Five Yeats Songs Op. 14 for low voice and string quartet (1983)

I          The Lake Isle of Innisfree

II         The Sorrow of Love (original version)

III       Who Goes with Fergus?

IV       A Cradle Song

V         The Ballad of Father Gilligan

These Yeats poems, all taken from The Rose, were set for the composer to sing himself. They formed part of his search for an accessible, lyrical style, something with which he was much preoccupied at this time. The result, here, is a style in which triadic harmonies, sometimes unusually juxtaposed, are often placed against unexpected melodic configurations. The fifth song, incidentally, should be performed without parody, but with a gentle, self-conscious awareness of its sentimentality.