NO-MAN’S-LAND LULLABY

Eleanor Alberga
(b. Kingston, Jamaica, 1949)

Composed 1996; 11 minutes

Winning the Royal Schools of Music Scholarship for the West Indies at the age of 19 took Eleanor Alberga to London and the Royal Academy of Music, studying piano and singing. She has since been Musical Director of The London Contemporary Dance Theatre and, since then, developed a full-time career composing. In 2015, her commissioned work ARISE, ATHENA! opened the Last Night of the BBC Proms. Her calming No-Man’s-Land Lullaby is a gentle duo that only reveals its secret at the end. Eleanor Alberga tells how the piece came about:

Visiting parts of central Europe over the summer of 1996, I was struck by the almost unreal beauty of the landscapes. Yet, I received a heavy sadness in the atmosphere that took me back to the events of half a century ago, some of which had been played out against this very scenery. At the same time, I was visited by a melody. It arrived unbidden and would not leave me alone. It seemed, however, to offer comfort.

It was the imagery of the First World War that finally brought these things together, especially the image of men dying slowly and uncomforted in a place called ’No-man’s-land.’ I am especially indebted to Paul Fussell’s book The Great War and Modern Memory for laying out so clearly the life of soldiers in the trenches. The piece is cast in three sections and is entirely based on the melody that emerges most identifiably towards the end.