A Mother’s War

Podmore, Audrey

Duration

8m 00s

Publisher

The Full Pitcher Music Resources

Composed

1997

Instrumentation

Voices and Instruments

Scoring

sop, cl, vn, vc

Availability

Contact publisher

About the work

It is wartime. As a mother recites the ‘Salve Regina’ a hymn to the Blessed Virgin, her thoughts are with members of her family: – a son in the trenches – a daughter whose lover is fighting on the ‘wrong’ side – a grandchild, fruit of the daughter’s ill-fated romance.

First Performance: Gemini Concert, CoMA Summer School, 1997

Technical notes

The pulsing rhythmic figure which appears in the instrumental parts, is intended to be ambiguous – it could be gunfire, or it could be a heart-beat. Whoever has this figure at a given moment is charged with ‘colouring the moment’ according to their own response to the other musical material. The contemporary approach to tonality may make the vocal part a little more musically demanding, although technically it is well within the range of the moderate amateur.

Origin

Call for Pieces Entry: Gemini, CoMA Summer School 1997