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Programme Note

The Lily-White Rose, a setting of an anonymous fifteenth/sixteenth century text, is a
movement from Songs of the Garden, for soloists, chorus and ensemble or full
orchestra. While the original idea was fired by an eighteenth-century Japanese book
of poems and pictures, in the event this was quickly overtaken by a choice of
favourite poems in English by Clare, Herrick, Skelton, Hardy, Blake, Whitman, and,
in this case, Anonymous, all on subjects concerned with Nature, whether in general or
more specific. This particular movement was accompanied, in the original version, by
organ alone, and seemed a suitable gift for the King’s Singers, to thank them for their
performances of my music.
John McCabe