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About this arrangement

Baritone and string orchestra - Grade 4 SKU: ET.V103B Composed by Roger Steptoe. Contemporary. Orchestra score. Editions BIM #V103B. Published by Editions BIM (ET.V103B). ISBN 9790207019639.Four Shakespeare Sonnets for baritone and string orchestra (or piano) have been composed to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare in this year 2014. I have been an avid song writer throughout the 40-or-so years as a professional concert composer. I am drawn to the images of fine poetry and have set words for all voices. But this is my first venture into the world of a solo voice and string orchestra. These four Sonnets have been chosen for their unified theme of love – the anguish and cruelties, the charms, lust, immortality and sheer joy. Various themes and harmonic sequences appear and reappear uniting the four testaments of love in their many guises. The fourth Sonnet is of utmost importance structurally with its lush and sensual harmonies and heavily divided strings. The world Premiere of the version with string orchestra has been given in England by The Orchestra of the Swan and The Welsh Chamber Orchestra with the works dedicatee, baritone Jeremy Huw Williams, in May, June and November 2014, with conductor Anthony Hose.