composer

Ford, Ron

General: Ronald Ford was born September 29, 1959 in Kansas City, U.S.A. He moved to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1983. Education: Ford studied composition, piano and computer engineering at the Duke ...

related works

Red, white and blues : Dutch new blues pieces, for piano, 1996-2006, Volume 2

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Piano
Instruments: pf

Kinderkreuzzug 1939 : for mezzo-soprano, baritone, speaker and orchestra, 1984, revision 1990 / text: Bertolt Brecht, Benjamin Ashkenazy

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Vocal Ensemble (2-12) and orchestra
Instruments: sopr-m bar recit 4444 4331 3perc pf str

Drie duetten : voor sopraan, alt en strijkorkest, (1936) / op Middelnederlandsche teksten van Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Henk Badings

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Vocal Ensemble (2-12) and orchestra
Instruments: sopr alt str

Stemmen uit het Labyrint : = Stimmen aus dem Labyrinth, voor drie zangstemmen en orkest, für drei Singstimmen und Orchester, 1962/1963 / Peter Schat

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Vocal Ensemble (2-12) and orchestra
Instruments: alt ten bas 3333 sar 4332 timp 4perc hp pf str(0.13.10.8.)

composition

Londonsong : for soprano, baritone and orchestra, 1997 / on English traditional rhymes, Ron Ford

Contains:
Knightsbridge
Peckham rye
King's cross
Cornhill
Hammersmith
Shepherd's bush
The Welsh harp
The angel
Description:
Program note (English): Londonsong can be characterized as a collection of eight short - sometimes very short - songs that are joined into one continuous chain. The text come from the collection Nursery Rhymes of London Town by Eleanor Farjon from 1916 although these are not children's poems in the strict sense. In form, they exhibit the short phrases and images characteristic of children's poetry, but the texts themselves go beyond that of a simple children's poem. They describe playful and fantasy-like images of different locations in London. The quickly changing emotions and clear-cut formal structure of the texts made a setting for two singers necassary, wherein they sing together sometimes, other as a monologue, and sometimes together in dialogue. But Londonsong should be seen as more than just a set of songs, it is rather a chain of glimpses, wherein themes appear and vanish, only tp reappear later under a different guise. The use of the orchestra is very diverse, sometimes vertically harmonic,
sometimes no more than a shadow of the voice line, and sometimes almost percussive, all of which results in an undercurrent of image and meaning, an extra voice. - RON FORD