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O tell me the truth about love. The one whose sense suits Has it views of its own about money, ‘Mount Ephraim’ - Does it think Patriotism enough, And perhaps we should seem, Are its stories vulgar but funny? To him, in Death’s dream, ENGLISH SONG O tell me the truth about love. Like the seraphim. Your feelings when you meet it, I As soon as I knew 2 CDs featuring Vaughan Williams, Walton, Holst, Am told you can’t forget, That his spirit was gone I’ve sought it since 1 was a child I thought this his due, Stanford, Warlock, Bax, Quilter, Britten and others But haven’t found it yet; And spoke thereupon. I’m getting on for thirty-five, ‘I think,’ said the vicar, And still I do not know ‘A read service quicker What kind of creature it can be Than viols out-of-doors That bothers people so, In these frosts and hoars. Philip Langridge • Dame Felicity Lott • Simon Keenleyside That old-fashioned way When it comes, will it come without warning, Requires a fine day, Della Jones • Christopher Maltman • Anthony Rolfe Johnson just as I’m picking my nose, And it seems to me O tell me the truth about love. It had better not be.’ Will it knock on my door in the mornin Or tread in the bus on my toes, Hence, that afternoon, O tell me the truth about love. Though never knew he Will it come like a change in the weathe That his wish could not be, Will its greeting lie courteous or bluff, To get through it faster Will it alter my life altogether? They buried the master O tell me the truth about love. Without any tune. But ‘twas said that, when § The Choirmaster’s Burial At the dead of next night Poem by Thomas Hardy The vicar looked out, (from Winter Words) There struck on his ken Music: Benjamin Britten Thronged roundabout, Where the frost was graying He often would ask us The headstoned grass, That, when he died, A band all in white After playing so many Like the saints in church-glass, To their last rest, Singing and playing If out of us any The ancient stave Should here abide, By the choirmaster’s grave. And it would not task us, We would with our lutes Such the tenor man told Play over him When he had grown old. By his grave-brim The psalm he liked best -

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CD 1 One night she came to my bedside when I lay fast Whose white waterfall could bless asleep. Travellers in their last distress, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924) % Silent Noon 4:38 She laid her head upon my bed and she began to weep. (from Marco Polo 8.225098) Simon Keenleyside, baritone • Graham Johnson, piano She sighed, she cried, she damn’ near died, she said: ∞ Tell me the truth about love 1 A Soft Day 2:48 ‘What shall I do?’ Poem by W.H. Auden Bernadette Greevy, mezzo-soprano • Hugh Tinney, piano Gustav Holst (1874-1934) So I hauled her into bed and I covered up Music: Benjamin Britten 2 Irish Skies 5:13 (from Naxos 8.557117) her head, just to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew. Bernadette Greevy, mezzo-soprano • Hugh Tinney, piano ^ Now in these fairylands 1:26 Oh I am a bachelor and I live with my son, and we (Spoken) Liebe Pamour amor amoris Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano work at the weaver’s trade. Some say that Love’s a little boy Liza Lehmann (1862-1918) & The dream-city 3:17 And ev’ry single time that I look into his eyes, he And some say it’s a bird, (from Naxos 8.557118) Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano reminds me of the fair young maid. Some say it makes the world go round 3 Cherry Ripe 2:42 * Margrete’s Cradle Song 2:45 He reminds me of the wintertime, and of the summer too, And some say that’s absurd: Janice Watson, soprano • Steuart Bedford, piano Susan Gritton, soprano • Steuart Bedford, piano And of the many, many times that I held But when I asked the man next door 4 Mustard and Cress 1:52 ( The Heart worships 3:14 her in my arms, just to keep her from the foggy, Who looked as if he knew, Neal Davies, baritone • Steuart Bedford, piano Christopher Maltman, baritone • Steuart Bedford, piano foggy dew. His wife was very cross indeed 5 The Lily of a Day 2:37 And said it wouldn’t do. Janice Watson, soprano • Steuart Bedford, piano Roger Quilter (1877-1953) ¢ Now the leaves are falling fast 6 Henry King 3:21 (from Naxos 8.557116) Poem by W.H. Auden Does it look like a pair of pyjamas Neal Davies, baritone • Steuart Bedford, piano ) Take, O take those lips away 1:26 Music: Benjamin Britten or the ham in a temp’rance hotel, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor • Graham Johnson, piano O tell me the truth about love. Arthur Somervell (1863-1937) ¡ Now sleeps the crimson petal 2:26 Now the leaves are falling fast, Does its odour remind one of llamas (from Naxos 8.557113) Lisa Milne, mezzo-soprano • Graham Johnson, piano Nurse’s flowers will not last; Or has it a comforting smell? 7 Fain would I change that note 3:07 ™ Love calls through the summer night 5:30 Nurses to the graves are gone, O tell me the truth about love. Patricia Rozario, soprano • Graham Johnson, piano Lisa Milne, mezzo-soprano • Anthony Rolfe Johnson, And the prams go rolling on. Is it prickly to touch as a hedge is or soft as eiderdown 8 In summer-time on Bredon 3:56 tenor • Graham Johnson, piano fluff, Christopher Maltman, baritone • Graham Johnson, piano £ I will go with my father a-ploughing 2:26 Whisp’ring neighbours, left and right, is it sharp or quite smooth at the edges 9 The lads in their hundreds 2:54 Lisa Milne, mezzo-soprano • Ivan McReady, cello • Pluck us from the real delight; O tell me the truth about love. Christopher Maltman, baritone • Graham Johnson, piano Graham Johnson, piano And the active hands must freeze 0 Among the rocks 3:30 Lonely on the sep’rate knees. I looked inside the summerhouse, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, mezzo-soprano • Duke Quartet Lord Berners (1883-1950) It wasn’t ever there, Graham Johnson, piano (from Marco Polo 8.225159) Dead in hundreds at the back I’ve tried the Thames at Maidenhead Three Songs Follow wooden in our track, And Brighton’s bracing air; Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) ¢ The Rio Grande (Capstan Shanty) 2:34 Arms raised stiffly to reprove I don’t know what the blackbird sang or what the roses (from Naxos 8.557114) ∞ Theodore, or the Pirate King 0:55 In false attitudes of love. said, ! It was a lover and his lass 1:53 § A Long Time Ago (Hilliard’s Shanty) 1:28 But it wasn’t in the chicken run Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor • Simon Keenleyside, Ian Partridge, tenor • Len Vorster, piano Starving trough the leafless wood Or underneath the bed. baritone • Graham Johnson, piano Trolls run scolding for their food; @ The Water Mill 4:02 Arnold Bax (1883-1953) And the nightingale is dumb, Can it pull extraordin’ry faces, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor • Graham Johnson, piano (from Marco Polo 8.225098) And the angel will not come. Is it usually sick on a swing, # On Wenlock Edge 3:51 ¶ Oh dear, what can the matter be? 1:36 O tell me the truth about love. Anthony Rolfe Johnson, tenor • Graham Johnson, piano Bernadette Greevy, mezzo-soprano • Hugh Tinney, piano Cold, impossible, ahead Does it spend all its time at the races $ The Call 2:17 Lifts the mountain’s lovely head Or fiddling with pieces of string, Simon Keenleyside, baritone • Graham Johnson, piano TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 77:42 8.557559-60 2 27 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:00am Page 26

