Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
‘Claribel’ is a setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1830 poem of the same name, composed in 2024 for cello, soprano, and mixed chorus. The text, describing the surroundings about a young woman’s grave is sombre in subject. Through expressive use of timbre, form, and harmonic structure, this work endeavours to enhance these descriptions of the surrounding life; its sounds, gestures, and mourning of the tragedy of youthful repose.
I
Where Claribel low-lieth
The breezes pause and die,
Letting the rose-leaves fall:
But the solemn oak-tree sigheth,
Thick-leaved, ambrosial,
With an ancient melody
Of an inward agony,
Where Claribel low-lieth.
II
At eve the beetle boometh
Athwart the thicket lone:
At noon the wild be hummeth
About the moss’d headstone:
At midnight the moon cometh,
And looketh down alone.
Her song the lintwhite swelleth,
The clear-voiced mavis dwelleth,
The callow throstle lispeth,
The slumbrous wave outwelleth,
The babbling runnel crispeth,
The hollow grot replieth
Where Claribel low-lieth.
Performed by Eve Parker-Groves and Lydia Joyce (sopranos), Helen Oliver and Lizzie Summers (altos), Kassandra Wang and DJ Hopkinson (tenors), Johniel Bocacao and Lias Morris (basses) and Tomos Christie (cello) at the Lilburn Trust / NZSM Composers Competition, Hunter Council Chamber, 4 October 2025.
Audio engineered by Thorin Williams and mixed/mastered by Graham Kennedy. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
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Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
‘Claribel’ is a setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 1830 poem of the same name, composed in 2024 for cello, soprano, and mixed chorus. The text, describing the surroundings about a young woman’s grave is sombre in subject. Through expressive use of timbre, form, and harmonic structure, this work endeavours to enhance these descriptions of the surrounding life; its sounds, gestures, and mourning of the tragedy of youthful repose.
I
Where Claribel low-lieth
The breezes pause and die,
Letting the rose-leaves fall:
But the solemn oak-tree sigheth,
Thick-leaved, ambrosial,
With an ancient melody
Of an inward agony,
Where Claribel low-lieth.
II
At eve the beetle boometh
Athwart the thicket lone:
At noon the wild be hummeth
About the moss’d headstone:
At midnight the moon cometh,
And looketh down alone.
Her song the lintwhite swelleth,
The clear-voiced mavis dwelleth,
The callow throstle lispeth,
The slumbrous wave outwelleth,
The babbling runnel crispeth,
The hollow grot replieth
Where Claribel low-lieth.
Performed by Eve Parker-Groves and Lydia Joyce (sopranos), Helen Oliver and Lizzie Summers (altos), Kassandra Wang and DJ Hopkinson (tenors), Johniel Bocacao and Lias Morris (basses) and Tomos Christie (cello) at the Lilburn Trust / NZSM Composers Competition, Hunter Council Chamber, 4 October 2025.
Audio engineered by Thorin Williams and mixed/mastered by Graham Kennedy. Filmed and edited by Chris Watson for SOUNZ. Film funded by NZ On Air.
--
Learn more about the composers and performers of music from Aotearoa New Zealand on our website (sounz.org.nz), or by following us on Facebook (@SOUNZnz), Instagram (@sounz_nz), or TikTok (@sounz_nz).
#nzmusic
