The original wind band version of this work was commissioned by Timothy Reynish, as part of a project he and his wife Hilary began after their son William died in a tragic mountain climbing accident in the Pyrenees on May 13, 2001. The premiere was given by Baylor University Wind Ensemble, Timothy Reynish, Jones Concert Hall, Waco, Texas, Feb 2002. UK premier Birmingham Conservatoire WE, Guy Woolfenden, Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham. 10/12/2002. The premiere of this new arrangement was given by Tom Winpenny on the 18th February, 2020, as part of a Naxos recording, in Västerås Cathedral, Sweden. First UK performance was in Westminster Cathedral, London, by Tom Winpenny on the 21st of November, 2021.
The piece was inspired by an unfinished sonnet Shelley wrote after his son William died, in 1824:
My lost William, thou in whom
Some bright spirit lived, and did
That decaying robe consume
Which its luster faintly hid,
Here its ashes find a tomb.
But beneath this pyramid
Thou art not – if a thing divine
Like thee can die, thy funeral shrine
Is thy mother’s grief and mine.
Where art thou gentle child?
Let me think thy spirit feeds,
Within its life intense and mild,
The love of living leaves and weeds
Among these tombs and ruins wild;
Let me think that through low seeds
Of the sweet flowers and sunny grass,
Into their lives and scents may pass
A portion…
