Songs in Surround

Anna Clyne “Pocket Book VII and LXV” were composed for eight amplified voices, completed in 2015. She drew her inspiration for Pocket Book, a commissioned work by the American Roomful of Teeth, from Shakespeare’s sonnets VIII and LXV.

Pocket Book VIII is a setting of his eighth sonnet, “Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly”. This opening line is sung as a prelude to the remainder of the sonnet, which is whispered to capture the intimacy that characterizes Shakespeare’s sonnets. A slowly moving harmonic progression is sung whilst the text is recited, and the music ends with one single note – alone.