¡ Lay your sleeping head, my love Find the mortal world enough CD 2 Poem by W.H. Auden Noons of dryness see you fed Music: Lennox Berkeley By the involuntary powers, Eric Coates (1886-1957) $ Rutterkin 1:08 Nights of insult let you pass (from Marco Polo 8.223806) Adrian Thompson, tenor • John Constable, piano Lay your sleeping head, my love, Watched by ev’ry human love. 1 The Grenadier 3:21 % Bethlehem Down 4:36 Human on my faithless arm; Richard Edgar-Wilson, tenor • Eugene Asti, piano Christopher Maltman, baritone • John Constable, piano Time and fevers burn away ™ Early One Morning 2 The Young Lover 2:59 Individual beauty from Trad. Richard Edgar-Wilson, tenor • Eugene Asti, piano William Walton (1902-1983) Thoughtful children, and the grave Arranged by Benjamin Britten 3 Betty and Johnny 2:12 (from Naxos 8.557112) Proves the child ephemeral: Richard Edgar-Wilson, tenor • Eugene Asti, piano ^ Wapping Old Stairs 2:23 But in my arms till break of day Early one morning, just as the sun was rising, 4 Rise up and reach the stars 1:39 Felicity Lott, soprano • Graham Johnson, piano Let the living creature lie, I heard a maid sing in the valley below; Richard Edgar-Wilson, tenor • Eugene Asti, piano Three Façade Settings Mortal, guilty, but to me ‘O don’t deceive me, O never leave me! & Long Steel Grass 2:31 The entirely beautiful. How could you use a poor maiden so?’ Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) * Tango – Pasodoble 2:09 (from Marco Polo 8.223458) ( Popular Song 2:14 Soul and body have no bounds: ‘O gay is the garland, fresh are the roses 5 The Bells 3:01 Martyn Hill, tenor • Graham Johnson, piano To lovers as they lie upon I’ve culled from the garden to bind on thy brow. Nik Hancock-Child, baritone ) Beatriz’s Song 2:51 Her tolerant enchanted slope O don’t deceive me, O do not leave me! Rosemary Hancock-Child, piano Felicity Lott, soprano • Graham Johnson, piano In their ordinary swoon, How could you use a poor maiden so? 6 Ann’s Cradle Song 3:21 Grave the vision Nik Hancock-Child, baritone Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) Venus sends Remember the vows that you made to your Mary, Rosemary Hancock-Child, piano (from Naxos 8.557204) Of supernatural sympathy, Remember the bow’r where you vow’d to be true; 7 As I Lay in the Early Sun 1:49 ¡ Lay your sleeping head, my love 5:34 Universal love and hope; O don’t deceive me, O do not leave me! Nik Hancock-Child, baritone Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano While an abstract insight wakes How could you use a poor maiden so?’ Rosemary Hancock-Child, piano Among the glaciers and the rocks 8 The Cherry Tree 2:31 Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) The hermit’s sensual ecstasy. Thus sung the poor maiden, her sorrow bewailing, Nik Hancock-Child, baritone ™ Early One Morning 3:23 Thus sung the poor maid in the valley below; Rosemary Hancock-Child, piano Felicity Lott, soprano • Steuart Bedford, piano Certainty, fidelity ‘O don’t deceive me, O do not leave me! 9 Dusk 1:31 £ The foggy, foggy dew 2:38 On the stroke of midnight pass How could you use a poor maiden so?’ Nik Hancock-Child, baritone Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano Like vibrations of a bell, Rosemary Hancock-Child, piano ¢ Now the leaves are falling fast 2:00 And fashionable madmen raise £ The foggy, foggy dew Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano Their pedantic boring cry: Trad. from Suffolk Peter Warlock (1894-1930) (from Naxos 8.557204) Ey’ry farthing, of the cost, Arranged by Benjamin Britten (from Naxos 8.557115) ∞ Tell me the truth about love 5:41 All the dreaded cards foretell, 0 Peter Warlock’s Fancy 2:12 Della Jones, mezzo-soprano • Steuart Bedford, piano Shall be paid, but from this night, When I was a bachelor I lived all alone, and worked at Christopher Maltman, baritone • John Constable, piano (from Naxos 8.557204) Not a whisper, not a thought, the weaver’s trade ! The frostbound wood 3:05 § The Choirmaster’s Burial 4:05 Not a kiss nor look be lost. And the only, only thing that I ever did wrong, was to Christopher Maltman, baritone • John Constable, piano Philip Langridge, tenor • Steuart Bedford, piano woo a fair young maid. Peterisms, 1st set (from Naxos 8.557201) Beauty, midnight, vision dies: I wooed her in the winter-time, and in the summer too. @ Chopcherry 1:04 Let the winds of dawn that blow And the only, only thing I did that was wrong, # A Sad Song 2:09 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 72:05 Softly round your dreaming head was to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew. Such a day of sweetness show Eye and knocking heart may bless, 8.557559-60 26 3 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:00am Page 4

Stanford (8.225098) Bax (8.225098) Lakes Georgian stables, Round rose-bubbling Victorine, Producer: Chris Craker Producer: Chris Craker In a fairy tale like the heat intense, And the other fish Engineer: Colm O’Rourke Engineer: Colm O’Rourke And the mist in the woods when Express a wish across the fence For mastic mantles and gowns with Lehmann (8.557118) Coates (8.223806) The children gathering strawberries a swish; Producer: John H. West Producer: Michael Ponder Are changed by the heat into And bright and slight as the posies Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) Engineer: Philip Stokes Negresses, Of buttercups and of roses, First issued on Collins Classics in 1997 Publishers: Chappell Though their fair hair And buds of the wild wood-lilies Shines there They chase her, as frisky as fillies. Somervell (8.557113) Armstrong Gibbs (8.223458) Like gold-haired planets, Calliope, Io, The red retriever-haired satyr Producer: Mark Brown Engineer: Cliff Bradbury Pomona, Antiope, Echo and Clio. Can whine and tease her and flatter Engineer: Anthony Howell Then Lily O’Grady, But Lily O’Grady, First issued on Collins Classics in 1998 Warlock (8.557115) Silly and shady, Silly and shady, Producer: Mark Brown Sauntered along like a In the deep shade is a lazy lady; Vaughan Williams (8.557114) Engineer: Anthony Howell Lazy lady. Now Pompey’s dead, Homer’s read, Producer: Mark Brown First issued on Collins Classics in 1997 Beside the waves’ haycocks her Heliogabalus lost his head, Engineer: Anthony Howell gown with tucks And shade is on the brightest wing, First issued on Collins Classics in 1996 Walton (8.557115) Was of satin the colour of shining green ducks, And dust forbids the bird to sing. Producer: Mark Brown And her fol-de-rol Holst (8.557117) Engineer: Anthony Howell Parasol ) Beatriz’s Song Producer: John H West