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Holst US 26/08/2003 10:37 Page 16 557117 bk Holst US 26/08/2003 10:37 Page 16 DDD GUSTAV HOLST The English Song Series • 6 8.557117 (1874-1934) Four Songs, for voice and violin, Op.35 * ° 7:21 Twelve Humbert Wolfe Songs, Op.48 † 25:39 1 Jesu sweet 2:49 ) Persephone 1:26 2 My soul has nought but fire and ice 0:57 ¡ Things lovelier 1:12 Gustav 3 I sing of a maiden 1:20 ™ Now in these fairylands 1:21 4 My Leman is so true 2:15 £ A little music 1:58 HOLST ¢ The thought 1:50 Six Songs, Op.16 * 13:02 ∞ The floral bandit 2:10 5 Calm is the morn 4:15 § Envoi 3:58 Vedic Hymns 6 My true love hath my heart 1:32 ¶ The dream-city 3:12 7 Weep you no more 2:02 • Journey’s end 2:12 Four Songs for 8 Lovely kind and kindly loving 1:50 ª In the street of lost time 0:55 9 Cradle Song 1:28 º Rhyme 1:48 Voice and Violin 0 Peace 1:57 ⁄ Betelgeuse 3:36 Vedic Hymns, Op.24 ‡ 24:26 ¤ Margrete’s Cradle Song, Op.4, No.2 * 2:38 Humbert Wolfe ! Ushas (Dawn) 3:25 Songs @ Varuna I (Sky) 3:07 ‹ The heart worships ‡ 3:14 # Maruts (Storm Clouds) 1:52 $ Indra (God of Storm and Battle) 3:28 % Varuna II (The Waters) 2:08 Susan Gritton, Soprano * Susan Gritton, Soprano ^ Song of the Frogs 2:00 Philip Langridge, Tenor † & Vac (Speech) 2:24 Christopher Maltman, Baritone ‡ Philip Langridge, Tenor * Creation 3:25 Louisa Fuller, Violin ° Christopher Maltman, Baritone ( Faith 2:36 Steuart Bedford, Piano Louisa Fuller, Violin Steuart Bedford, Piano 8.557117 16 557117 bk Holst US 26/08/2003 10:37 Page 2 Gustav Holst (1874-1934) ⁄ Betelgeuse ‹ The heart worships Four songs for voice and violin • Six Songs • Vedic Hymns • Twelve Humbert Wolfe Songs On Betelgeuse the gold leaves hang in golden Silence in Heav’n, The English composer Gustav Holst was the son of a welcomed and where he conducted the Boston aisles Silence on Earth musician and descended from a family of mixed Symphony Orchestra in a series of three concerts of his For twice a hundred million miles, Silence within! Scandinavian, German and Russian origin that had own works and taught and composed during a short And twice a hundred million years Thy hush, O Lord, settled in England in the early nineteenth century. His period at Harvard, lecturing on Haydn at the Library of They golden hang and nothing stirs, O’er all the world covers the din. childhood was spent in Cheltenham, where his father Congress in Washington. He also took the opportunity On Betelgeuse. I do not fear to speak of thee in mortal kind supervised his study of the piano. A later period at the to visit his younger brother Emil, established in And yet to all thy namelessness I am not blind. Royal College of Music in London brought a lasting America as an actor under the name of Ernest Cossart. Space is a wind that does not blow Only I need and kneel again friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams, an By June the following year, 1932, he was in England On Betelgeuse and time is a bird, Thy touch to win; association that was to the advantage of both in their again, able to entertain his brother, with whom he Whose wings have never stirred Silence in Heav’n free criticism and discussion of one another’s visited scenes from their childhood. His time in The golden avenues of leaves Silence on Earth compositions. America had brought a temporary break in hospital, and On Betelgeuse. Silence within! It was in part a weakness in health, as well as when he returned to England his health was uncertain, financial necessity, that prompted Holst for a time to leading to periods in hospital. He succeeded, however, On Betelgeuse there is nothing that joys or grieves earn his living as a trombonist, touring with the Carl in completing the Brook Green Suite and the Lyric The unstirred multitude of leaves, Rosa Opera Company and playing with the Scottish Movement for viola and orchestra, written for Lionel Nor ghost of evil or good Orchestra. Eventually he decided to devote himself, as Tertis. He died on 25th May 1934, after a major Haunts the gold multitude far as possible, to composition. Teaching positions, and operation, and is buried in Chichester Cathedral, where On Betelgeuse. particularly his long association with St Paul’s Girls’ his music had often been heard, near the grave of his School in Hammersmith, and his work as director of favourite Tudor composer, Thomas Weelkes. And birth they do not use music for the enthusiastic amateurs at Morley College, The Four Songs for Voice and Violin, Op.35, were Nor death on Betelgeuse, allowed him some time, at least in the summer