Arnold Cooke

Nocturnes for Soprano, Horn and Piano (1956)

Arnold Cooke was an English composer who studied with Paul Hindemith. He had a talent for setting English literature, and the texts for his Nocturnes are by five British poets: Percy Shelley, Lord Alfred Tennyson, D. H. Lawrence, Isaac Rosenberg, and John Davidson. While the first three poets are well-known, Rosenberg is remembered for his poetry depicting the trenches of World War I, while Davidson was a lesser-known Scottish educator, translator, journalist, poet and playwright.

Traditional symbols of night and death are portrayed in each poem, much like Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, and Franz Schubert's Auf dem Strom. Cooke's masterful use of text-painting makes the poetry come alive in haunting and beautiful ways.