First issued on Collins Classics in 1997 Was a great gold sun o’er the Poem by Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) Engineer: Mike Hatch (Floating Earth) haycocks shining, Music: William Walton First issued on Collins Classics in 1997 Berkeley (8.557204) But she was a Negress black as the shade Arranged by Christopher Palmer Publishers: Stainer & Bell Ltd. (16, 17, 19); Bosworth Producer: John H. West That time on the brightest lady laid. (Chester) (19) Engineers: Mike Hatch, Geoff Miles Then a satyr, dog-haired as When will he return? First issued on Collins Classics in 1998 trunks of trees, Only to depart. Quilter (8.557116) Began to flatter, began to tease Harrowed by the omen Producer: Mark Brown Britten (8.557201) And she ran like the nymphs with Of his restless heart; Engineer: Anthony Howell Producer: John H. West golden foot Bondsman of the voice, First issued on Collins Classics in 1998 Engineers: Mike Hatch, Geoff Miles That trampled the strawberry, Rival to the Sun, Publishers: Boosey & Co. Ltd. (20, 21); Warner First issued on Collins Classics in 1996 buttercup root, Viceroy of the sunset Chappell Music Ltd. (22); Hawkes & Son (London) Publishers: Boosey & Hawkes In the thick cold dew as bright as Till his task be done. Ltd. (23) the mesh Though he is my love Of dead Panope’s golden flesh, He is not for me; Berners (8.225159) Made from the music whence were born What he loves lies over Producer: Michael Atkinson Memphis and Thebes in the first Loveless miles of sea. Engineer: Jim Atkins hot morn, Haunted by the West, - And ran, to wake Eating out his heart, In the lake, When will he return? Where the water-ripples seem hay to rake. Only to depart. And Charlottine, Adeline,

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And free The An Anthology of English Song Tinge of the mouth organ sound, Wheat-king’s luggage, like Babel (Oyster-stall notes) oozing round Before the League of Nations grew - Song, the combination of words and music, has taken benefit as a singer from the help of Jenny Lind, while Her flounces as they sweep the ground. So Jo put the luggage and the label highly characteristic forms in the various countries of acquiring some ability as a pianist. She had lessons in The trumpet and the drum In the pocket of Flo the Kangaroo. the world, with the music shaped by the sounds of composition in Rome, in Germany and, later, in And the martial cornet come Through trees like rich hotels that bode words, the particular linguistic patterns of vowels and London. She enjoyed a considerable reputation as a To make the people dumb - Of dreamless ease fled she, consonants, and of grammar. The Lieder of Schubert, singer before her marriage, later concentrating on But we Carrying the load and goading the road Schumann, Brahms and Wolf have as distinct an composition. Her arrangement of Charles Edward Won’t wait for sly-foot night Through the marine scene to the sea. identity as the chansons of French vocal tradition. Horn’s popular Cherry Ripe is followed by Mustard and (Moonlight, watered milk-white, bright) ‘Don Pasquito, the road is eloping English too boasts a long and distinctive tradition of Cress from a light-hearted cycle of songs, The Daisy- To make clear the declaration With your luggage though heavy and large song, of which the present anthology offers a recent Chain. The poignant Lily of a Day, a setting of a poem Of our Paphian vocation You must follow and leave your moping conspectus, ranging from Stanford to Britten. by Ben Jonson, is dedicated to the memory of her eldest Beside the castanetted sea, Bride to my guidance and charge!’ Charles Villiers Stanford was born in Dublin in son, who died in the war of 1914-1918. The mood is Where stalks Il Capitaneo When 1852, but made his very successful career in England. lightened by the mock-serious setting of one of Hilaire Swaggart braggadocio Don Educated at Cambridge, he became professor of Belloc’s Cautionary Tales recounting the sad fate of Sword and moustachio Pasquito returned composition at the Royal College of Music in London Henry King. He from the road’s end, when it was established in 1883 and four years later was The English composer Arthur Somervell was Is green as a cassada Where vanilla coloured ladies ride able to combine this position with that of professor of knighted in 1929, in recognition of his services as And his hair is an armada. From Sevilla, his mantilla’d bride music at Cambridge. He exercised considerable Inspector of Music to the Board of Education. His To the jade: ‘Come kiss me harder’ and young friend influence as a composer and as a conductor, and, not interest in education had, by then, distracted his He called across the battlements as she Were forgetting least, as a teacher. The two songs by Stanford here attention from composition, for which he had shown Heard our voices thin and shrill their mentor and guide. included are settings of poems by the Irish writer considerable early ability. Born at Windermere in 1863, As the steely grasses’ thrill, For the lady and her friend Winifred Letts, Stanford’s exact contemporary, who he studied at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was Or the sound of the onycha from Le Touquet later settled in England. The second of the two, Irish a pupil of Stanford, and subsequently in Berlin, before When the phoca has the pica In the very shady trees on the sand Skies, compares England with Ireland, to the former’s entering the Royal College in London, where he was In the palace of the Queen Chinee! Were plucking a white satin bouquet disadvantage. Stanford’s settings date from 1914. later a pupil of Hubert Parry. From 1894 he taught at the Of foam, while the sand’s brassy band Liza Lehmann was the eldest daughter of the painter College. For his songs Somervell chose a wide variety * Tango - Pasodoble Blared in the wind. Rudolf Lehmann and his wife Amelia, daughter of the of texts, with settings of poems from Shakespeare to Don Pasquito Edinburgh publisher and writer Robert Chambers. Browning and Housman. The anonymous poem Fain When Hid where the leaves drip with Rudolf Lehmann, who later settled with his family in would I change that note was published in 1935. It is Don sweet… England, was born in Hamburg and was himself the son followed by two songs from his cycle drawn from Pasquito arrived at the seaside But a word stung him like a of a German painter and his Italian wife. Christened A.E.Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, perhaps Somervell’s Where the donkey’s hide tide mosquito... Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica, Liza Lehmann was most successful work. From Robert Browning’s James brayed, he For what they hear, they repeat! born in London, to ensure British nationality if the child Lee’s Wife comes Among the Rocks, in which the Saw the banditto Jo in a black cape had been a boy, although the Lehmanns were living at woman proclaims her sad message that If you loved only Whose slack shape waved like the sea – ( Popular Song the time in Rome. Rudolf Lehmann was distinguished in what were worth your love, / Love were clear gain. the Thetis wrote a treatise noting wheat the artists’ colony there, his friends including Liszt. On five poems set by Somervell originally had orchestral is silver like the sea; Lily O’Grady, settling in London the family continued to move in accompaniment, but were later arranged for the The lovely cheat is sweet as foam; Silly and shady, established social and artistic circles, with Rudolf accomapniment of a piano quintet. Erotis notices that she Longing to be Lehmann enjoying a very considerable reputation as a Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in the Will A lazy lady, portrait painter. Liza Lehmann was encouraged in her Gloucestershire village of Down Ampney in 1872, the Steal Walked by the cupolas gables in the obvious musical interests by her mother, and was able to son of a clergyman. His ancestry on both his father’s

