The opening movement is sustained by two main motifs. The first, heard in
the opening phrase of the soloist, represents sorrow, for which the tonahry
(E) is coloured not only by the tritone (A sharp) but the interplay of F
natural/F sharp, the next two notes of the scale. This mood is further enhanced
by an insistent background drum-beat. The second motif, introduced by the
gentler marimba, follows immediatel and represents the transient joy of the
dreamer, as the choir sing
'From the hollow sphere of space
Echo of a lonely voice
That cries, my love, my love.'
In the middle section the music moves to a moment of dream-like sublimity,
as all the voices, without the soloist, sing
the blessed dead...
They hear as music what we feel as pain'
Thereafter both motifs recur, and at the end of the movement the music dies
away as it began, unresolved.
III
The second movement is a continuation of the first and is also built on two
motifs. The F natural/F sharp feature of the 'sorrow' motif is here transferred
to the pianos and timpani, whose tread-like pulse suggests 'journeying'.
The idea of 'Lost Paradi se' forms the other motif, and consists of simple
pia no chords over an F sharp pedal, set against a sustained tam tam
vibrato, while the soprano solo moves with a stepwise melody, as if hesitantly.
Once more the middle section is given over to the choir whose music dies
away to the words
'The last sorrow silent-
Forgeness that feels no loss...
When deepest memories fade
And all love's tears are dust.'
Both motifisrecur before the movement dissolves.
III
The choir sing a hymn to Nature, short, and with violence just beneath a
calm surface. The two pianos are contrasted, and the agitated vigour of one,
with a scherzo-like forward movement, in triple metre, vivace, is complemented
by the steady, low-pitched sonoriry of the other, enhanced by the timpani,
and suffusing the music with darkness, like the
'shadow of hills on the still loch.'
IV
The final passacaglia follows without a break. The ground bass on which it
is built is nothing less than the sorrow motif of the first movement, but
more drawn out, with less rate of harmonic change, and this time reaching
resolution on the final note F sharp. This music opens with a lament for
the soloist, answering in some way the previous chorus
'I would not change my grief for any joy.'
The expected flow of the passacaglia variations is interrupted with an anguished
cry - bitter too, perhaps
'If I could turn upon my finger
The bright ring of time,
The now of then I would bring back again.'
This mood is characterised by the side-drum and xylophone, suggestive of
mockery. Between the two statements of this scherzo-like parody, the choir
sing in broad, calm homophony, made up of chords with open intervals
'Beyond the empty door
Spaces, distances, stars innumerable.'
So the variations resume their course, and the final section of the movement
builds a massive structure, beginning with the semi-chorus to the words
'Not sorrow breaks the heart But an imagined joy.'
The poet sees in a bird's flight the symbol of a passing human soul, and
all the participating singers are involved as this final dream-like section
of the symphony for voices moves forward to a climactic, resolving shout
on the words
'Near and far. Summit and sky, soaring wing, circling joy, Thrilling bird-voice
over the bay, You their bright presence, Dazzle of blue waves' dance, Gold
of the silver sea'
After the climax, the coda. The solo soprano is left alone by the graveside
as the music dies sway to nothingness.
On a Deserted Shore was first performed in the
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 8 December 1975, when the soloist was Felicity
Lott, with the BBC Singers and the Reddcliffe Ensemble, conducted by John
Poole.
