The Welsh word ‘tirlun’ refers to the idea of landscape and also to the relationship people have with their surroundings. When I was approached to compose this work for the Ulster Orchestra I was asked if I could create music in response to the landscape of my native Wales. I thought about the area that I grew up in, where highly industrialised communities existed amongst the beautiful landscapes of the South Wales Valleys creating stark contrasts between nature and industry. At the time I was also reading poetry by T. H. Parry Williams; the following passage provided an initial stimulus for the piece.
Ni byddaf yn siwr pwy ydwyf yn iawn Mewn iseldiroedd bras a di-fawn
- Mae cochni fy ngwaed ers canrifoedd hir Yn gwybod fod rhagor rhwng tir a thir.
Ond gwn pwy wyf, os caf innau fryn A mawndir a phabwyr a chraig a llyn.
I don’t know who I am On rich lowland lacking peat
- Down the centuries my red blood Has sensed the differences between land and land.
But I know who I am, if given a hill Peat-bog and rushes, rock and lake.
T. H. Parry Williams (1887-1975)
Reviews
‘Bowden’s Tirlun displayed huge confidence with the orchestral medium’ / Wales Arts Review ‘The Welsh landscape which was evoked contrasted the stillness of nature with the busyness of industry, and was founded on a solid bedrock of musical material’ / Seen & Heard International
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