contemporary music

Andrew Keeling

Afterwords, for 5 viols (tr, t, t, b, b). 1999

‘Afterwords’ is, in essence, a song without words: a re-composition for 5 viols of SATB setting of Sylvia Plath’s poem, ‘The Moon And The Yew Tree’. In the poem the moon and a solitary Yew tree are set within the framework of a churchyard at night: metaphors which seem to underline the poet’s interest in a metaphysical ‘other’. The piece is in four sections, corresponding to the four verses of the poem, and a tritone descent from the outset (d) to the end of the piece (g-sharp) reflects the poem’s collapse into blackness and silence.

Afterwords lasts around 10 minutes and is dedicated to Fretwork.

Published by Fretwork Editions. London.