A Song Cycle
1. 9th October 2018 - Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: D4 - G4
2. Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep - SSA | Range: B3 - F5
3. Then the Letting Go (Sibling) - Mezzo Soprano, Horn in F and Cymbals | Range: G3 - Eb5
4. Child and Mother - Soprano and Harp/Piano | Range: C4 - F5
5. Song for my Children (A Te) - Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: A3 - E5
In Memoriam
Marvellous John Bartholomew Jarman-Pinto
3rd September 2014
285g
Modena, Italy
Programme Notes
'Songs for Marvellous' was written after our son, Marvellous, was born at 20 weeks in Modena, Italy, in 2014. I came away from the explicitly traumatic experience feeling that I needed to prove to him my worth. I had failed him, as I saw it then, in my most basic task as a parent, failed to keep him alive and failed to bring his body home.
I spent weeks and months trying to lose myself in tasks; moving house, video games, cleaning, washing, composing and transcribing music, all to keep my mind from rehashing over every single moment of my experience in Italy. I was rebuffed so many times when trying to get help for my post traumatic stress disorder, not to mention the grief.
In the midst of this, some beautiful people wound their healing hands around us, embracing us with letters, regular phone calls and texts, medical and emotional support, hugs and shoulders to cry on.
I knew that I wanted to have Marvy memorialised somehow. Writing ‘Songs For Marvellous’ was a way to grieve, heal and keep our son in our lives. The baby that only I knew; who would wriggle when I felt stressed; wake me at night with his kicking; respond instantly to my touch; who cheekily showed us his bum during scans; who was such a beautiful weight to hold and a perfect being to set eyes upon. Who is so loved, wanted and missed.
He will always journey with me.
Performance Instructions
‘Songs For Marvellous’ was designed to be performed as either individual songs or as a whole. Regardless of how many pieces you choose, they must always be performed in the order below.
1. 9th October 2018 - Mezzo Soprano and Piano
2. Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep - SSA
3. Then the Letting Go (Sibling) - Mezzo Soprano, Horn in F and Cymbals
4. Child and Mother - Soprano and Harp/Piano
5. Song for my Children (A Te) - Mezzo Soprano and Piano
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Three songs for Mezzo Soprano and Piano pieces from the song cycle, Songs For Marvellous
1. 9th October 2018 - Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: D4 - G4
2. Child and Mother - Mezzo Soprano and Harp/Piano | Range: C4 - F5
3. Song for my Children (A Te) - Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: A3 - E5
In Memoriam
Marvellous John Bartholomew Jarman-Pinto
3rd September 2014
285g
Modena, Italy
Programme Notes
'Songs for Marvellous' was written after our son, Marvellous, was born at 20 weeks in Modena, Italy, in 2014. I came away from the explicitly traumatic experience feeling that I needed to prove to him my worth. I had failed him, as I saw it then, in my most basic task as a parent, failed to keep him alive and failed to bring his body home.
I spent weeks and months trying to lose myself in tasks; moving house, video games, cleaning, washing, composing and transcribing music, all to keep my mind from rehashing over every single moment of my experience in Italy. I was rebuffed so many times when trying to get help for my post traumatic stress disorder, not to mention the grief.
In the midst of this, some beautiful people wound their healing hands around us, embracing us with letters, regular phone calls and texts, medical and emotional support, hugs and shoulders to cry on.
I knew that I wanted to have Marvy memorialised somehow. Writing ‘Songs For Marvellous’ was a way to grieve, heal and keep our son in our lives. The baby that only I knew; who would wriggle when I felt stressed; wake me at night with his kicking; respond instantly to my touch; who cheekily showed us his bum during scans; who was such a beautiful weight to hold and a perfect being to set eyes upon. Who is so loved, wanted and missed.
He will always journey with me.
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For Contralto/ Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: Bb3 - to Eb5
Of Earth and Sky was commissioned by Oxford Lieder Festival and composed especially for contralto, Jess Dandy, in September 2021.
It received its world premiere on 8th October 2021 by Jess Dandy and Martin Roscoe, as part of ‘A Cumbrian Idyll’.
Jess approached me not long before receiving her debut performance at the BBC’s First Night Of The Proms. I had never heard her sing, so tuned in to the performance and was utterly blown away. The ease at which she produced this exquisite sound, seeming to be in a trance-like state as her voice sent ripples down my spine.
When Jess sent me discarded lines from Wordsworth’s ‘Michael, A Pastoral’, (as quoted in James Rebanks “The Shepherd’s Life” xix-xx), I found that the words created such feeling in my chest and visions in my mind. I swim in Ullswater and I am awe-struck by, and crave daily, the fells that frame the lake. I am in love with Cumbria, the place that I grew up and call my home.
I wanted the music to be huge, towering, to be inexplicable, enticing, dangerous and beautiful, just as Wordsworth’s words, Jess’ voice, and my experiences of the lakes and fells are.
Performance Instructions
This piece is grounded, the pulse slow, not driving forwards, but roiling and undulating. It is heavy, vast, grand and present.
The voice’s rhythm is complex - ultimately the important elements are the disparity between the voice and piano rhythms, and the semi-quaver motif. Don’t use the rhythms to drive forward, use them to sit back and swell.
