Samuel, Rhian: The Flowing Sand. Baritone and Piano

Commissioned with Arts Council of Wales funds by the School of European Studies, Cardiff University, for the centenary celebrations of Samuel Beckett’s birth, The Flowing Sand is a setting of five poems by this seminal 20th-century modernist that are unified as a song-cycle by meaningful contrasts of mood and of musical style. The movements are ‘what would I do’, ‘my way is in the sand’, ‘Da Tagte Es’, ‘Roundelay’ and ‘saying it again’. Artistically challenging, yet well within the technical range of enterprising conservatoire students, The Flowing Sand is a major addition to the repertoire of contemporary art-song by British composers, and a significant contribution to the celebrations of the writer’s anniversary year.