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notes towards 'westron wynd'

by elizabeth veldon

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1.
a sense of distance 1 30:00
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2.
a sense of distance 2 30:00
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3.
a sense of distance 3 30:00
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4.
a sense of distance 4 30:00
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5.
an emotional distance 1 30:00
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6.
an emotional distance 2 30:00
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7.
an emotional distance 3 30:00
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8.
an emotional distance 4 30:00
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9.
westron wynd 1 30:00
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10.
westron wynd 2 30:00
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11.
westron wynd 3 30:00
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12.
westron wynd 4 30:00
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13.
smalle rayne down can rayne 1 30:00
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14.
smalle rayne down can rayne 2 30:00
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15.
smalle rayne down can rayne 3 30:00
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16.
smalle rayne down can rayne 4 30:00
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about

this album concerns itself with the medieval fragment 'westron wynd.'

these four lines inspired three tudor masses and have resonated down the years to our own time where they still provide inspiration for writers and musicians.

in this album i have taken two themes and two elements of the poem and constructed two hour pieces for both. these represent (on one level) four of the five elements of 'the english mass' and the four parts of the mass set by the earliest use of this poem in a mass setting in tallis' 'Mass: Western Wynd.'

the final section of the mass will be realised, should the opportunity arise, be creating a four channel installation from this in a building of suitable antiquity. the final part of the mass and the cantus firmus (that is the key text) of this final realisation would be an emergent property of the installation and the experience of the individual experiencing it.

this, however, is not only an abstract mass setting but is also an exploration of the poem and medieval symbolic systems that allowed multiple readings of a (not always religious) text to coexist and inform each other. in this instance this can be seen as being an exploration of a poem, an abstract mass setting and an exploration of the religious meaning often given to secular works in the medieval world (here the loneliness of the speaker would be seen as symbolising the desire of the soul to be unified with god in heaven.)

this is just the first form of this piece and i hope to be able to complete it with a staging in the fairly near future.

Westron wynd, when wylle thow blow,
The smalle rayne down can rayne?
Cryst, yf my love were in my Armys
And I yn my bed a gayne!

This piece has necessitated a little research and the books and other media i have used are as follows:

Ferguson, Salter and Stallworthy (ed) 'The Norton Anthology of Poetry.' Norton (fifth edition)
Rothenberg, D. J., 'The Flower Of Paradise: Marian Devotion and Secular Song in Medieval and Renaissance Europe.' Oxford University Press.
Butterfield, A., 'Venacular Poetry and Music' and Lefferts, P. M., 'England.' in Everist, M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Music.' Cambridge University Press.
'The Early Music Show: The Western Wind.' BBC Radio Four.
The Sixteen with Christophers, 'Mass: Western Wynd.' Helios.

credits

released July 7, 2020

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