William Blake

Emily Dickinson

Alfred Tennyson Baron Tennyson

Thomas Nash

George Peele

Jonathan Dove

Song Cycle for Double Chorus and Piano

The Passing of the Year

Handel called Britain the ringing isle because when he moved to London, he heard bells ringing everywhere: great bells in church towers, and hand bells in some of the first private houses he visited. The sound of people ringing the changes is a peculiarly British sound of celebration, and it seems a good starting point for a piece celebrating British musical life. Within The Ringing Isle, Dove incorporates some traditional change-ringing patterns, from 'Grandsire Doubles', 'Oxford Treble Bob Minor' and his own version of 'Plain Bob Major'. Handel's phrase also conjures up an image of a magical island, and so this is how Dove envisaged how it must have been to approach Britain from an ocean voyage.

Score & Parts

The Ringing Isle

Being the First After Bissextile Or Leap-yeare, and from the Worlds Creation (according to Scaliger, Calvisius, Helvicus, and Such Others.) 5590. Calculated Properly for the Famous University, and Towne of Cambridge, where the Pole is Elevated 52 Degr. 17 Min

Dove. An Almanack for the Yeare of Our Lord God, 1641

Jonathan Dove

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