MOONSTONE SONGS - Julian Grant

Composer: Julian Grant Text: poems from the CARMINA GADELICA, translated from the Gaelic by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, adapted by the composer. Instrumentation: high voice and piano  Duration: Approx. 18 minutes Date Written: 1998 Additional information:     Moonstone Songs were sketched on the isle of Iona in September 1997, where I stayed for a short time directly after the sudden death of my mother, and completed in April 1998. The four songs are settings of poems from the 'Carmina Gadelica', an anthology - or rather, the anthology of oral Gaelic hymns, spells, charms and songs collected and translated into English by Alexander Carmichael and published in 1897, thus opening a door onto the Gaelic world, and doubtless preserving many poems that would otherwise have been lost or forgotten. Most of the poems exist in many variants, so I have adapted, pruned and occasionally clarified the texts I set, and in the case of the last song, combined elements of two separate poems. The first and