Sing no Sad Songs for Me

A song-cycle connecting the Bosphorus and the Thames - resonances woven through the memories of women

Poetry by Christina Rossetti Music by Rachel Beckles Willson Performers: Rachel Beckles Willson (vocals,oud), Ciro Montanari (tabla), Kostas Tsarouchis (double bass), Evgenios Voulgaris (yayli tanbur)

‘Sing no Sad Songs for Me’ connects the modal musical traditions of the Mediterranean at the time of the Ottomans with the poetry of Christina Rossetti, child of Italian exile in 19th-century London. Shaped by a musical language idiom inspired by the avant-garde movements of 20th-century Europe, the combination is unique, conjuring up a kaleidoscope of sounds.

Christina Rossetti, daughter of notable exile Gabriele Rossetti, is considered one of the most important poets of 19th-century England. Her verses, vivid and at the same time other-worldly, are extended here in a serpentine melodies, enveloped in uncustomary sonorities and timbres. The delicate phrases of the oud, and the other-worldly resonance of the yayli tanbur weave into the rhythmic carpet of the Indian tabla and double bass, connecting spaces of Europe and Asia all too often held apart.

Research for ‘Sing no Sad Songs for Me’ was developed at Labyrinth Musical Seminars (Crete) and in Istanbul, supported by the Leverhulme Trust and Royal Holloway, University of London.

Premiered at St Ethelburga's Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, London, on 30 June 2018

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