Dark Wind Blowing is the title of the second collection of poems published in 1961 by the Australian poet, lecturer and opera critic Valentine Thomas Vallis (1916—2009). After his death, his heirs commissioned Elena Kats-Chernin to set some of his texts to music. She composed a song cycle, choosing five poems from the collection – a loosely woven narrative that traverses an arc from first love to the death of love. Vallis’ often melancholic poetry draws on his life and his experiences as a philo...

• I. Song for a Moonlit Night
• II. For This, the Tide
• III. Southend, Curtis Island: The Gull
• IV. At Tintagel
• V. The Sleeper