Peter Lawson

Song of The Marsh Fragrant Orchid

The Song of the Marsh Fragrant Orchid is a slightly eccentric variant of the Song of the Fragrant Orchid (for soprano, clarinet and piano - see GM078) incorporating elements of music theatre and an even greater degree of vocal acrobatics from the soprano, whose part is basically a song without words.
It was dedicated to Frances Ann Brookes, Stephen Bentley Klein and James Kirby, who gave its first performance in North Thoresby Parish Church, Lincolnshire on April 4th, 1986 - and was the eighth to be written in a cycle of instrumental and orchestral depictions of the forty-eight wild orchids of Britain and Ireland, of which twenty-nine have been written to date.

Although the Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) is a familiar sight in meadows and downs, the later-flowering form known as the Marsh Fragrant Orchid, var. densiflora, is much more localised and can be found in fens and wetter limestone areas such as the Burren district of County Clare. It is more robust, darker pink in colour, has a denser flower spike and smells - somewhat unpleasant when one expects to be intoxicated with the sweetness of the perfume of the 'standard' relative - of cloves.
The downland connotations with England inspired the Elgarian germ from which the piece grows, the first of the two continuous sections being intended to evoke, to some extent, our impressions of the orchid - and the second being, fancifully, the 'song' of the orchid itself, which, of course, knows nothing of unpleasant smells! Peter Lawson
Duration 7 minutes