Pluen (feathers) is a rather lovely twelve-minute piece by William Mival (pictured), performed at the RCM on 10 January 2019, and which reminds me that Mival’s Tristan-still is due a revival, first-performed by the BBCSO and Donald Runnicles in February 2003.
“Pluen was commissioned by The Laurence Modiano Charitable Trust in honour of the 70th birthday of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. It is a meditation on a Welsh folk song, found in an arrangement for choir by Gustav Holst; Y Glomen, the dove. Barely recognisable fragments of the original melody are woven into three extended variations followed by a conclusion. The durations of each variation deriving from the relative proportions of the three feathers in the emblematic heraldic badge of The Prince of Wales.” (Programme note © William Mival)