An arrangement of Ivor Gurney’s song Sleep for soprano saxophone and piano in the sounding key of B flat minor. sheet music & accompaniments link : Show More...
An arrangement of Ivor Gurney’s song Sleep for soprano saxophone and piano in the sounding key of B flat minor. sheet music & accompaniments link : Sleep comes from Gurney’s collection of 5 Elizabethan Songs composed in 1912 and published in 1920. It is a beautiful piece of music and whilst originating as a song, the melody is deserving of being played and heard arranged as an instrumental solo with piano accompaniment. It has been placed in the Songs Without Words and Music for Special Events Areas of Study. A soprano saxophone part is attached to the full score in the pdf download. Gurney’s Sleep has challenges for the soloist as far as tuning and intonation are concerned. This is a composer who had a wonderful musical ear only for it to be tormented and challenged by the noises of war. He was an individual who had the potential to be a great English composer and poet although circumstances led him to a more troubled and often desperate journey in life. Sleep’s haunting beauty makes it the perfect piece for a remembrance or similar event. It is music that can set a mood and tone in just a few moments and as such is a concisely written work. There are some reading challenges as far as the notation is concerned and despite being written in B flat minor the piano accompaniment is relatively straight forward once attention has been paid to the accidentals. This movement is to be played in a slow tempo (52 eighth note) with a legato touch is the realisation speed. Piano accompaniments are in place playing at 48,(16) 51,(17) 54 (18) and 57 (19) eighth note (quaver) beats to the minute. In preparing the accompaniment scores the music editor has adopted a dotted quarter note beat to the bar approach shown in brackets. Ivor Gurney (1890 – 1947) was both poet and musician born in Gloucester and a contemporary of Herbert Howells and Ivor Novello whilst studying at Gloucester Cathedral. Gurney is often described as the poet of the Somme and Severn He loved Gloucester and its countryside often walking with friends and somewhat oddly was fond of walking through the night which possibly added to the complexities of his personality. He started composing from 1904 and studied at the Royal College of Music from 1911 and whilst his talent was recognisable, he demonstrated that he was not a particularly teachable student. Whilst a person with an exuberant personality and a sense of fun and adventure Gurney was prone to bouts of depression. He had to take a break from his studies and it is from this time (1912) the song Sleep was composed. Despite his poor eye sight he enlisted in June 1915 and in France experienced the severity of trench warfare. It was from these experiences he was encouraged to write poetry. His first collection of verse was published in October 1917 with the title Severn and Somme. Injured he returned to England but remained in poor mental health. Later gassed at the front he was discharged from the army in 1918 spending troubled times with family in a life pattern that became a series of highs and lows. He returned to his music studies worked on a farm but was declared insane in 1922 and placed first in Barnwood House, Gloucester and then later to the City of London Mental Hospital, Dartford Kent. Gurney was troubled for much of his life with mental health issues spending many years in asylums where he in fact managed to write some of his best poetry Gurney died of TB in 1937 but thanks to Gerald Finzi and other friends his music and poetry was collected together and archived. Much of his work was never published but his output was considerable. Close
