‘The bluebells sleep now
beside the apple tree down deep
in the sheltering soil’

Reviews

"I heard found in the rain on Classic FM this evening and what an inspirational and moving piece of music it is."

"It is entrancing, beguiling, enigmatic and exciting - all at the same time. If you like Debussy or Ravel (pavane pour une infante ...) try this. I am hopeful that my my wife will let me borrow her newly acquired CD!"

"Gorgeous piece of piano music on Classic FM this morning, which reminded me of the theme tune to Beatrix Potter (sung by Miriam Stockley). It was called Wind in the Grasses, by Helen Habershon."

"I have only heard ‘A million ….’ once, last night on CFM .Towards the end of the piece some of the intervals reminded me of Johann Sebastian."

"I was driving home a few nights ago and I was listening to Classic FM and heard your wonderful piece Found in the Rain with your simply beautiful clarinet playing."

"was listening to your CD on the way to work this morning and found it very soothing driving through the city traffic."

"I've heard one of your pieces on the radio over the weekend (For Rowena) and thought it was absolutely beautiful."

"I listen to all genres of music and this is the most enchanted peaceful album, words cannot express the beauty of it. Listeners are enticed into the music, its changes in rhythm, melody and mood will soothe the soul and inspire the imagination . The compositions are so unique and every time i listen to them they sound different. If i was stranded on a desert island this is the album i would want to have with me. Buy it now!"

Helen explains Found in the Rain.......

When I write, the pieces often seem to unfold, like a storyteller telling a tale. Each note seems to find its place and flow quite naturally into a predestined tapestry. I feel that this music is gifted from a beautiful source of truth and that we are here to learn both individually and as a collective ‘one’.

I feel that Nature holds many, if not all, the answers and most of my pieces in this group reflect this in some way. I often sit in the long grasses and find myself becoming part of their world. This is a great honour as they are able to teach us if we are willing to learn. Many of us, if we take time to reflect, have reached a feeling of peace and joyfulness when we are in a place of natural beauty and have felt that somehow in the big picture nothing really matters.

‘A Million Years Ago’ was inspired when I was by the sea in Brittany – my imagination took me back in time. In nature we see life and death as a natural cycle. As my father described in his poem ‘The Robin’...

‘The bluebells sleep now beside the apple tree down deep in the sheltering soil locked in the age old cycle of birth, death and rebirth’

It seems appropriate here to single out three people, who though no longer with us, have greatly influenced and inspired me in their different ways: my father William Saunders, my great friend Rowena Tunnell, and the Russian writer Anna Akhmatova.

My father and Rowena, even close to her own death, greatly encouraged me with their unwavering belief in my music and constantly urged me to keep going so that others could hear it.

I include two poems: one as a tribute to my father taken from his book ‘Yesterday’s Dreams’ and the other by the poet Mikhail Lamontov. Both give voice to the importance and influence of nature.

My piece ‘Anna Akhmatova’ was written as a result of having read her poem ‘Requiem’. This poem, in the midst of all the horror of the Russian Revolution, shows how inextricably linked we are with nature and how it shares our pain. ....‘while the river flows gently, the yellow moonlight....leaps the sill and stops astonished as it sees the shade of a woman lying ill. ... ‘ .

I was so affected by Akhmatova’s sheer brilliance in capturing the emotion of a people pushed beyond all limits of human suffering and endurance that I found myself almost taken over by a hugely powerful force of inspiration; this piece was the result. The loud, striking, discordant notes in my piece just happened as I composed and I think they represent a sense of alarm, possibly a siren in the prison.

Here is the reason for the poem in Akhmatova’s own words.….

During the frightening years of the Yezhov terror, I spent seventeen months waiting in prison queues in Leningrad.
One day, somehow, someone ‘picked me out’.
On that occasion there was a woman standing behind me with blue lips, who recognised me, and whispered “Could you describe this?”
And I answered - ‘Yes I believe I can.’
It was then that something like a smile slid across what had once been a face.

Up On The High Moor
The great silver hearted moon
hangs up there in a black blue sky
full rounded, prime, proud, beautiful,
waiting, waiting, for company.
Up on the high moor,
beyond the little houses where little people
say little things during little lives,
the silver rays strike the tors
and shimmer them into a life
that presses fingers to lips
in a profound silver silence.
Up on the high moor,
beyond the littleness of argument and bickering,
a great truth is once again being shown;
the great truth that beauty has
a power to dissipate corruption,
jealousy, greed, hatred and selfishness.
Up on the high moor now,
bathed in silver moonlight,
The truth is dancing.
From ‘Yesterday’s Dreams’ by William Saunders

A poem by Mikhail Lamentov, written in 1837.
When the yellowing cornfield sways,
and the cool forest rustles to the sound of the breeze,
and in the garden,
the crimson plum hides beneath the green leaf’s luscious shade;
when on a rose-coloured evening or in the golden hour of morning,
the silvery lily of the valley, sprinkled with fragrant dew,
nods its head to me in friendly greeting from underneath a bush;
when the cold spring dances down the glen,
and lulling thought into an uncertain dream,
murmurs to me a mysterious saga of the peaceful land from which it sped;
then my soul’s anxiety is stilled,
the furrows on my brow are smoothed,
I am able to comprehend happiness on earth,
and in heaven I see God.
Finally, I would like to thank all my own family and the many people who
encouraged me with their love and support.
Photography: ©Georgina Clifford 2009 | Recording Engineer: Simon Haram.