The Black Lake - Festival Edition, Narrative Cantata based on the novel Un Nos Ola Leuad, "One Moonlit Night" by Caradog Prichard for SATB choir, soprano, 2 narrators & chamber orchestra. The Black Lake - composer’s note The narrative of the young boy in Caradog Prichard’s semi-autobiographical novel has a dreamlike quality, mingling scenes from his native village of Bethesda in North Wales with its surroundings in the years leading up to and during the First World War. Central to the boy’s life is the figure of his Mam, whose mental decline and subsequent confinement in Denby Asylum forms the central crisis of the novel. In these musical scenes, whose texts are drawn from Prichard’s novel, he recalls the mysterious Queen Of The Black Lake; his Mam’s poignant singing of the Welsh hymn Cyfammod; her description of a Welsh Revivalist meeting; the Sunday in church when a young pregnant woman is refused Communion; Mam’s decline and journey to Denby Asylum; his return to the Black Lake and farewell to its mysterious Queen. The reprises of the Queen of The Black Lake incantation and the Welsh hymn Cyfammod in my new choral arrangement form an arch structure, both choruses altered as a result of the intervening musical journey. The Boy is characterised by a solo clarinet, playful and exuberant in the first half of the work, then tragic and keening as the story of his Mam’s mental decline becomes clear. Three motifs dominate the work, each of them presented in different guises as it progresses. The opening soft violin motif, with rising minor thirds recurs often, sometimes violently as the stormy introduction to Grace Ellen’s aria. Also at the beginning is a descending horn theme, now with a prominent descending minor third. This second theme becomes the Boy’s lament and is heard right up to the final bars of the cantata. In the Sunday Morning Church scene a rising horn followed by descending fourths is associated with hope, angels and nourishment, and forms the choral climax “I hungered for the bread of life and was satisfied.” The Black Lake was initially envisioned as a narrative cantata featuring a large choir, soprano solo, two narrators and orchestra. This version was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival and premiered at Hereford Cathedral in 2025. This is the ‘Festival’ version which was recorded live on 27 July 2025 at Hereford Cathedral. Later, I restructured the piece by removing the narration to align it with my other major choral works, including Mirror of Perfection, Voices of Exile, Not in Our Time, and Pietá. In the revised edition, I removed twenty minutes of material and incorporated new choral elements into the composition. This version was recorded with Britten Sinfonia and Voices, soprano Elizabeth Watts, conducted by David Hill and is released by Lyrita SRCD.452. © Richard Blackford