A few months ago, Gramophone and NMC launched a competition based around the NMC Songbook. We invited readers to vote for their favourite from a selection of 10 songs from the box set.

Almost 100 composers were approached by NMC in 2007 to write a song, and the resulting recording offered a fascinating and richly enjoyable exploration of composition in Britain today, and went on to win the Contemporary category at the 2009 Gramophone Awards. You can read more about the project in a Gramophone article from 2009.

NMC created an online map, on which the 10 songs’ ‘location’ - defined as where the composer lived or is based, or due to some other local link, such as the text used – was marked with a pink pin. Clicking on the pin played the song, and you could also listen to excerpts from other songs from the set. The map is still online, and you can explore it here: NMC Songbook Map.

The composer most voted for was Norwich-born composer Edward Rushton. His song ‘With my Whip’ sets a text by Samuel Pepys, and was performed by baritone George Mosley and pianist Iain Burnside.

Edward Rushton says:

“A friend recommended Pepys' quirky prose to me when I was looking for English material to set for my contribution to the NMC Songbook. As I'm sure most people are, I was especially attracted to the more scurrilous and spaced-out side of Pepys. Since the diary entries that show his human flaws tend to be bite-sized, it was clear they would make ideal songs.
 
"I sat in the coffee shop of the British Library and sketched the song in one go, the nervy rhythms of the piano part falling naturally in to place to scuff and stratch against the singer's laconic declamation.
 
"‘With my Whip’ has since become the fifth song in a cycle of five Pepys diary entries called To Bed, which will be premiered in Leeds in March by the baritone Richard Burkhard and me on the piano.”

Rushton’s isn’t the only piece from the NMC Songbook to have developed into something larger: Anthony Payne and Martin Butler’s songs have both since developed into cycles, and Gerald Barry’s into an opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, which will be premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 7 next year.

So thank you to all those who voted, and congratulations to the lucky entrant who was chosen to receive a signed copy of Rushton’s score. And most importantly, congratulations to Edward Rushton. You can listen to ‘With my Whip’ by visiting the Songbook Map, and navigating to Norfolk.