The subject of the painting is the 17-year-old English early Romantic poet Thomas Chatterton, shown dead after he poisoned himself with arsenic in 1770.
The composition attempts to reflect the melancholy and hubris of Chatterton in equal measure with the tentative fanfare of horns echoing from the artist's garret over the streets and alleys of London.
The theme is taken up by the strings as the piece journeys through the late poet’s artistic fervour followed in turn by self-doubt, anguish, and taking of his own life. My hope is that there are emotional triggers in there for everyone who has been touched by either the mindset or the fall-out of the subject matter.
Chatterton was once asked by his sister what he would like her to paint for him on a bowl. He replied: "Paint me an angel, with wings, and a trumpet, to trumpet my name over the world.”
Kaspar Broyd, May 2022
View the painting that inspired this piece here:
Chatterton, 1856. Henry Wallis. Photo © Tate.
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-chatterton-n01685
from
Stills 02,
released May 27, 2022
Composed and arranged by Kaspar Broyd
Bratislava Symphonic Orchestra, recorded at Slovak Radio Building
BSO conducted by David Hernando Rico
Mastered by Emre Ramazanoglu