The Akond of Swat, which lasts about four minutes, was written in April 2000 for a group of pupils at Hampstead School, London, as part of their GCSE Music course. Scored for two speakers (one male, the other female), descant recorder, flute, alto saxophone, violin, double bass and piano, it is a light-hearted setting of this wonderfully mad poem, and makes a convenient pairing with my other Edward Lear setting for similar forces, The Owl and the Pussycat I.

2008 Giles Swayne