Strange Stars takes as its inspiration Thomas Hardyʼs poem 'Drummer Hodge'. A Wessex boy myself, I learnt the poem when I was young and have often thought about basing a piece around it. The poem tells the tale of a young soldier who is killed in the Boer wars and is buried in an unmarked grave, far from home. The poem makes three references to the 'strange stars' of the distant land and my piece tries to emulate this hauntingly beautiful imagery. The piece is a form of nocturne; the opening is inspired by the idea of a cortege (I liked the idea of giving the solider the ceremony he deserved yet never received) whilst the middle section centres around the 'strange stars' which the solider rose to nightly view.
This composition has been published as a prize winning entry for the inaugural Léon Goossens Prize 2016.