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and mother’s side was of some intellectual distinction. by Fredegond Shove, one of Adeline’s bridesmaids at Rutterkin can speak no English, Your Molly has never been false, she declares, His father was descended from a family eminent in the her wedding. The songs were written in 1922 and first His tongue runneth all on buttered fish, Since last time we parted at Wapping Old Stairs, law, while his maternal grandfather was a Wedgwood performed three years later. The song-cycle On Wenlock Besmeared with grease about his dish, When I swore that I still would continue the same, and his grandmother a Darwin. On the death of his Edge was completed in 1909, a setting of six poems by Hoyda, hoyda, jolly Rutterkin! And gave you the ‘bacco box, marked with your name. father in 1875 the family moved to live with his A. E. Housman for tenor, piano, and string quartet. The Hoyda, hoyda, hoyda! mother’s father at Leith Hill Place in Surrey. As a child cycle was later arranged for tenor and orchestra. The Like a Rutterkin, hoyda! When I pass’d a whole fortnight between decks with you, Vaughan Williams learned the piano and the violin and work was first performed in London at the Aeolian Hall Rutterkin shall bring you all good luck, Did I e’er give a kiss, Tom, to one of the crew? received a conventional education at Charterhouse, after in November, with the tenor Gervase Elwes. The first of A stoup of beer up at a pluck, To be useful and kind, with my Thomas I stay’d, which he delayed entry to Cambridge, preferring instead the set is included here. Although Vaughan Williams, in Till his brain be as wise as a duck, For his trousers I wash’d, and his grog too I made. to study at the Royal College of Music, where his spite of his early family background, was an agnostic, Hoyda, hoyda, jolly Rutterkin! teachers included Hubert Parry and Walter Parratt, later this did not prevent his effective settings of verse of Hoyda, hoyda, hoyda! Though you threaten’d, last Sunday, to walk in the Mall Master of the Queen’s Musick, both soon to be overt religious inspiration. His Five Mystical Songs, Like a Rutterkin, hoyda! With Susan from Deptford, and likewise with Sal, knighted. In 1892 he took up his place at Trinity settings of poems by George Herbert, were written in In silence I stood your unkindness to hear, College, Cambridge, where he read history, but took 1911, and first heard in that year at the Three Choirs % Bethlehem Down And only upbraided my Tom, with a tear. composition lessons from Charles Wood. After Festival in Worcester. As elsewhere, the composer Poem by Bruce Blunt graduation in both history and music, he returned to the responds to the words, evoking their devotional spirit in Music: Peter Warlock Why should Sal, or should Susan, than me be more priz’d? Royal College, where he studied composition with holy simplicity and with an inner understanding, a For the heart that is true, Tom, should ne’er by despis’d; Stanford, and, perhaps more significant, became a friend foretaste of work to come. The group of songs by ‘When He is King we will give Him the Kings’ gifts, Then be constant and kind, nor your Molly forsake, of a fellow-student, Gustav Holst. The friendship with Vaughan Williams ends with Silent Noon, written in Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown, Still your trousers I’ll wash, and your grog too I’ll make. Holst was to prove of great importance in frank 1903 and included in the 1904 cycle of six settings of Beautiful robes,’ said the young girl to Joseph, exchanges of views on one another’s compositions in poems by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Among the most Fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down. &-( Three Façade settings the years that followed. He studied briefly with Max effective of his songs, Silent Noon evokes countryside in Poems by Edith Sitwell (1887-1964) Bruch in Berlin, and later with Ravel. In England, summer. Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight, Music: William Walton however, he turned his attention to the collection of The English composer Gustav Holst was the son of Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold, Transcribed for piano by Christopher Palmer folk-music in various regions of the country, an interest a musician and descended from a family of mixed Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music that materially influenced the shape of his musical Scandinavian, German and Russian origin that had Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold. & Long, Steel Grass (Noche Espagnola) language. After war service Vaughan Williams returned settled in England in the early nineteenth century. His to the Royal College of Music, now as a professor of childhood was spent in Cheltenham, where his father When He is King, they will clothe Him in grave-sheets, Long steel grass - composition, a position he retained until 1938. In these supervised his study of the piano. A later period at the Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown, The white soldiers pass - years he came to occupy a commanding position in the Royal College of Music in London brought a lasting He that lies now in the white arms of Mary The light is braying like an ass. musical life of the country, with a series of compositions friendship with Ralph Vaughan Williams, an association Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down. See that seemed essentially English, the apparent successor that was to the advantage of both in their free criticism The tall Spanish jade of Elgar, although his musical language was markedly and discussion of one another’s compositions. It was in Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming, With hair black as night-shade different. The maturer songs of Vaughan Williams span part a weakness in health, as well as financial necessity, Close huddled oxen to keep Him from cold, Worn as a cockade! a period from the 1890s until the end of his life. His that prompted Holst for a time to earn his living as a Mary for love, and for lullaby music Flee setting of It was a lover and his lass from Shakespeare’s trombonist, touring with the Carl Rosa Opera Company Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold. Her eyes’ gasconade As You Like It, with its running accompaniment, was and playing with the Scottish Orchestra. Eventually he And her gown’s parade written in 1922 and is for two voices, as in the play decided to devote himself, as far as possible, to ^ Wapping Old Stairs (As stiff as a brigade!) itself, where it is sung by two of the banished duke’s composition. Teaching positions, and particularly his (from A Song for the Lord Mayor’s Table) Tee-hee! pages. long association with St Paul’s Girls’ School in Anon. The hard and braying light The Watermill, with its mill-wheel turning in the Hammersmith, and his work as director of music for the Music: William Walton Is zebra’d black and white piano accompaniment, is one of four settings of poems enthusiastic amateurs at Morley College, allowed him It will take away the slight

