Briantspuddle Singers  

On Saturday 18th June 2011, at Herrison Hall, Charlton Down, Dorchester, we gave the  first performance of

Tall Trees - Thorncombe

A Musical Setting of the words of Anthony Gannon (Right) by local composer Peter Hope (Centre) conducted by Richard Hall (Left)
evoking images of Thorncombe Woods near Bockhampton

(Especially commissioned by Briantspuddle Singers
and supported by a legacy from former choir member Celia Sutton)

Plus a selection of choral and orchestral music for a summer evening

Briantspuddle Singers were joined by pupils from Puddletown Middle School together with an orchestral accompaniment

Come, shall we clutch the wind? Its frenzy halt?
How still its voice through rippling leaves? 

For we now are the tall trees:
Rooted, sentry-still in drowsy heat,
Pouring shade down on young trunks:
On branch-cascading birch, spray-thin and weeping:
On larch whose Spring-sap flush
Climbs like a lover’s blush.
As Thorncombe stirs from sleeping.  

Full-skirted as summer silks,
Leaf-heavy in breezes we sway.
In still airs stand aloof, our sighs unheeded.
Still, so still. 

In gales we stem the blast; creaking bulwarks
While turmoil frays our tips
And saplings rattle and chatter below.
Feel how drought chaps their tender bark;
Each leaf curls with drained and scorched pore.

I can offer shade and shelter
Dew to salve your withered core. 

Dusty birds rip blood-red fruits,
Scavenge, swarm and flit.
Autumn now draws out our shadow
Which circles our stem, stalks the sun –
A dark blade held to our heart:
The chill caress of winter’s saw-toothed edge.

Rooks pry and probe.
Our seeds spin and drift away.
Now in their prime they thrive
And thrust buds sharpened by frost to the sky.
Their roots tap our reserves.
Too soon their crowns will crowd our view,
Stand tall and proud.
Hold sway
As we now stoop in slow decay.

Let me offer shade and shelter.
I will salve your aching soul.

Box Office.  Lorien, Grange Road, Stoborough, Wareham, Dorset. BH20 5AL 01929 555366 mail@briantspuddlesingers.co.uk

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