Written from a “deep, personal place” while battling his own sorrow, composer Eric Starr found an unlikely guide in the 20th-century writings of pacifist Vera Brittain. The result is Between the Sandhills and the Sea, an acclaimed new chamber work that sets her poetry to “soaring melodies.” Starr now brings this “healing and transformative” project home to the UK for its European premiere, joined by Carnival Row actor Tamzin Merchant for two exclusive dates in Oxford and St Andrews.
When composer Eric Starr began work on his latest chamber project, he was “at an impasse… and struggling with my own sorrow.” He found that unlikely guide in the writings of Vera Brittain, the celebrated 20th-century author and pacifist. “Through her writing, she became a teacher to me,” Starr reflects. “She taught me how to face daunting challenges… she taught me about perseverance.”
That “healing and transformative” journey has culminated in Between the Sandhills and the Sea, an evocative tribute to Brittain and her close friend, author Winifred Holtby. This November, Starr brings the acclaimed work to the UK for its European premiere, with performances at Oxford’s Jacqueline du Pré Music Building on November 15 and the Laidlaw Music Centre in St Andrews on November 20.
The immersive performance combines Starr’s music with poetry from Brittain, Holtby, and W. E. Henley, exploring timeless themes of friendship, loss, and resilience. Starr, a celebrated composer and percussionist, will be joined by cellist Hannah Holman, pianist Katherine Miller, and narrator Tamzin Merchant, the actor known for Carnival Row and The Tudors.
“Through her writing, she became a teacher to me,” Starr reflects. “She taught me how to face daunting challenges… she taught me about perseverance.”
For Starr, this project is not an academic exercise but a deeply personal offering, one he hopes will connect the interwar struggles of its subjects to our own turbulent times.
A ‘Conduit’ for Healing Music
Starr is clear that his goal was to create something “inviting and deeply rewarding” (Buffalo News), not a dense piece accessible only to academics. This approach was born from the music’s origin.
“I wrote this music from a deep, personal place,” Starr explains. He notes that much of it came to him in dreams and in the “hypnagogic state between wake and sleep,” that liminal space of “threshold consciousness.”
“This music was not an intellectual exercise or an attempt to utilize mathematics or various post-tonal ideas (not that there is anything wrong with that). It was (and is) about soaring melodies and harmonies that, I hope, connect to more general audiences. This is just how the music poured out of me. I consider myself the conduit or vessel through which the music flowed.”
This focus on emotional immediacy is enhanced by new live sound design from Jeremy Gerard, which Starr says makes the presentation feel “more like a ‘show’ than a traditional recital.”
Understanding the Past to Save the Future
At the heart of the project is Starr’s belief that Brittain and Holtby’s work is profoundly relevant. “Sadly, I think the five war poems we use by Vera Brittain have an evergreen nature to them, given our species’ perpetual slide into war and self-inflicted catastrophe,” he says.
He sees Brittain’s life as a blueprint for modern activism. “In her most poignant work, Vera displays a unique ability to cross both national and generational boundaries,” Starr notes. “One could argue that her life’s mission was to truly understand the past so that we might save the future.”
This mirror extends to Holtby’s work as well. “Winifred Holtby’s work in segregated South Africa during the interwar years mirrors our current struggle to combat systemic racism and extreme poverty,” he says. “I would like to think that Vera and Winifred would see progress in our century. But often these gains are one step forward, two steps back. At any rate, my project attempts to shed light on the issues that continue to perplex humanity.”
The ‘Brackish Waters’ of Jazz and Classical
Starr, who has written five books on music, is celebrated for bridging classical and jazz traditions. For him, this blend is not a collision of genres but a natural, “cohesive” part of his compositional “disposition.”
“For me, the question is: Are these genres really so disparate? It’s all Western Music after all,” he argues. “The jazz I listen to… was created, in many cases, by improvisers who grew up learning classical repertoire.”
He points to the academic prowess of jazz icons like Bill Evans and Lyle Mays, the Debussy influences in the piano pieces of Bix Beiderbecke, and the way Gershwin, Copland, and Bernstein integrated jazz and blues harmonies into orchestral works decades ago.
“As far as I am concerned, the stylistic waters between ‘classical’ and ‘jazz’ have long been brackish,” Starr says, clarifying his analogy. “In other words, it’s like a mix of fresh and salt water, creating a unique ecosystem capable of supporting a variety of adaptable musical ideas.”
Scoring the ‘Emotional Subtext’ of Poetry
To bring the literary element to life, Starr composed music to match the “emotional subtext” of the poems. The project’s focus, he admits, evolved over time.