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Bring us home no veal, sir, that do I not desire, @-$ Peterisms, 1st Set some time, at least in the summer holidays, but the Conservatory in Frankfurt, where he was a pupil of Iwan But bring us home good ale enough to drink by the fire: relatively even tenor of his life, which suited his Knorr and the piano teacher Ernst Engesser. It was But bring us home good ale, sir, bring us home good ale, @ Chopcherry diffident character, was considerably disturbed by the perhaps the latter, with his interest in French song, who And for our dear lady, lady love bring us some good ale. Poem by George Peele great popular success of The Planets, which had its first influenced the future direction of Quilter’s talents as a (from The Old Wives Tale, 1595, Act I, Scene 1) complete public performance in 1920. His later music composer. His contemporaries in Frankfurt included ! The frostbound wood Music: Peter Warlock never achieved such a lasting triumph with the public. Cyril Scott, Percy Grainger, Balfour Gardiner and Poem by Bruce Blunt In 1929, after a winter holiday of three months in Norman O’Neill, and the Frankfurt Five formed a group Music: Peter Warlock Whenas the rye reach to the chin, Italy that did something to restore his strength and of friends both there and in later life. Returning to And chopcherry, chopcherry ripe within spirits, Holst set a group of twelve poems by Humbert England in 1898, Quilter quickly became known to the Mary that was the Child’s mother Strawberries swimming in the cream, Wolfe, whose work he had discovered two years earlier. London public for his songs, which were taken up by Met me in the frost-bound wood: And schoolboys playing in the stream; A meeting with the poet brought friendship, as they leading performers of the day. Take, O take those lips Her face was lovely and care-laden shared a number of interests, including a love of the away , taken from Measure for Measure, is one of a set Under a white hood. Then, O then, O then my true love said, peace that parts of London can bring. The first of five Shakespeare settings published in 1921. The Till that time come again performance of the songs was given in Paris by Dorothy 1904 setting of Tennyson’s Now sleeps the crimson She who once was heaven’s chosen She could not live a maid. Silk in a private concert at the house of Louise Dyer, the petal takes verses from a song in the poet’s The Moved in loneliness to me, founder of Editions de l’Oiseau Lyre. In February 1930 Princess. Love calls through the summer night sets With a slow grace and weary beauty # A Sad Song Dorothy Silk sang them at the Wigmore Hall in London. words by the writer Rodney Bennett, father of the Pitiful to see. Poem by John Fletcher The songs came after a gap of twelve years in such composer Richard Rodney Bennett, a writer whose (from The Maid’s Tragedy, 1622, Act II, Scene 1) compositions and were the last Holst wrote. Now in name was once often heard, not least in his writing for Bethlehem could hear sweet singing, Music: Peter Warlock these fairylands is marked by a descending melody, children. Bennett collaborated with Quilter in ‘Peace on earth, a Saviour’s come’. while The dream-city reflects the poet’s and composer’s assembling texts for The Arnold Book of Old Songs and Here the trees were dark, the heavens Lay a garland on my hearse shared love of the serenity to be found in London in the 1936 light opera, first staged at Covent Garden as Without stars, and dumb. Of the dismal yew; squares, away from the crowd, in the changing seasons. Julia, for which he provided the lyrics. Quilter’s Three Maidens, willow branches bear, The gently lyrical Margrete’s Cradle Song, a setting of Pastoral Songs set verses by a contemporary Irish poet, Past she went with no word spoken, Say I died true. a translation of Ibsen, was written in 1896 and is one of Joseph Campbell. This dates from 1921 and was Past the grave of Him I slew, a set of four songs. It was composed at a time when designed originally for low voice and piano trio. It Myself the sower of the woodland My love was false, but I was firm Holst had found a particular enthusiasm for the plays of includes I will go with my father a-ploughing, also set And my heart the yew. From my hour of birth. Ibsen. The heart worships was written in 1907, its vocal by Ivor Gurney. Upon my buried body lie melody accompanied by a series of repeated chords and Known equally for his eccentricity as for his diverse Mary that was the Child’s mother Lightly, gentle earth. breathing an air of utter tranquillity and peace. artistic abilities, Lord Berners, as a composer, even won Met me in the frost-bound wood: Roger Quilter was born in Hove in 1877 into the respect of Stravinsky, who claimed him as the most Her face was lovely and care-laden $ Rutterkin comfortable family circumstances. His father was Sir interesting English composer of the time, perhaps with a Under a white hood. Poem by Anon. 16th century Cuthbert Quilter, who in 1881 founded the National glance towards more formidable English rivals. Berners (attributed to John Skelton) Telephone Company and was for twenty years Liberal- was also a writer and a painter. He wrote The Triumph Music: Peter Warlock Unionist Member of Parliament for the Suffolk of Neptune for Dyagilev’s Ballets Russes, Luna Park for constituency of Sudbury. His early years were spent a C.B.Cochran revue and A Wedding Bouquet for Rutterkin is come unto our town largely at the family’s country house, Bawdsey Manor, Sadler’s Wells, while his first direct involvement with In a cloak without coat or gown near the Suffolk town of Felixstowe. Quilter, who later the theatre had come in 1924 with his light-hearted Save ragged hood to cover his crown seemed slightly embarrassed by his background, had his operatic version of Prosper Mérimée’s Le carrosse du Like a Rutterkin, education at a private school in Farnborough and then at Saint Sacrement. His writing included two volumes of Hoyda, hoyda, jolly Rutterkin! Eton. In 1893, having decided to become a musician, he witty autobiography and novels, romans à clé, that Hoyda, hoyda, hoyda! began a period of four and a half years at the Hoch provoked accusations of libel. His 1921 group of Three Like a Rutterkin, hoyda! 8.557559-60 22 7 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:01am Page 8

