Gillian Whitehead: Hotspur (1981) - I sit with my ladies

Abstract

Hotspur was commissioned by Musicon, with funds from Northern Arts, and was written while Fleur Adcock (librettist) and Gillian Whitehead were both Fellows of the University of Newcastleupon- Tyne. Decorative banners by Gretchen Albrecht were commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wellington. The first performance was at Durham, by the Gemini ensemble, conducted by Peter Weigold, with Margaret Field (soprano), on 1 February 1981. Hotspuns the lament of Elizabeth Mortimer, wife of Henry Percy, the 14th century North of England warrior known as 'Hotspur'. While writing it in Northumberland, not so far from the site of the battle of Otterburn, I was very aware of the harsh quality of life in these border regions in Hotspur's day, when skirmishing and reiving were the means of survival in a wild and exposed, though beautiful, landscape and a climate sometimes benign but often treacherous. Something of this has influenced the music. The text called for a certain simplicity (although the piece is not simple technically): the vocal line especially had to be direct and could not depart very far from the idea of the ballad, except in the reflective middle movement and in the recurring prophetic sections. The instrumental sections sometimes accompany, sometimes comment on, and sometimes reinforce the expression of the text; often they contrast suggestions of movement and stillness, or of battle sounds and the sounds of nature.