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This piano piece, written in 1980, was comissioned by Philip Mead who gave its first performance at the Purcell Room on 27th February 1981.
The Homeric "Hymn to Demeter" tells how Persephone was carried off by Pluto, Lord of the Dead, to be his queen in the underworld. Persephone's mother Demeter, the corn goddess, vowed that she would allow no crops togrow until Persephone should be returned to her. After an intervention from Zeus, Pluto agreed to allow Persephone to spend only one third (some versions of the myth say half) of each year in the underworld, from which she would return each spring when plants were beginning to grow. Persephone is thus a mythical personifiation of the seed, which is buried under the earth during winter before it can come to life in spring.
