Spring “Rachel”
Spring
No lark, No whistle, No Song
Spring
Spring, She said, To the silence
Spring
Sowing seeds of sadness
Shattering the soil
For a future dream of Summer
Streams of sewage surfing waves
No Autumn harvest, No bright scene
No Winter hope, Just cold comfort
But it is Spring
Still Spring She said
Spring could be……
Spring shall be….
Is
Silent
FRANCES M LYNCH
Flower Composer 2023
Spring “Rachel”
Music: Frances M Lynch
for tenor, hand percussion & sampled nature sounds
from
“Seasons of Change”
commissioned by ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
with funds from
The National Lottery Heritage Fund & Hinrichsen Foundation
inspired by “Free Trade Songs” for the League Bazaar 1845
by Eliza Flower (1803 – 1846)
First Performance by ELECTRIC VOICE THEATRE
Conway Hall, October 27th 2023
Laurence Panter – Tenor
Frances M Lynch – Percussion
Herbie Clarke – Sound
There are some direct echoes of Eliza Flower’s Spring song “The descent of the Lark”, eg:- its two part repetitive structure and the lark itself, which appears in her piano accompaniment, really singing! But, unlike the Flower song, it’s not about humans inflicting misery on other humans, but owes its theme to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. As I created it after the other Flower Composers had finished theirs, I was able to quote little pre-echoes of their pieces too and to reference the 4 seasons as a way of unifying the cycle.
It was written for one of the Electric Voice Theatre’s tenors – Laurence Panter. I’ve used some sampled sounds from nature and a touch of hand percussion to add both to the magical feeling of Spring and the emptiness that the season now represents.
The performance video of the full cycle “Seasons of Change” includes my short introduction which is a setting of lines from a poem by Flower’s sister, Sarah Flower Adams, “Summer Recollections” in which she longs for the peace and beauty of summer during a wet and stormy, dull and urban winter. The tenor reads the poem while a modern soundscape of traffic, busy streets and bad weather is played, giving way to birdsong and finally the cuckoo call of Spring.
FRANCES M LYNCH
Flower Composer 2023
Where I started
I was brought up in a large, very musical Glaswegian family, typical of many others! I experienced a wide range of music from Gregorian chant to folk, rock, music-hall, Gilbert & Sullivan, opera, symphonic & chamber music, and more, but it took a long time for me to understand that there was such a thing as a living composer, and a lot longer to realise that some of those were women!
Despite a really comprehensive musical education it was by accident that I began to write music. A director of a play I was working on as music director, asked me to write something in a break as she wasn’t happy with the music supplied. So of course I said yes (panicking inside), and after 15mins had produced a little song…. and from there went on to write more and more.
Where I am now
These days I’m lucky enough to have great performers and musicians around me so I can write for the singers of Electric Voice Theatre and create music with my commercial partner, Herbie Clarke.
A big focus for me is the work of women scientists so I often write music that amplifies their work and lives, and create music with children that helps us all learn a lot about science, engineering, maths or medicine.
Who inspires me?
There are so many women and girls who inspire me. Many of the children I work with in schools give me such hope for the future, and faith in the endless creativity and agility of young minds.
