I breathe

National Youth Training Choir of Great Britain and Robert Brook (cond.) at Framlingham College on 21 August 2021

Our connection with our environment has never been more important. When thinking about what the National Youth Training Choir of Great Britain could sing about after such a long period of online meetings only, I turned my attention to the outdoors. And particularly the outdoors of my home country, Wales.

Working with Welsh haiku specialist, poet Paul Chambers, we amalgamated three gorgeous haiku written by Welsh poets that express human’s connectivity (or lack of) with their surrounding landscape. The prose directly influenced the music, and allowed me to breathe, reflect, and think about my own connection with the landscape I find myself in.

There are moments in this work where performers (or an optional selection of performers) are asked to create a blanket of murmurs. This is where each performer individually whispers/softly freely recites one, or a selection, of the following short phrases in the Welsh language:

Y bryniau hyn / dim byd i'w ddweud / a bwrw ymlaen / anadlu [‘‘These hills have nothing to say and go on breathing’]

A performative aspect can be built into this piece, where either performer turns towards the audience on entry of their ‘murmuring’ or lift their heads from a dropped position. The reverse could happen for the ending of the work.

-njd.

SATB choir

5’

This work was commissioned by National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, in partnership with Steinberg Media / Dorico

• 'i breathe' was selected by Ty Cerdd to represent Wales at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days 2023 in South Africa.

• Nathan recieves the ‘Best Music Creator Award’ in the Making Music UK 2022 Awards, in recognition of i breathe, and his work with the National Youth Training Choirs of Great Britain.