Roxanna Panufnik

Wild Musick

When Twickenham Choral commissioned this work for their centenary celebrations it made sense to choose a local poet. Alexander Pope (16881744) is regarded as one of the UKʼs finest, and with the money he had made from his translation of Homer, he was able to purchase a magnificent villa in Twickenhamʼs Cross Deep, of which his famous grotto still survives, underneath St Catherineʼs and Radnor House Schools. He was 22 when he penned his epic Ode for Musick, on St Ceciliaʼs Day although it wasnʼt published for another 13 years. Iʼve used just the exuberant first verse here, and have relished word-painting his musical depictions, using the first two lines, which imitate celebratory church bells, as a refrain.

I am hugely grateful to Twickenham Choral and their conductor Christopher Herrick for commissioning this work  it has been a huge joy to write, during this riotously sunny and colourful spring.

Roxanna Panufnik