Rainy Day
2012 – for choir
Ensemble
Choir acapella: SSAATB, also SSSSAA
Duration
3:00
Commissioned by/Premier
SSAATB version premiered and recorded by Beijing International Festival Chorus, conducted by Nicholas Michael Smith
SSSSAA version premiered and recorded by Haiyun Children’s Chorus, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, conducted by Lei Wenxia
SSSSAA version premiered and recorded by Haiyun Children’s Chorus, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, conducted by Lei Wenxia
Published by JC Link
Note
This arrangement was written on a train. I’d been itching to arrange another folksong, and after browsing through many, this one somehow stuck in my head. It’s a tune that a number of Chinese composers have used – there’s a lovely piano setting by He Shaoying for example. Perhaps because I’m English, the words, which are a short complaint about being caught in the rain without an umbrella, resonated with me. To my ear at least, the harmonies I use to set this gentle complaint are within the English tradition.
