Compositions

All the Moon Long takes its inspiration from five lines of Dylan Thomas' exuberant poem about youth, Fern Hill. The eight linked sections of the piece each have a tempo/character marking drawn from the poem. In this way, the performers can “read along” with the text. The composer worked from an image somewhere between a Chagall painting (a dreamscape) and a noh play (slow-moving set scenes). The sound of the sea is omnipresent.
And nightly under the simple stars
As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away,
All the moon long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars
Flying with the ricks, and the horses
Flashing into the dark.
– Dylan Thomas

All the Moon Long was commissioned for the National Youth Brass Band of Wales by Ty Cerdd - Music Centre Wales and first performed July 25, 2015, in Gwyn Hall, Neath, by the NYBBW conducted by Phil Harper.