“Initially, I wanted to just write music as a tribute to Vera Brittain. Later, I realized that the project needed a greater focus,” he says. “I then decided to write music that I hoped might connect more directly to the underlying poetical themes.” The music became “imagistic,” and he would “often recite the lines of poetry to myself as I worked on each movement.”
This profound connection is powerfully illustrated by the inclusion of W. E. Henley’s poem “A Wink from Hesper.” Starr discovered its importance while researching at McMaster University. “During the war, Vera’s fiancé, Roland [Leighton], sent lines from the… poem to her,” Starr shares. “When Roland died in 1915, Vera clung to this verse: Across the miles between us, I send you sigh for sigh. / Good-night, sweet fri
end, good-night: / Till life and all take flight, / Never good-bye.”
Starr found the stanza jotted in Vera’s private black holograph diary—titled “Feuilles Mortes— In proud loving memory of R.A.L.”—and notes the poem’s final lines are carved on Roland’s tombstone in France. “It seemed like a fitting end to our presentation,” he says.
For the UK tour, these words will be delivered by Tamzin Merchant, who is “brand new to the project” (Starr notes the “excellent” New York-based Brandy Burre narrated in the States). “I asked Tamzin to join because of her acting skill, her literary background, and yes, her voice too,” says Starr, who was moved by her performance in Carnival Row. “She really ‘gets’ the historical poetry… from both an intellectual and intuitive perspective.”
The Composer’s Bookshelf: From Miles Davis to Thomas Hardy
When asked about his own heroes, Starr’s influences prove as “all over the map” as his music.
“This list includes a lot of classic jazz artists like Miles Davis, and pianist, Bill Evans,” he lists. “More contemporary jazz artists like Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays are also heroes of mine.”
His classical and literary tastes are just as formative. “In terms of so-called classical music, I particularly adore Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Mahler, and Rachmaninoff. Those five composers changed my life in profound ways,” he shares. “In literature, I’d have to list Thomas Hardy, particularly his novels Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. I love a lot of poetry too… war poets like Wilfred Owen… Anne Sexton, Silvia Plath… and the ‘big three’ American playwrights.”
He circles back, making it clear this project is a personal passion. “Perhaps most of all, Vera and Winifred are personal heroes of mine. I wouldn’t have written this project if I didn’t feel a deep bond with them and their legacies.”
A ‘Spectacular’ Homecoming to Oxford
For Starr, bringing this project to the UK—and specifically to Oxford—is its spiritual fulfillment.
“From the very beginning… I had my heart set on performing at Oxford,” he says. Brittain and Holtby were among the first women to receive full degrees, rather than just certificates, from Somerville College in 1921, after women were “prohibited from taking degrees” prior to 1920. “Given Oxford’s significance in their lives, I knew that a concert at their alma mater would… be the most spectacular way to honour these groundbreaking authors.”
As an American “interloping on a very British story,” he feels a “great responsibility to represent Vera and Winifred credibly.” But he also notes that Brittain herself, in her 1938 book Thrice a Stranger, warmed to America and called it a “beloved refuge.”
“Perhaps most of all, Vera and Winifred are personal heroes of mine. I wouldn’t have written this project if I didn’t feel a deep bond with them and their legacies.”
While in the UK, Starr has his own personal pilgrimage planned. In Oxford, he hopes to visit the Bodleian Library (“I know the Eagle and Child… is temporarily closed,” he laments) and see Vera’s piano and her brother Edward’s portrait at Somerville. In St Andrews, he plans to see the Castle and Cathedral. “Of course,” he adds, “cracking pints and proper Scotch are requirements too.”
The Final, Uplifting Note
Ultimately, Starr’s work balances the “loss and isolation” inherent in his subjects’ lives with their “courage and ambition.” When asked what single feeling he hopes audiences walk away with, his answer is clear.
“A sense of inspiration, and perhaps even empowerment,” he says. “The last section of Vera Brittain’s memoir Testament of Youth shows her painful rebirth and her dogged determination to soldier on—even as she countenances extreme loss.”
“Unfortunately, we will all cope with serious loss at some point… ‘That’s the deal,’ as C.S. Lewis lamented,” Starr concludes. “But I hope, humbly, that my project is ultimately uplifting as it reminds us to care for one another, to accept our ghosts, and to prevail, no matter what we must face.”
Featured Image: Hannah Holman (cello), Michelle Alvarado (piano) – Between the Sandhills and the Sea in performance.
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