After he’d written the words for Narcissus and Echo I asked Simon Littlefield whether he would write a larger-scale poem, again based on a mythological tale. After some research Simon settled on Eros and Psyche. He managed to tell the epic story across four poems which I then scored in chronological order. I wrote this song cycle with soprano Grace Davidson in mind, in the knowledge that she could multi-track her voice in the studio. The songs are written and arranged in such a way that the soprano sings as a narrator as opposed to singing from the perspective of the characters depicted in the story. It is scored for sopranos and orchestra, joined by harpist Oliver Wass and pianist Huw Watkins.

from notes by Oliver Davis © 2021