Rye Rambles

Rye Rambles is a tone poem in three continuous sections written in 2019 and based on material from Rye Festival Suite, a work for string orchestra and harp composed for the 40th anniversary Rye Arts Festival in 2011.

While walking through the cobbled streets for which the ancient town of Rye is famous and which, though now thronged with tourists, once echoed to the clatter of horse-drawn carriages, we encounter Morris Dancers whose presence unites past and present.

We find ourselves on nearby Romney Marsh, a mystical landscape where isolated and redundant churches echo to the ghostly chanting of plainsong and Church of England hymns are sung in churches still in use.

Rye was once a busy seaport and The Mermaid Inn was the haunt of notorious smuggling gangs. We eavesdrop across the centuries as a fiddler strikes up and an unruly nautical knee-up ensues.