A Mother’s War

Podmore, Audrey

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