JPrideauxMusic

Tears, Idle Tears (2011)

 

Setting for Solo Soprano

 

Performed by Lizzie Newell.

 

In this setting of Tennyson's poem Tears, Idle Tears, I wanted to show express the feeling of loneliness and isolation in the text whilst also evoking idea of time gone by. I attempted to show this by having the largest intervals between notes in each stanza decreasing in size; so the first stanza includes leaps of a fifth, the second stanza a fourth, the third stanza a third and the final stanza a second. 

 

However, with the text 'On lips' at bar 51, this does not take place. Here I wanted to convey the out-pouring of passion and love from the singer and also in the final bar where the singer leaps a seventh to a top A, expressing the pain and distress of loneliness and of time lost. 

 

It is also interesting to note that the poem contains no rhyme but flows through Tennyson's use of vowels and word endings which creates a form for the reader to become familiar with. I display this in the music through the structure of the stanza, that even with the varying intervals, stays in the same shape throughout, evoking a sense of recollection and comfort in the familiar shape."