Quick Facts
- A “miniature tone poem” for clarinet and piano written in 1939, early on in Gipps’s career when she was a student at the Royal College of Music.
- The piece was written around the same time that the composer began a relation with her future husband, clarinetist Robert Baker.
About the Piece
- The Kelpie of Corrievreckan is based on a Scottish legend as written by poet Charles Mackay (1814-89). The poem comes from his 1851 collection, Legends of the Isles and Other Poems.
- According to the legend, a woman leaves her lover after falling in love with a Kelpie who lives at the bottom of the famous whirlpool between the Scottish isles of Jura and Scarba called Corrievreckan (or Corryvreckan). The woman ends up drowning in the turbulent waters.
- *A Kelpie is a water spirit that often embodies the shape of a horse.1
- According to the legend, a woman leaves her lover after falling in love with a Kelpie who lives at the bottom of the famous whirlpool between the Scottish isles of Jura and Scarba called Corrievreckan (or Corryvreckan). The woman ends up drowning in the turbulent waters.
Sources
- Notes in accompanying booklet, Dedication – The Clarinet Chamber Music of Ruth Gipps performed by Peter Cigleris and Duncan Honeybourne, Somm 641, 2021, compact disc.
Cut IDs
25016