Cantiga, Op.45

Category		Vocal
Composed		1987-1988
Duration (approx)		24 minutes
Parts		Soprano, chamber orchestra: 2(=picc).1.ca.2(II=bcl).2 - 2210 - perc(1/2): timp/sleigh bells/vib/crot/mar/BD/ch.cym/susp.cym - harp - strings
Text Author(s)		Maggie Hemingway
Text Language		English
Recording(s)		Cantiga, September Music, Introit, Symphony No.4
Publisher		Faber Music
Commission		Jill Gomez by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, with funds provided by Greater London Arts.
First performance		27 July 1988
Venue		BBC Promenade Concert, Royal Albert Hall, London
Orchestra / Ensemble		Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Conductor		Roger Norrington
Soloists / Players		Jill Gomez (soprano)
Review		Geoffrey Norris, Daily Telegraph, 29 July 1998
		…a rapturous threnody, a dramatic lament of macabre joy… The gradually and subtly shifting atmosphere of Miss Hemingway’s mellifluous poetry… offers a musical potential to which Matthews has responded with a work of striking power and sensibility. For one thing, his setting of the words is instinctive, felt from within; the moods and inflections are heightened with imaginative precision. Nor is the orchestral writing merely illustrative but rather senses the depth of sentiment in the vocal line and complements it with a score of penetrating insight and immediacy.