Judith Weir’s All the Ends of the Earth

[HBrock25]

I’ve just been requested to play in a concert with a chamber choir, one of the items on the programme being Weir’s All the Ends of the Earth.

I am of Grade 8 standard, but the concert does fall neatly into the middle of exam season. I’ve asked for the music to be sent to me so I can see what I could potentially be getting myself into, and I will ask my teacher what she thinks the best course of action is. However, being of the NOW generation, I was wondering if anyone on this forum has played the piece and what they thought of the difficulty level. Should an 18 year old A-level student with exams to study for (but a harpist of reasonable competence) reject this offer outright or give it a go? I know this post will probably get a host of replies along the lines of “only I can know what I’m capable of”, but I just want to know if this piece is notoriously horrible or something. How does it compare, say, with Britten’s Ceremony of Carols?

(Another factor that is worth considering is that I recently started learning with a new teacher. I was with my old teacher for 10 years. It turns out that my old teacher was terrible and taught me wrong. Not just a different method, but wrong (for example, my wrist clicks in five places and I go through phases when it hurts a lot – turns out I’ve had mild RSI for the last 4ish years). Now I’m re-learning, but I’m eager to learn and my new teacher doesn’t think it will take me long to forget the problems of the past and get my head – and fingers – round the Renie method.)

[Parker Ramsay]

I am familiar with Judith Weir’s music as an organist, not as a harpist. But if her organ writing is anyting to go by, her compositional style ix extremely complex. I played ‘Ascendning into Heaven’ when I was 18,

[Author]

Posts