Mild rubato is welcome
There are minimal dynamics. Feel free to interpret these as you wish.
Duration: 4 minutes
Please contact Ella with any questions about this piece
Copyright © Ella Jarman-Pinto 2021
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From the song cycle, Songs For Marvellous
Song for my Children (A Te) - Mezzo Soprano and Piano | Range: A3 - E5
In Memoriam
Marvellous John Bartholomew Jarman-Pinto
3rd September 2014
285g
Modena, Italy
Programme Notes
On Marvy’s first birthday, I wanted to write him a song. I took Happy Birthday and reversed and harmonised it. It’s amazing how poignant and still it can be in a different form. But there the music rested. I would try to move it forwards, and to compose more, but it never responded. It was self-contained but incomplete. It just seemed to... be.
Three years passed and Hull Urban Opera commissioned me to write a song for their Brain Jar Session #2. Marvy’s fourth birthday was in a few months; Otis, our second was a glorious two and a half years; and I was 38 weeks pregnant with our daughter, Vita. This was the perfect moment to complete the song cycle, and Songs for my Children (A Te), after four years of trying, seemed to write itself within a day.
This song is a lullaby of joy, of family and of siblings. Here I honour all of my children.
Song For My Children (A Te) is dedicated to my online “village” - a group of mums and their children who were a lifeline to me over five years.
It was premiered by Poppy Shotts, Stephanie Halsey and Ben Newton at Hull Urban Opera on 18th and 19th July 2014. With thanks to Russell Plows of HUOC for commissioning the final song in the cycle.
A note on the title: Marvellous was born in Italy and the Happy Birthday song is translated to 'Tanti Auguri a Te’.
Performance Instructions
This is a more joyful piece. It is a lullaby in its truest sense, with no metaphors of death associated with sleep
The vocal part has a light, folky lilt to it, but was written with classically trained singers in mind so stay true to your voice rather than changing the sound or genre.
The piano part is slow and steady - almost to a point of being too slow - full of presence, but with a delicate touch.
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A Collection of fourteen scores, professionally notated, printed, bound, and signed with a special message by Ella, including pieces commissioned by BBC Radio 3.
This Collection is stocked by Cambridge Pendelbury Library of Music | Guildhall School of Music & Drama | Trinity Laban Jerwood Library | Leeds Conservatoire of Music | Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
To listen to a curated playlist for the collection click here.
Free UK postage.
Plango: A Cure Lament | High Soprano and Piano
(Poet Jo Brandon, Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for International Women’s Commission 2021)
Everyday Magic | Mezzo Soprano and Piano
(PRS, Wild Plum & Cheltenham Music Festival Workshop Commission 2019)
Shunned Street | Low Mezzo Soprano and Piano
(Poet Jo Brandon, Leeds Lieder + Festival 2011)
This Little Rose | Soprano and Piano
(Poet Emily Dickinson, released on Emergence, an album by Nadine Benjamin and Nicole Panizza)
Songs for Marvellous | Voice, Piano, Harp, Horn, Cymbals and SSA
(Including 9th October 2014, Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep, - then the letting go - (Sibling), Child and Mother and Song For My Children, 2014-18)
Lamplight | Soprano and Piano
(Poet May Wedderburn Cannan)
Breake of Day | Soprano and Piano
Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep | SSA
(Performed by BBC Singers 2015 & 2016)
Heigh Ho - The Holly! | SSA
(Performed by BBC Singers 2016)
Lucky | Solo Tuba
(Commissioned by BBC Radio 3 2020 )
...And You Know We'll Be Alright? | Full Orchestra
(Performing parts available to hire separately)
I Remember. Like I'm The Only | wind orchestra
(Commissioned as part of the Adopt a Composer Scheme, 2012. Performing parts available to hire separately)
A Domani, People. A Domani | Guitar Ensemble
(Commissioned by Royal Philharmonic Society for Bicentenary Celebrations 2013. Inclusive of performing parts)
Lesser Trefoil | Solo Flute
(Commissioned by City of London Festival, 2012)
Solo Tuba
“They are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge.” Kimberley Jones, 2020
Programme Notes
Lucky was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 as part of their Postcards from Composers series in response to the Covid-19 Lockdown of 2020.
When asked to write this piece, I thought of the Black Lives Matter movement and protests that have spanned the globe over the last month. As a Black, mixed-race woman raised in a predominantly white area, who studied and works in a predominantly white industry, who manages to ‘fit in’ until someone ‘others’ me (read: racism), and who has been silenced when trying to stand up to this, these protests were incredibly inspiring… and the inevitable backlash devastating. This is my response. It has taken courage to submit this. But I will not be silenced any longer.
The title comes from Kimberley Jones’ succinct and rage-inducing exploration of the economic history of slavery and how this relates to today. I urge you to watch the original film by David Jones Media here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb9_qGOa9Go
Lucky received its world premiere by Daniel Trodden, in principal tuba, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, on 22nd September 2020, BBC Radio 3 Breakfast and online.
Performance Instructions
Play every note in relation to the beat. The piece is non rubato
Vocalisations: There are a mixture of set pitches and non-set pitches. Sing in the range that is most suitable for your voice. If you need to change any pitches, please keep the intervallic relationship between them the same.
Duration: 42 seconds
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