Songs, two sea shanties and a setting of a poem by John A product of Winchester and Cambridge, Cecil Played undistracted on: as if 7 As I Lay in the Early Sun Masefield , all with their own characteristic twists of Armstrong Gibbs avoided involvement with the family What music earthly bells might give Poem by E.R. Shanks harmony. soap firm to become a schoolmaster, before turning to Could only faintly stir their dream, Music: Cecil Armstrong Gibbs The English composer Arnold Bax found himself, composition, an art he studied under Vaughan Williams And stillness make more lovely seem. early in his career, drawn to Ireland and things Irish, at the Royal College in London, where he later taught. Soon night hid horses, children, all, As I lay in the early sun, even adopting an Irish pseudonym for his writings. The His compositions include a large number of songs and In sleep deep and ambrosial. Stretched in the grass, I thought upon son of cultured and well-to-do English parents, he was choral works. The first includes The Bells, a 1918 Yet, yet, it seemed, from star to star, My true love, my dear love, born in Streatham but spent much of his childhood in setting of a poem by Walter de la Mare, with whom he Welling now near, now faint and far, Who has my heart forever Hampstead, where the family later settled, taught at was to collaborate the following year in a school Those echoing bells rang on in dream, Who is my happiness when we meet, home by a private tutor and strongly influenced by the production of Crossings, from which the song Ann’s And stillness made even lovelier seem. My sorrow when we sever. cultured and comfortable environment in which he Cradle Song is taken. As I lay in the early sun, written in She is all fire when I do burn, found himself. His early interest in music persuaded his 1920, is one of a group of three settings of poems by 6 Ann’s Cradle Song (from Crossings) Gentle when I moody turn, father to allow him to enter the Royal Academy of E.Shanks, The Cherry Tree of 1949 sets a poem by Brave when I am sad and heavy Music in London at the age of seventeen. The 1920s M.Rose and Dusk dates from 1938. Now silent falls the clacking mill; And all laughter when I am merry. seem to have brought Bax his period of greatest success. In a letter of 1919 to Bernard van Dieren, a Sweet - sweeter smells the briar; And so I lay and dreamed and dreamed, He was prolific in his creativity and his works were composer whom he greatly admired, Philip Heseltine The dew wells big on bud and twig; And so the day wheeled on, widely performed and in the following decade there explained how he had submitted a group of songs to the The glow-worm’s wrapt in fire. While all the birds with thoughts like mine were public honours and finally appointment as Master publisher Winthrop Rogers under the pseudonym of Were singing to the sun. of the King’s Musick, although his gifts did not lend Peter Warlock, having failed to find a publisher under Then sing, lully, lullay, with me, themselves easily to the composition of the occasional his own name. The ruse was soon revealed, but not And softly, lill-lall-lo, love, 0 Peter Warlock’s Fancy celebratory works that the position seemed to demand. before distinguished singers of the time had started to ‘Tis high time, and wild time, Poem by Anon. 16th century His arrangement of the traditional song Oh dear, what take an interest in them. Born in London in 1894, And no time, no, love! Music: Peter Warlock can the matter be? was made in 1918. Heseltine had been encouraged in his musical Eric Coates won an outstanding reputation as a enthusiasms during his time at school, latterly at Eton. Cries in the brake, bells in the sea: Bring us in no beef, sir, for that is full of bones, composer of light music. Born in Nottinghamshire, he There followed an introduction to Delius, who The moon o’er moor and mountain But bring home good ale enough, for that my love alone is: entered the Royal Academy of Music in London at the continued to show an interest in his work, and after Cruddles her light from height to height, Bring us home good ale, sir, bring us home good ale, age of twenty, studying the viola with Lionel Tertis and study in Germany and a year at Oxford reading Classics, Bedazzles pool and fountain. And for our dear lady, lady love bring us some good ale. composition with Frederick Corder. His early career he turned his attention to the study of earlier English was as a viola-player, a member of the Hambourg music, although himself without formal musical Leap, fox; hoot, owl; wail, warbler sweet: Bring us home no wheaten bread, for that he full of bran; Quartet, and then of Sir Thomas Beecham’s orchestra, training. As a pacifist, in any case medically unfit for ‘Tis midnight now’s a-brewing; Neither of no rye bread, for that is of that same, before becoming leader of the viola section in Henry military service, he spent the war years in Cornwall and The fairy mob is all abroad, But bring us home good ale, sir, bring us home good ale, Wood’s Queens Hall Orchestra. From 1919 he devoted then in Ireland, before returning to London, the centre And witches at their wooing - And for our dear lady, lady love bring us some good ale. his attentions to composition, at first with a series of of his later activities, broken by a period with his mother songs, a prelude to orchestral compositions that became in Wales and a time in Kent. A certain instability of Then sing, lully, lullay, with me, Bring us home no pork, sir, for that is very fat; and remain familiar to British audiences, works such as character, evident, perhaps, in the dual And softly, lill-lall-lo, love, Neither no barley bread, for neither love I that, Knightsbridge from his London Suite, A Sleepy Lagoon Heseltine/Warlock identities, has been attributed in part ‘Tis high time, and wild time, But bring us home good ale, sir, bring us home good ale, and his Dam Busters March. The Grenadier, written in to the early death of his father in 1896. Peter Warlock And no time, no, love. And for our dear lady, lady love bring us some good ale. 1913, is a character song, as is the little romance Betty died in December 1930 of gas poisoning, whether by and Johnny, both with words by Fred E. Weatherly. The accident or suicide. Peter Warlock’s Fancy, written in Bring us in no mutton, sir, for that is tough and lean, Young Lover, with words by Royden Barrie, dates from 1924, is a drinking-song, and The frostbound wood, a Neither no tripes, sir, for they be seldom clean, 1930, and the energetic setting of Winifred May’s Rise setting of words by Warlock’s friend Bruce Blunt, was But bring us home good ale, sir, bring us home good ale, up and reach the stars from 1933. written in 1929 for issue with The Radio Times. And for our dear lady, lady love bring us some good ale.

