The Flute in the Garden

George Mackay Brown (E)

This is a setting of a poem by George Mackay Brown, composed to mark the 50th Anniversary of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh. The poem presents the life of a garden in its yearly cycle from the depths of a wintry January through the warming of Spring and Summer, on to the mellow fruitfulness of Autumn and finally back into Winter. The flute seems to represent a spiritual presence of permanence as the natural seasons change and evolve.

I have set each of Mackay Brown’s twelve, short monthly stanzas as little miniatures for choir and orchestra, but all interlinked in a through-composed unity. Each month arrives in a new mode, and with a different orchestral colour and character. I have tried to evoke the delicacy and intimacy of the words, with a nod to the retreating shyness of the Orcadian poet whom I met in Stromness in 1980.

The music warms and quickens as the word-setting advances through the months, especially when we reach April and May. I’ve also tried to capture the warmth of summer in June, complete with twittering blackbird (on clarinet) and whirling roses in July. The sweet ripeness of August arrives with honeybees before the light and heat begin to fade for the autumn months.

The flute is present throughout and is continually referenced by poet and music alike. Winter returns with a musical recapitulation, and we feel the cycle beginning again with another January.

James MacMillan, 2023