'Acquainted with Night' is a cycle of six songs for alto and strings harp and timpani. The texts are all concerned with different aspects of night. The first song ‘Lullaby’ to a poem by Beaumont and Fletcher seeks to evokethe ‘care-charming’ powers of sleep. The second a setting of Robert Frost’s ‘Acquainted with the night’ is concerned with the lonely world of a strange city at night and the music is characterised by an insistently repeatedfigure in the accompaniment. The third song contrasts the calmness of the night with the turbulence in a lover’s mind - the poem is by the Earl of Surrey. ‘Out in the dark’ a poem by Edward Thomas is the text of the fourthsong. It is in the form of a scherzo and deals with the mystery and strangeness of night and as the poet puts it the ‘might’ of night. It is as the poet says a hymn to night and the chordal nature of the accompanimentsuggests this quality. This song leads directly into the last which is in fact a reprise of the opening ‘Lullaby’ so completing the cycle.
