Sea-Sounds

Ailís Ní Ríain

Watershed - song cycle (2020) on poems by Jessica Brown

Edward Elgar 

Sea Pictures Op.37

Jessica Brown

A selection of poems

SEA-SOUNDS presents two song cycles for voice and piano: Ailís Ní Ríain’s Watershed (2020) and Sir Edward Elgar’s Sea Pictures (1899). With support from an Arts Council Music Commissions Award, Yonit Kosovske commissioned Ní Ríain to compose Watershed, a new song cycle set to texts from the poetry collection And Say by Jessica Brown, who lives in Killaloe, Co Clare. A central theme of these texts is the author's personal interaction with the natural landscapes of western Ireland. At the same time, the word "watershed" not only represents a geological phenomenon, but also a significant turning point in life. Similarly, Elgar’s Sea Pictures contemplates life on and around the sea, the longing for space and freedom, the admiration of the sea as God's creation, and the ever-changing tides and moods as a mirror of the human soul. For centuries, water has served as an inspiration for artists of all genres. The longing for this vital source leads us to the raw beauty of lakes, rivers, and oceans. The different rhythms and moods of the weather, and the sometimes destructive power of water in the form of storms and floods, invite comparisons with human emotions. SEA-SOUNDS combines music with poetry readings, forming a connection to the musical-poetic tradition of nature and environmental metaphors of human emotions.