In my craft or sullen art

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.

Dylan Thomas

 

Dylan Thomas's exploration of his creative motivation in the poem In my craft or sullen art invites a composer to respond with their own technical concerns. In my case this includes low lugubrious lines that give rise to polyrhythmic fragments in the form of middle register ticking, high register tolling dissolving into whispery tracery and snippets of pulse labyrinths. All of this takes place within a ruminative nocturnal armosphere shot through with sudden outbursts, the final one of which is epiphanic in
nature.

This setting was written in 2023 and is dedicated to Camden Reeves on the occasion of his fiftieth birthday; Camden being one of a small number ofcomposers with whom I often discuss our craft and sullen art.
 

In my craft or sullen art was premiered by Christopher O'Gorman (tenor) and David Pipe (piano) at the Unitarian Chapel, York on 4 November, 2023 as part of Late Music Concerts.

PG 2023