AN ALDEBURGH PASTORAL

Programme Notes

An Aldeburgh Pastoral

Music By Jeannette Mines

Text By Jini Fiennes

This pastoral was written in response to obtaining a Hesse Scholarship at the Aldeburgh Festival of Music during the summer of 2003. As I consider myself primarily to be a first study composition student at my university (Royal Holloway College, part of the University of London), I volunteered to write a piece for the rest of the students who also obtain scholarships at Aldeburgh. There were 12 of us in all.

Upon looking at the score, you will realize that there are, in fact, 18 parts written, and not the 12 I mentioned! Unfortunately, due to an error in communication between my co-cordinator and myself, we had neglected to consider that some players played two or more instruments! Of course, being physically impossible to play two instruments at a time, we were now in a quandary -- would I have enough time to arrange my piece for a different set of musical forces, and essentially, would my idea still work under these changed parameters? The answer, after rehearsals, was a profound 'no': I would only have a week to arrange the music, and this was also considering the fact that I and other Hesse Scholars were working essentially a 13 hour shift from 9am in the morning until 10pm at night (I realized that there was a lot more to organizing the concerts than selling Ice Cream and programmes -- it is an all day job!). I regretfully put the music it took me a month to write to one side, with the sympathy of my fellow Hesse Scholars.

The version you see here on this website is the original version (written hastily on Sibelius, the music writing computer program). I will have to admit that there are compositional errors in this edition -- apart from the layout of the final few pages where the combination of instruments and text was too much for the program to take! The Bagpipes are written on 2 staves to accommodate a drone part, although I have since found out that this would not happen in practice. This part is also written in G Major -- you can in fact have many varieties of bagpipes tuning, and I just so happened to have an E Flat set at my disposal! However, the key of the bagpipes should not actually make that much difference to the overall sound and conception of the rest of the music. It has also been noted that perhaps the Clarinet part playing against the Bagpipes will actually be drowned out in places -- in this case the clarinet part can be played up the octave. The part for three basses on page 21 can be reduced to one if so desired, and the second alto part on page 25 (doubling the tenor line) may be considered too low for some alto singers. This can also be omitted. There are 2 metronome markings to be observed -- one at the beginning and one on page 30. These should be strictly adhered to if possible. Of course, if there are any other suggestions that anyone would like to make, I would be happy to hear them. I am only a student composer myself and in no way a professional, and I am always keen to learn how to improve my music continually.

I could not finish this statement without thanking Mary Sibley, who maintains this website to its excellent standards. Without this site I would not have found the poem by Jini Fiennes that so inspired me to write this piece. I would also like to thank Sophie Fiennes of the Jini Fiennes Estate in England, for allowing me to use Jini's poem as my text for the composition. It has proved such an inspiration to me. Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the late Jini Fiennes herself, as I would like to believe that she was somehow present in the writing of my piece. It is dedicated to her, and her vision of Aldeburgh. I can only hope it does her poem some justice. . .

-----------Jeannette Mines

View the Music Sheets of An Aldeburgh Pastoral here