ELAINE AGNEW is a rising composer residing in Belfast. She was a commissioned composer at the 2012 BBC Proms and the premiere of Dark Hedges for double orchestra and solo flute in the Royal Albert Hall in London adds to her already impressive output of works that have been commissioned, performed and broadcast worldwide. Mostly Me was premiered by children from Music Generation Wicklow in the Mermaid Theatre in Bray, and Everyone Sang premiered at the National Concert Hall in Dublin celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir. Elaine's Strings A-stray opened the Irish Chamber Orchestra's celebratory concert at the Konzerthaus in Berlin to mark the 2013 German launch of Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Elaine was appointed as the first RTÉ lyric female Composer in Residence in 2008 in association with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.

Track of the Month DECEMBER 2019:

"Regreen" by Elaine Agnew
You're listening to the premiere of this TMF commission, a setting of the TMF LiberArte poem ​by Irish poet Justin Quinn, performed by the Boston Children's Chorus in Prague. We offer it this month for its themes of hope and renewal, and we wish you a peaceful and joyous holiday season.

The premiere at Prague's Spanish Synagogue. Photo by Michael J. Lutch.

---

REGREEN
Poem by Justin Quinn

Green comes even so
from cracked concrete, bare
black branches. The doe
rocks to the roe-deer.
Pollen everywhere,
on me, even here,
 
as I walk past the fields, along the road.
 
Summer’s coming in,
is the track I sing.
Inside a dark inn
the girl who brings my beer
has lots of the spring
in her, oh, even here.
 
Then I walk towards the fields, along the road.
 
There are people packed
like leaves through the ground
in each plot and tract,
dozing, year on year,
tossing and turning round
gently — even here
 
where I walk past the fields, along the road.
 
These ones sing their airs
from lodgings in the earth,
asking me, who cares,
and who’d like to hear
what they’ve left of mirth
even now and here,
 
when I walk past the fields, along the road.
 
I will rot like wood
no matter how I flee.
Still, the day is good.
Old songs learnt by ear
make free, oh, make free
with me — even here
 
as I walk past the fields, along the road.

Listen here to more music in our Track of the Month Series.