Colonial Pictures - By Simon Reade

This work is in eight folk songs; three compositions and five improvisations. Each folk song may, if desired, be performed separately. The song, 'Van Dieman's Land', appears three times as a point of return in the piece, and are the only songs to be called Compositions. This distinction is made to suggest that these are musically more intense reflections on the idea of Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). The third setting, postlude, is for percussion alone - across the cycle the convict attitude (text) to Tasmania becomes more and more overwhelmed by the music, symbolising the journey from the difficulties of the early European settlement, to the Tasmania of today, and it is this journey that the three Compositions represent. The Improvisations are, as the title suggests, freer reactions to the folk texts, and in general use these melodies in a more recognisable way. They seek to provide the musical atmosphere for the theatrical journey which the compositions are attempting. Colonial Picture was composed for the IHOS opera young singer's workshop in 2007.