Love over Scotland

Alexander McCall Smith has written the words of these three haiku for Tom to set to music for wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn) and voice:

Love’s like rain, helpless
In the face of physics’ rules
Or gravity’s field.

Love, when it descends
Comes suddenly, no forecast
Warns of its approach.

Love over Scotland
Falls like gentle tears of rain;
Do not take shelter.

You can see the whole score here.

You can see and hear a complete performance by Sirocco Winds here.

First performance 21 August 2015.

Tom writes:
Setting the sparse syllables of a haiku was a new challenge for me. I decided to let the instruments anticipate the vocal writing, so “rain”, “rules” and “gravity” all have their musical equivalent in the first section. The middle section allows the horn to share the singer’s “love” whilst the final section tips its cap to McCall Smith’s reputation as a bassoon player.