Estrangement is a setting of Edmund Blunden’s 1919 poem The Estrangement, originally set for chorus and orchestra as the first part of Aftertones, a work written in 2000 for the Huddersfield Choral Society. When composing it, I worked at the choral setting almost independently of its orchestral accompaniment, and so it seemed logical to turn it back into an unaccompanied piece. Edmund Blunden’s sense of landscape and place remained with him throughout the horrors of the First World War: his was essentially a gentle spirit, and he was able to convey the bleakness of a war-torn country with something approaching objectivity.
The piece lasts 5 minutes, and it was first performed by the BBC Singers at St Giles, Cripplegate, London in October 2002.
Categories: Choral