Passhyon Agan Arloedh
Soprano, Mezzo, 2 Violins & Organ (5 mins)
Passhyon Agan Arloedh (The Passion of Our Lord) is a setting of a 259-stanza, fourteenth-century Cornish poem of the same name, which retells the story of Christ’s crucifixion. The text is the oldest complete surviving literary work in Cornish, and marks and important stage in the history of the language as it transitioned from an oral to a written tradition. The modernised Kernewek Kemmyn (Common Cornish) adaptation of the original text is used throughout, layered and juxtaposed alongside its English translation.
The piece was commissioned for the St Endellion Festival, a unique community-led festival near the Cornish town of Port Isaac which has been running annually since 1958. The cultural history of the region played a central role in the development of the piece.