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Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961) was an author, poet, visual artist and sculptor. As an author of weird fiction, he was associated with the Lovecraft circle and the pulp magazine Weird Tales. It is for these short stories ? which range from tales of the macabre to fantasy and science fiction ? that he is largely known today. But his true vocation was poetry. I have set several of Smith?s poems, with kind permission from his estate. It is my hope that these settings will play some part in drawing greater attention to the extraordinary qualities of Smith?s poetic work.

Illusion is a setting of one of Smith?s poems of the same name. What I love about this poem is the pure music of its words. Smith conjures up a cloud of ringing vowels, that morph in and out of one another. This is a gift for music and for voices. It suggested to me the musical concept of my setting, which extends Smith?s haze of vowels into wordless vocalising, such that the words appear to gradually form from a mist of harmony.

The score is dedicated to my dear friend, the composer Paul Mealor. Mealor has been central in establishing an important new direction in contemporary choral music. His music has been a great inspiration to my own here.