a local habitat.

The song was commissioned by the NMC label for a CD to mark their twentieth anniversary.
It was premiered in April 2009 at King’s Place, London by George Mosley (baritone) and Iain Burnside (piano). 

Philip Grange

First Known When Lost

I never (had) noticed it until
It was gone, - the narrow copse
Where now the woodman lops
The last of the willows with his bill.

It was not more than
One meadow’s breadth away
I passed it day by day.
Now the soil is bare as a bone,
And black.

Strange it could have hidden so near!

I never knew that land before,
And now may never see it again.

Edward Thomas