The Gathering Tree (2025)

The BBC Proms is an extraordinary series of concerts gathering thousands of musicians and music lovers throughout the summer sharing a love of music. The Gathering Tree is about who we are at our best, celebrating how we come together.  Nick Drake’s specially written words speak to what we share, what we hold dear and how we are the sum of our lives’ stories.

Nick and I begin our collaborations by walking and talking, usually in Regent’s Park where we wander through the avenues of trees and sit on the park benches mulling over ideas. On one of our first walks we came up with the idea of “gathering” as a foundation of this piece. I imagined a work that begins simply and then lifts and gathers-up as it progresses, and something that people could sing together in community gatherings and on occasions such as the Last Night of The Proms. Each verse rises up into the repeated chorus of “we are the source, the stream and the river”, where we gather to sing as one. The last verse refers specifically to the Last Night of the Proms, and as it leads into the chorus, the organ joins, the orchestra builds, and the trumpets soar above the choir in a joyful gathering.

Rachel Portman and Nick Drake