Not no faceless Angel

Tanya Lake was seventeen years old when she wrote this poem as a member of the Royal College of Music Junior Department Chamber Choir.  The text was born out of Gabriel Jackson being commissioned to write a piece for this ensemble.  Gabriel Jackson states in his program notes (found under on the OUP webpage for this piece, under "Description" HERE): "To give the students a greater sense of ownership of the piece, they were asked if any of them would like to submit any texts they had written and Tanya Lake, who was seventeen at the time, offered us her remarkable poem.  It is a powerful meditation on memory and loss, full of the kind of vivid and potent images that invite musical setting."