John Greening is currently editing an anthology of poetry on classical music: ACCOMPANIED VOICES: POETS ON COMPOSERS FROM BYRD TO ARVO PART.

His cycle of poems, Falls, commissioned by the Dunedin Consort (www.dunedin-consort.org.uk) for Morrison’s engineering, was set to music by Paul Mottram and given its first performance in the Wigmore Hall in June 2000.  It has subsequently toured in Scotland and Canada.

In her review of the concert for Edinburgh Evening News Susan Nickalls wrote:

‘At the heart of the Dunedin Consort’s American journey is ‘Falls’, a new commission by Paul Mottram to poems by John Greening.

The falls in question are not just any old stream of water, but the mighty Niagara itself.  However, here they bear silent witness to the weird and wonderful antics by people who became famous through their association with the Falls.

These include diver Sam Patch who drowned, the tightrope walker Blondin and Annie Edson Taylor who went over the Falls in a barrel declaring with hindsight: ‘Nobody ought ever to do that again.’

Mottram’s inspired settings bring out the element of ridiculousness in each of these bizarre stories without losing sight of the basic human desire to confront and conquer nature….’

The poem ‘Sestina for the Six Wives’ from The Coastal Path was used by the composer James Brown as the basis for his opera, Dearly Beheaded, premiered in Sheffield in February 2004.  James is currently working on a setting of the poem sequence The Tutankhamun Variations. 

Recent music reviews for the TLS include biographies of Sibelius, Rubbra, Imogen Holst and essays by Robin Holloway.

John Greening is interested in collaborating with composers: see contact page.

Poems by John Greening about music:  Holst and Death in Aldeburgh.

John Greening is collaborating with the composer David Gibbs in a choral piece for the Kimbolton School choir and orchestra, for performance in 2008.