Grant: RTF75
Detail: RTF has commissioned a new cycle of folk songs by the British composer Joseph Phibbs, written in collaboration with the poet Robin Leanse.
The work will be written for Julia Sinclair (soprano) and Elisa La Marca (lute) and is expected to last approximately 20–25 minutes. Composition will take place during 2026, with a première currently planned for summer 2027.
The cycle will explore the atmosphere of an imagined Central European landscape after an unspecified historical rupture. Rather than telling a direct narrative, the work will reflect on memory, cultural residue, and survival — themes that resonate with literary worlds associated with writers such as Gregor von Rezzori, Christoph Ransmayr, Julien Gracq and Ursula K. Le Guin. Words and music will be developed collaboratively, allowing text and musical form to shape one another organically.
This is the third commission the Richard Thomas Foundation has given to Joseph Phibbs. Previous commissions include the Piano Preludes (2017) and String Quartet No. 4, premiered and recorded by the Piatti Quartet and released by RTF in 2024.
The new cycle will be written specifically for the voice of Julia Sinclair and the distinctive sonorities of the lute. Alongside the première performances, the Foundation plans to make a recording pairing the new work with songs from the sixteenth-century Spanish royal songbook, placing the commission in dialogue with earlier traditions of voice and plucked string accompaniment.
March 2026
Lutenist after a painting by Albert Reuss