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I sang to the moon on my way, 4 Rise up and reach the stars Two sets of so-called Peterisms were written in Sitwell that amused the cognoscenti and shocked wider And my song besought her Poem by Winifred May 1922. The three songs of the first group are settings of audiences, before winning an assured if minor position To hold to her course and to stay Music: Eric Coates verses by George Peele, John Fletcher and possibly by in twentieth century repertoire in its final form, whether Till to you I’d brought her; John Skelton. The lively first song, Chopcherry, a as a ballet or in the concert-hall. Façade, the poems by And there she is glimmering still Wake up, shy flow’rs, reference to the game of catching in the mouth a Edith Sitwell recited with a musical accompaniment, On the brow of the hill. The Spring shall give you birth; hanging cherry, in the manner of bob-apple, is in great was first heard in a private concert in the drawing-room Unfold your buds contrast with A Sad Song from The Maid’s Tragedy, the of the Sitwells’ London house in January 1922 and I’d like to bring silver and gold Upon the dreaming earth. mood broken by the vigorous popular sixteenth-century created something of a sensation at its public airing at And of diamonds many, Wake up, grey birds, Rutterkin. the Aeolian Hall the following year. The work grew and But, love, as I’m not very old, And flood the sky with song; Bethlehem Down, with words again by Blunt, changed, as items were removed and added, reaching a And I have not any, Wing through the blue appeared first as a part-song, a Christmas supplement to final revision in the 1940s, for eventual publication in Oh, love! I’ve brought you the moon for a star And sing the whole day long. the Daily Telegraph in 1927, reworked as a solo song in 1951. Christopher Palmer transcribed three of the items And the song of my heart. 1930. for singer and piano, the original declamation replaced Rise up, good trees, William Walton occupies his own position in by a vocal line derived from the instrumental score. 3 Betty and Johnny Your banners green unfurled; English music of the twentieth century, chronologically Long steel grass (Noche espagnola), which for a time Poem by Fred E. Weatherly Lift up your arms between the generation of Gustav Holst and Vaughan became Trio for Two Cats and a Trombone, is followed Music: Eric Coates Above the weeping world. Williams and that of Benjamin Britten. Born in Oldham by the Tango-Pasodoble, with its transformation of I do Wake up, my heart, in 1902, the son of a local singing teacher and like to be beside the seaside. The well known Popular Said Johnny to Betty “I love ’ee, I do! And break your prison bars; choirmaster, he became a chorister at Christ Church, Song ends the group. Beatriz’s Song was written in 1942 I’d like to come up in the orchard wi’ you!” Love waits for you, Oxford, and followed this with admission to the as part of the incidental music for Louis MacNeice’s Said Betty to Johnny “Go on with ’ee do! Rise up, and reach the stars! university at the early age of sixteen, with support from radio play Christopher Columbus, scored for voice and I hant got no time to be talking to you!” the college. His Oxford career brought success in music strings, the accompaniment later arranged for piano by But fa la la lido, fa la la la la lido, 5 The Bells but failure in the necessary academic tests to allow him Christopher Palmer. The song has a particular charm, so She open’d the wicket and let him go through! Poem by Walter de la Mare a degree. At the same time his friendship with that it is difficult to understand the composer’s Music: Cecil Armstrong Gibbs Sacheverell Sitwell led to his adoption by the three reluctance to have it published, as it eventually was in Said Johnny to Betty “They apples be fine!” Sitwell children, Osbert, Edith and Sacheverell, as an 1974. Said Betty to Johnny “They apples be mine!” Shadow and light both strove to be honorary brother. The practical help of the Sitwells and Lennox Berkeley was encouraged by Ravel to Said Johnny to Betty “I’d like one” he said, The eight bell-ringers’ company, the musical and cultural influences of their circle become a pupil of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, and French Said she “They be sour ’uns!” and shook her sweet head. As with his gliding rope in hand, allowed him to devote his attention to composition in influence, in part inherited from his mother’s family, But fa la la lido, fa la la la la lido, Counting his changes each did stand; the years after he left Oxford, followed by increasing remained strong. His meeting in Barcelona in 1936 with She let him take two little kisses instead! While rang and trembled every stone, independence, as he won a wider reputation for himself. Benjamin Britten, ten years his junior, led to a joint To music by the bell-mouths blown: In the years after 1945 he was to some extent eclipsed composition and a lasting friendship. Both composers But Johnny was greedy and wanted to taste, Till the bright clouds that towered on high by Britten, whose facility he lacked and whose represented a wider musical perspective than many of So he picked off the biggest and eat it in haste, Seemed to re-echo cry with cry. contemporary achievement now seemed to go beyond their older contemporaries in England. Berkeley was But soon he felt sorry he’d tried such a plan, Still swang the clappers to and fro, Walton’s successes of the 1930s. Christopher Hassall influential as a teacher, and his association with the For it gave him a pain! Where his waistcoat began! When, in the far-spread fields below, chose the six poems used in A Song for the Lord Aldeburgh Festival and the English Opera Group Fa la la la lido, fa la la la la lido, I saw a ploughman with his team Mayor’s Table, commissioned for the 1962 City of proved fruitful. His compositions include operas, It’s not the first apple that’s done for a man. Lift to the bells and fix on them London Music Festival. The third song of the cycle, orchestral and choral works, chamber music and a series His distant eyes, as if he would Wapping Old Stairs, is a lilting setting of an anonymous of songs. His setting of Lay your sleeping head, my love, Drink in the utmost sound he could; protestation of faithfulness in spite of everything. In the a poem dedicated to Britten by W.H.Auden, a While near him sat his children three, years between the wars Walton won a succès de contemporary of Berkeleys’s at Oxford, is also And in the green grass placidly scandale with Façade, a collaboration with Edith dedicated to Britten and dates from 1939-40.

