Welcoming Anna Disley-Simpson

We are thrilled to announce the publication Anna Disley-Simpson’s stunning, eight-part choral piece The Way Through the Woods in our Choral Now series.

Wishing to give voice to the animals and ecosystems resilient to human destruction, Anna was drawn to Kipling’s much anthologised poem of the magic of place and memory. Through swinging rhythmic phrases and contrasting hushed melodic cells we hear how nature forcefully takes back the encroached woodland once riven by a highway and the tumult of traffic.

Adventurous performers will especially enjoy creating for themselves the immersive opening soundscape of birdcalls and sibilant forest murmurs, dissolved into a driving ostinato beat that updates the story in contemporary style. Lasting around four and a half minutes, The Way Through the Woods is a fascinating encounter of poetry, music, enchantment and reality, and a showcase for vibrant choral singing with an ever more urgent theme of conservation and biodiversity.

Written for the National Youth Choir, the work was recorded by NMC on the Young Composers 3 disc ref. NMC DL3048.