Peter Lawson

Song of The Dark Red Helleborine

The Song of the Dark Red Helleborine is the seventeenth in a projected cycle of musical portraits of the forty-eight wild orchids of Britain and Ireland, and was first performed on January 4th, 1991 in the Wigmore Hall, London, by James Kirby, for whom it was written.

The Dark Red Helleborine is a rather rare, attractive and distinctive orchid, which grows on limestone pavements and cliffs in Northern England, North Wales, Scotland and Western Ireland. It is distributed widely throughout Europe and in Asia it is even found in Siberia. Although it may attain a height of two feet, it is more commonly much more stunted in exposed positions.

The harmony of the slow introduction attempts to invoke the colour of the orchid, the ensuing Allegretto its grace and charm. An Allegro leads to its pollination it finally dies back down to over-winter - on its windswept, lunar landscape - such as the Burren in County Clare.

Duration 5 1/2 minutes