Persephone in Repose for Tenor and 10-course Lute c.4'

Programme note

Persephone in Repose is the setting of music to the poem Demeter by Carol Ann Duffy, in which the Greek goddess Demeter is lamenting the loss of her daughter Persephone to the underworld. Taken from her collection The World’s Wife, Carol Ann Duffy challenges traditional male orientated myths and legends and creates stories from a female point-of-view. The storyline of my piece however puts the focus on the father whose grief is equally felt. This is reflected in the title where the subject of mourning Persephone made the focal point.

Persephone in Repose is a through-composed piece which seeks to evoke grief through the use of dissonance with sparse consonance as well as often disjointed movements of the Lute and Voice.