For his contribution to the songbook commissioned from more than 100 British composers to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the leading new-music label NMC, Morgan Hayes has chosen words from the Dictionary of London: An Unconventional Handbook by Charles Dickens, Junior (1839-1896), little known scion of the great novelist, who also wrote dictionaries of Paris and of the river Thames.

For soprano and piano, this playfully ironic song consists of three brief episodes to words taken at random ...