Composer Tom Coult (Albi Rosenthal Visiting Fellow, 2021) will see the premiere of his song cycle, ‘Clippings and Fragments,’ at the Oxford Lieder Festival on 18 October 2021.
The work was commissioned by the Festival for its 20th year, and draws upon the Bodleian Library’s John Johnson collection of printed ephemera. This rich and diverse assemblage of often-overlooked items is one of the largest and most important collections of printed ephemera in the world. It offers a fresh view of British history through documents which, produced for short-term use, have survived by chance, including advertisements, handbills, playbills and programmes, menus, greetings cards, posters and postcards.
The Lieder Festival ‘Nature’s Songbook,’ 8-23 October 2021, takes place both in person and online. This will include a performance of ‘Clippings and Fragments’ by soprano Anna Dennis and speaker John Reid, a conversation with Tom Coult, and a film which looks into Coult’s creative process, and ephemera from the John Johnson collection.
A blogpost by Tom Coult outlines the commission.