Against That Time

Ed Hughes ' Against That Time - Three Songs To Sonnets By Shakespeare for Mezzo Soprano, Viola and Piano. ' Against That Time...Against My Love is a song cycle comprising of three related settings of Shakespeare sonnets(numbers 49,63 and 126). The sonnets are drawn from a collection of 154 of William Shakespeare's poems on love, beauty and mortality, first published together in 1609. The three sonnets chosen for this sequence meditate particularly on the effect of time upon the appearance of the beloved. In setting these extraordinary lines, I let their rhythms permeate the melodic writing for the singer. The viola and piano act as a kind of echo chamber for the poet's very directand intimate thoughts. The poems seem both timeless and modern in attitude and perceptions; the music's harmonies, though often tonally clear, are occasionally fractured and in tension, like the many images in thesepoignant texts. ' - Ed Hughes