On 21 July, 2025, the BBC Proms are presenting 'Monologues for the Curious', a new, 25 minute, contemporary classical work for tenor and orchestra by composer Tom Coult, based on fragments from M.R. James stories. It will be performed by singer Allan Clayton and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, on a bill with Mahler's Seventh.
The composer is no stranger to the supernatural and fantastic. He has written 'Spirit of the Staircase', for 17 instruments (2016), 'Inventions (for Heath Robinson)', for piano (2019), 'Two Nocturnes and A Maze', for horn, viola and piano (2022), 'Three Pieces That Disappear', for orchestra' (2023) and 'Black Shuck Lament', for tenor and strings (2025).
The last of these "uses extracts from contemporary accounts of 'black shuck', a demonic black dog that seems to have roamed East Anglia from around the 12th century, terrorising locals . . .".
Tom Coult's recent debut album, Pieces That Disappear, is available from NMC Recordings.
(Mark Valentine)
His music defiitely sounds worth checcking out!
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