Dorset composer - Rick Birley
  • HOME [and contact form]
    • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Symphony ["little bird"]
    • Bishops & Clerks
    • Latin Primer
    • Maverick
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Chamber Symphony in Five Movements
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Chansons de France
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Olympian Glories
    • Piano Concerto
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Romney Facets
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
    • Blaydon Races
  • Compositions [Choral]
    • Compositions [choral/orch] - SACRED >
      • Advent Carol Succession >
        • Advent Carol Succession notes
      • Songs of Time
    • Compositions [Choral/Orch] - SECULAR >
      • Fern Hill
      • Universal Truth
      • The Jackdaw of Rheims
      • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SACRED] >
      • Three Motets
      • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
      • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Compositions [Choral a capella SECULAR] >
      • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
      • The Cuckoo
      • Dance to your Daddy
      • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
      • The Willow Song
      • In Vernali Tempore
      • My Love in her Attire
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Compositions [Vocal] SECULAR >
      • Edges
      • Seven Folksong Ballads
      • Hardy Songs
    • Compositions [vocal] SACRED >
      • The Virgin's Song
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Past Tense
    • in memoriam G B
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • March Wind
    • Preludes [piano]
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Piano Sonata
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
    • Miscellaneous
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
  • Rick Birley Blog
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert

Index

Actaeon ii


Actaeon
fresh faced innocent
away with his dogs
not possibly averting his gazing fate
sees Diana naked
sees her moistness
sees her angry
frozen flesh
crimson flush of shame and rage
rising
dripping waters from perfect form
and glistens in sunlit glade

virgin nymphs astonished
in unclothed disbelief
of bold and beauteous youth
entering
such privacy

awesome majesty
fearsome paralysis
transfixed

Diana
crimson enraged disgrace
on with her gown
not possibly avoiding her wounded pride
sees Actaeon hapless
sees his chaos
sees his distress
sees his fearful
frozen form
bronzed build of mighty sinew
mutating
shaggy features of witless stag
and quivers in this scented space

virgin nymphs bewildered
in obvious disbelief
of bold and beauteous youth
enduring
such exchange
petrified creature
fearsome paralysis 
transfixed

Hounds
pack-trained hunters
up with the trail
not possibly eluding their basic urge
see Actaeon helpless


tear him down
tear his flesh
tear his eyes
bloodied meat
torn limb from limb torn
dying
fading spirit of fated boy
and expires in bewildered
virgin nymphs astounded
in apparent disbelief
of bold and daring youth
suffering
such slaughter

innocence nowhere
found again
on the forest floor


Cae Rhedyn 16.viii.98






(c) 2017 Rick Birley