DANCING TO A LIGHTER SKY
for Orchestra
YEAR
2025
DURATION
22′
INSTRUMENTATION
2.2(II=cor A).2.2 - 2.1.0.0 - timp - hp (opt) - strings
MOVEMENTS
AUDIO SAMPLES
SELECTED PERFORMANCES
18 July 2026, The Palace Hotel, Buxton — Cheshire Chamber Collective
26 April 2026, St. John's, Vicar's Lane, Chester — St. John's Festival Orchestra
14 June 2025, St. Michael and All Angels Church, Bramhall — Cheshire Sinfonia
COMMISSION
NOTES
This work has its origins in the countryside around the villages of Llanarmon-yn-Iâl and Eryrys, Denbighshire, in the Clwydian limestone hills and the valley of the River Alyn. The closing section quotes an ancient Welsh lullaby, Pais Dinogad.
Nominated for the Making Music Commissioning Award 2026
QUOTES
'That music made me feel like I was inside a bubble floating up into the sky, with loads of other bubbles floating around me.’ (Audience member, aged 6)
'I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dancing to a Lighter Sky, the highlight of the concert for me. I could close my eyes and visualise the gentleness and dramatic ruggedness of the Welsh landscape whilst being carried emotionally with the beautiful flow of the music.’ (Audience member)
Pais Dinogad
Pais Dinogad sydd fraith, fraith,
O groen y bela y mae'i waith.
`Chwí! Chwí!' Chwibanwaith.
Gwaeddwn ni, gwaeddant hwy - yr wyth gaeth.
Pan elai dy dad di i hela -
Gwaywffon ar ei ysgwydd, pastwn yn ei law -
Galwai ar gw+n tra chyflym,
`Giff! Gaff! Dal, dal! Dwg, dwg!'
Fe laddai bysgod o'i gwrwgl
Fel y llada llew fân-filod!
Pan elai dy dad di i'r mynydd
Deuai ef ag un iwrch, un twrch coed, un hydd,
Un rugiar fraith o fynydd,
A physgodyn o readr Derwennydd.
Beth bynnag a gyrhaeddai dy dad â'i bicell -
Boed yn dwrch, yn gath goed, yn lwynog -
Ni ddihangai'r un oni bai'n nerthol ei adenydd.
Dinogad's shift
Dinogad's shift is speckled, speckled,
It was made from the pelts of martens.
`Wee! Wee!' Whistling.
We call, they call, the eight in chains.
When your father went out to hunt -
A spear on his shoulder, a club in his hand -
He called on his lively dogs,
`Giff! Gaff! Take, take! Fetch, fetch!'
He killed fish from his coracle
Like the lion killing small animals.
When your father went to the mountains
He would bring back a roebuck, a boar, a stag,
A speckled grouse from the mountain,
And a fish from the Derwennydd falls.
At whatever your father aimed his spear -
Be it a boar, a wild cat, or a fox -
None would escape but that had strong wings.