Ballad
2025 - Mezzo Soprano & Piano
c. 10'
Commissioned by Lea Shaw as part of the and when the light returned, I, transfigured, awoke, a collaborative commission series.
Podcast conversation and score freely available via the project page.
Ballad
Down by the shore,
At the foot of the cliff,
Leaning on it’s starboard side,
By the water’s edge,
Lies the shattered broken shell of a boat.
It’s green rotted carcass picked clean,
The timber of it’s ribs ragged against the cold of the sky.
No one dare go near it.
A man sits astern they say,
Only revealed by the light of the moon. They say he is sopping wet,
Dripping slowly on the broken deck.
My Love came ashore on an Autumn day, Fair eyes caught mine as he glanced my way, His hair was black as Winter dark,
I yearned for us to never part.
He promised me love on a Winter’s day, With sigh I fell, in his arms I lay,
He said he was mine and that I was his, I gave him my heart for a tender kiss.
My love went away on a warm Spring day, He sailed with the tide at first light they say, He left me alone and with no farewell,
And left my heart cold as an empty shell.
Empty and discarded, I feel broken in two, Deceived in love like some hapless child. Wracked with fries and anger,
Acrid yellow turn mine eyes,
I was to believe his empty words were true.
I vow to find him, to bring him back to me, Searching unbound across open sea,
From clifftop I leap, gliding on the breath of the wind,
Yearning mid the peaks for the one I crave.
When twenty days and nights had passed
I found him far off shore,
I watched him toil with the crew, as I followed for two days more.
And when they turned to shore, the time was now, I knew,
To steal him back, to make him mine, this task I first must do.
I beat my wings to stir up the waves,
And whistled to muster a gale,
The clack of my beak woke lightning and thunder, Oh how the vessel did pitch and flail!
Oh see how they scuttle like scared little spiders, Scurrying this way and that,
One cries for his mother, another to god,
And one flees the ship like a rat!
Alone at the helm stood my love,
Their fate was grim, this he knew.
Hailed by my shriek he saw me perched atop the mast,
And that’s when the hull cracked in two!
Three times round went the gallant, gallant ship, And three times round went he,
And three times round went the gallant, gallant ship, Til she sunk to the bottom of the sea,
Til she sunk to the bottom of the sea.
His dark hair tangled with green knotted weed, Pale empty eyes held fast on a lonely horizon, He’ll be my love forever now, sweet songs I’ll sing to him....
Three times round went the gallant, gallant ship, And three times round went he,
And three times round went the gallant, gallant ship, Til she sunk to the bottom of the sea,
Til she sunk to the bottom of the sea.
Fergus Hall
Performances/Recordings
Lea Shaw with Javier Ucendo Malo - 29th of January 2026, Premiere performance as part of the University of Glasgow Lunchtime Concert Series.