Ghost Songs

Notes

Ghost Songs is a setting of three poems by Cornish poet Charles Causley, composed to celebrate the centenary of his birth. They were commissioned by St Endellion Festivals with support from Arts Council England Grants for the Arts, and Sound and Music’s Chagrin Award. The cycle was first performed in 2017 at St Endellion Festival by Mark Padmore and Morgan Szymanski, for whom it was written.

The three poems are vivid ghost stories in miniature. In all three, death and nature are cruel, wild forces, beckoning us closer. This setting exploits the variety of colour and texture that the guitar and voice can produce and the intimate soundworld of this combination.

Tom Bone, Miller’s End and Green Man in the Garden by Permission of The Estate of Charles Causley.