Kubla Khan

Alan Rawsthorne was born in Haslingden, Lancashire. He spent a period of training as a dentist, and not until his early twenties did he take up music seriously. After the war - during which Rawsthorne served in the Army - he devoted the bulk of his time to composition. Rawsthorne was awarded the CBE in 1961, and was made an Honorary Doctor of Music by Liverpool, Essex, and Belfast Universities. He died in Cambridge on 24 July 1971.Edward Harper was born in in Taunton, Somerset. He studied at Christ Church, Oxford and later with Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music, London. For over forty years Edward Harper was on the staff of the Faculty of Music at Edinburgh University, where he was a Senior Lecturer. He was also Director of the New Music Group of Scotland which he founded in 1973, and he has been described as 'playing a crucial part in opening Scotland's ears to fresh musical experience'. Edward Harper died on 12 April 2009.

The choral parts are not too taxing, and though the piano part is, the work is crying out to be performed with orchestra. Well worth having a go at for something slightly different, if you've got the sizeable orchestral forces to cope with it.