A Broken Heart

A cycle of 12 songs for soprano and piano to words by Norman Welch and featured on the CD, A Broken Heart by Marika Rauscher.

In 2013 Norman Welch sent me 12 remarkable poems that span the life of an entire relationship from first passion, through tenderness, to suspicion and mistrust, to broken hearted loneliness and eventual recovery. Setting Norman’s poetry to music was a privilege. The songs were completed in the early summer and practised whilst working in Hong Kong. On return I worked with the lovely soprano, Marika Rauscher, and we recorded the songs. Marika also gave the first performance of the cycle in February 2015. The title song (no.10 of the cycle) remains a very poignant favourite of mine.

Only you

Love’s first kiss

The World turned upside down

Falling in love

Entrechat

We Started fighting

The world turned upside down (reprise)

I used to love

A broken heart

To let you go

Made of clay