Peter Lawson

Song of The Fragrant Orchid

The Song of the Fragrant Orchid was completed in 1986. It is dedicated to Frances Ann Brookes and Damaris Wollen who took part in its first performance in London, which was accompanied by myself. It was the eighth to be written in a cycle of instrumental and orchestral depictions of the forty-eight wild orchids of Britain and Ireland, of which twenty-nine have been composed to date. It also exists, in a slightly more eccentric version, for soprano, violin and piano as the Song of the Marsh Fragrant Orchid (GM079), which is a more localised variant which is arguably not fragrant at all, as it smells of cloves. In both versions, the soprano sings without words, at times indulging in a degree of vocal acrobatics.

The Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) is a familiar sight in meadows and downs and has a fairly loose spike of sweetly-scented pink, sometimes white, flowers. The downland connotations with England inspired the Elgarian germ from which the piece grows. It consists of two continuous sections. The first of these is intended to evoke, to some extent, our impressions of the orchid and the second is, fancifully, the 'song' of the orchid itself - intoxicated, as it were, in its own perfume. Peter Lawson
Duration 7 minutes