holidays, written in 1916-1917 and published in 1920. The And the God, of whom we are infinite dust, but the relatively even tenor of his life, which suited his spareness of texture, a contrast to the scoring of The Is there a single leaf of those gold leaves diffident character, was considerably disturbed by the Planets, on which he had been working, was suggested On Betelgeuse. great popular success of The Planets, which had its first by hearing one of his Morley College students, complete public performance in 1920. His later music Christine Ratcliffe, singing and accompanying herself never achieved such a lasting triumph with the public, on the violin one evening in the church at Thaxted. ¤ Margrete’s Cradle Song, Op.4, No.2 although his Shakespearian opera At the Boar’s Head Holst and his wife had found refuge from London in a English translation of Ibsen by aroused respectful interest at the time, while other cottage nearby, and in 1916 he had established a festival William Archer works generally had a mixed critical reception, in the church for singers. Three of the songs were first including his 1927 Egdon Heath, published as a tribute performed there in 1917. The words were taken from A Now roof and rafters blend with the starry vault on high, to Thomas Hardy. His St Paul’s Suite, written for the Medieval Anthology by Mary Segar and seemed to suit Now flieth little Hakon on dream-wings through the sky. school in Hammersmith, retains a firm place in string the composer, whose practical study of Purcell had There mounts a mighty stairway from earth to God’s own land orchestra repertoire, as does the later Brook Green helped him to an understanding of English word-setting. There Hakon with the angels goes climbing, hand in hand. Suite, and the 1917 Hymn of Jesus for choruses and In the Aeolian mode first song, Jesu sweet, the violin God’s angel-babes are watching thy cot, the still night through, orchestra has an honourable position in English choral provides an introduction and links between the God bless thee, little Hakon, thy mother watcheth too. music. rhythmically free phrases of the voice part. My soul Holst’s later years brought engagements that hath nought but fire and ice is in a transposed Phrygian overtaxed his strength, not least a stimulating and busy mode, vestigially accompanied, and followed by I sing period in the United States, where his music was of a maiden, again in the Aeolian mode. The set ends 8.557117 2 15 8.557117 557117 bk Holst US 26/08/2003 10:37 Page 14 There’ll be a London Square in Maytime ª In the street of lost time with My Leman is so true, a Phrygian setting in which the accompaniment has an illustrative effect in its With London lilacs, whose brave light the vocal line is accompanied by a violin counterpart, energetic progress. The second group starts with the Startles with coloured lamps the daytime, Rest and have ease; ending with an E major chord. stately Indra (God of Storm and Battle), followed by the With sudden scented wings the night. Here are no more voyages; Holst’s Six Songs, Op.16, date from 1903-1904, descending whole-tone scale of Varuna (The Waters) Fold, fold your narrow pale hands; relatively early in the composer’s career. The death of and the irregular metre of Song of the Frogs. The third A silent Square could but a lonely And under the veil of night lie, his father had brought Holst a small legacy, which he group begins with Vac (Speech), largely in 5/4, Thrush on the lilacs bear to cease As I have seen you lie in your deep hair; and his wife decided to spend on a holiday in Germany. followed by the unaccompanied 7/4 that starts Creation. His song, and no sound else save only But patiently now that new loves, On his return, their resources now exhausted, he was Faith brings a measure of rhythmic and dynamic The traffic of the heart at peace. New days, have gone their ways. invited temporarily to take the place of a singing- tranquillity. teacher at James Allen Girls’ School in Dulwich. His In 1929, after a winter holiday of three months in And we will have a river painted º Rhyme success there was the start of his career in teaching. Italy that did something to restore his strength and With the dawn’s wistful stratagems During this period he became used to the rejection of his spirits, Holst set a group of twelve poems by Humbert Of dusted gold, and night acquainted Rhyme is your clear chime we hear compositions by publishers, and some of the group of Wolfe, whose work he had discovered two years earlier.
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