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Benjamin Britten has occupied an unrivalled Early One Morning and The foggy, foggy dew are folk- ¶ O dear! What can the matter be? But cheer up, my hearty, (Says I to myself) Don’t fear! position in English music of the twentieth century, and a song arrangements, followed here by Now the leaves are Words: Traditional Stay where you are, for you can’t be a Tar place of great importance in the wider musical world. falling fast is included in the collection of Auden Arranged by Arnold Bax as well as a Grenadier. Avoiding the trap offered by musical nationalism and settings On This Island, Britten’s first published group the insular debt to folk-music of older contemporaries, of songs with piano, written in 1937. He had met Auden O dear! What can the matter be When I’m on guard at the Barrack Yard, he profited from that tradition in a more comprehensive when they collaborated in documentaries for the G.P.O. O dear! What can the matter be And the troops go marching by, European context, following a path in part mapped out Film Unit in 1935. Auden’s influence remained strong, O dear! what can the matter be It makes me queer when the drums I hear by Mahler. He had a special gift for word-setting and with various collaborations, but much reduced after Johnny’s so long at the fair. And see the colours fly! vocal writing, a facility that Purcell had shown and that Britten’s return to England in 1942. Tell me the truth But it’s up and down with my bearskin on, was the foundation of a remarkable series of operas that about love, again a setting of Auden, continued the He promised to buy me a fairing should please me, As straight as a prim old maid, brought English opera for the first time into standard association when both of them were in North America And then for a kiss, O! he vowed he would tease me, When they’ve got the route and I want to be out international operatic repertoire. Tonal in his musical in 1938. It was published posthumously in 1980 as the He promised to buy me a bunch of blue ribbons With the lads of my old brigade. language, he knew well how to use inventively, first of Four Cabaret Songs. The eight settings of To tie up my bonny brown hair Six paces to the front, six paces to the rear, imaginatively and, above all, musically, techniques that Thomas Hardy, Winter Words, Op.52, were written in That’s the way I pass the day of a British Grenadier, in the hands of some others often appeared arid. He 1953. Among the most effective of the cycle is The And it’s O dear! what can the matter be? But cheer up, my hearty, (Says I to myself) Don’t fear! owed much to the friendship and constant Choirmaster’s Burial, with the old man’s request denied O dear! what can the matter be? When it comes to a fight you’ll be there all right, companionship of the tenor Peter Pears, for whom by a modernising vicar, but his favourite hymn O dear! what can the matter be you’ll be there, my Grenadier. Britten wrote many of his principal operatic rôles and transformed in conclusion. Johnny’s so long at the fair songs. In adolescence a pupil of Frank Bridge, after a But you’ll admit that the hardest bit brief period in the United States, Britten settled again in Keith Anderson He promised to bring me a basket of posies, Is when the girls go by, his native East Anglia, his home for the rest of his life. A garland of lilies, a garland of roses, And I can only look at them A little straw hat to set off the blue ribbons, From the corner of my eye; That tie up my bonny brown hair For I’ve got to keep my eyes to the front, My arms straight down my side, And it’s O dear! what can the matter be. Oh, it’s mighty hard to be on guard And for them to be denied. CD 2 Six paces to the front, six paces to the rear, That’s the way you earn the pay of a British Grenadier, 1 The Grenadier But, cheer up, my pretties, come along, Poem by Fred E. Weatherly little girls, come here; Music: Eric Coates Tow-row-row-row, I’m off guard now, you can kiss your Grenadier! When I’m on guard at the Admiralty, Where I’ve got no right to be, 2 The Young Lover I can’t see the Fleet sail down the street, Poem by Royden Barrie ‘Cause there ain’t no fleet to see! Music: Eric Coates It’s up and down with my bearskin on, My arms straight down my side, The leaves laid a snare for the moon, When I want to be free like a Tar at sea, But they could not catch her; Out on the rolling tide. The lake had a moon of its own, Six paces to the front, six paces to the rear, But it could not match her; That’s the way I earn the pay of a British Grenadier, A shining ship of the sea, The moon sailed on - with me. 8.557559-60 10 19 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:01am Page 18

I will sing to the patient horses ∞ Theodore, or The Pirate King CD 1 At night the London lamps shine bright, With the lark in the shine of the air, Poem by John Masefield But what are they to me? And my father will sing the plough-song 1 A Soft Day (from A Sheaf of Songs from Leinster) I’ve seen the moonlight in Glen-anu, That blesses the cleaving share. They sacked the ships of London Town, Poem by W.M. Letts; Music: Charles Villiers Stanford The stars above Glenchree They burned the ships of Rye and Cadiz, The lamps of Heav’n I will go with my father a-sowing A bloody trade a pirate’s trade is. A soft day, thank God! Give light enough for me. To the red field by the sea But Theodore, A wind from the south The city in the winter time And the rooks and the gulls and the starlings Though dripping gore, With a honey’d mouth; Put on a shroud of smoke, Will come flocking after me. was always courteous to the Ladies. A scent of drenching leaves, But the sky above the I will sing to the striding sowers Briar and beech and lime, Three rock was blue as Mary’s cloak, With the finch on the flow’ring sloe, § A Long Time Ago (Hilliard’s Shanty) White elder-flower and thyme ruffled like doves’ wings And my father will sing the seed-song And the soaking grass smells sweet, When the wind awoke. That only the wise men know. A long, long time, and a long time ago, Crushed by my two bare feet, To me way hay, yoho; While the rain drips, drips, I dream I see the Wicklow hills I will go with my father a-reaping A long, long, time, and a long time ago, drips, drips from the leaves. By evening sun light kissed, To the brown field by the sea, A long time ago. An’ ev’ry glen and valley And the geese and the crows and the children A soft day, thank God, There brimful of radiant mist. Will come flocking after me. A smart Yankee packet lay out in the bay, The hills wear a shroud The jewelled sky topaz and amethyst. I will sing to the weary reapers To me way hay, yoho; of silver cloud: I woke to see the London streets, With the wren in the heat of the sun, A waiting for a fair wind to get under way, The web the spider weaves The sombre sky above, And my father will sing the scythe song A long time ago. is a glitt-’ring net; God’s blessing on That joys for the harvest done. With all her poor sailors all sick and sore, The wood-land path is wet, The far-off roads To me way hay, yoho; And the soaking earth smells sweet, And on the skies I love, ¢-§ Three Songs For they’d drunk all their lime-juice, Under my two bare feet, pearl feather, grey feather, Music: Lord Berners and could get no more, And the rain drips, drips, drips drips, from the leaves. Wings of a dove. A long time ago. ¢ The Rio Grande (Capstan Shanty) 2 Irish Skies (from A Sheaf of Songs from Leinster) 3 Cherry Ripe (from Useful Teaching Songs) With all her poor sailors all sick and sad, Poem by W.M. Letts; Music: Charles Villiers Stanford Poem by Herrick; Music: C.E. Horn Where are you going to, my pretty maid? To me way hay, yoho; Arranged by Liza Lehmann O away Rio; for they’d drunk all their lime-juice, In London here the streets are grey, We are bound to the Rio Grande. and could get no more, And grey the sky above; Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry! O away Rio. A long time ago. I wish I were in Ireland Full and fair ones, come and buy! And may I go with you my pretty maid? To see the skies I love, If so be you ask me where O away Rio; She was waiting for a fair wind to get under way, Pearl cloud, buff cloud, They do grow, I answer, there Have you a sweetheart my pretty maid? To me way hay, yoho; The colour of a dove. Where my lover’s lips do smile, O away Rio; If she hasn’t had a fair wind she’s waiting there still, All day I travel English streets, There’s the land, or cherry isle. I’m afraid you’re a bad one, kind sir, she replied A long, time ago. But in my dreams I thread Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry! O away Rio. The far Glencullen road and see Full and fair ones, come and buy! The soft sky overhead, Where my lover’s lips do smile, Grey clouds, white clouds, There’s the land, or cherry isle, The wind has shepherded. There plantations fully show All the year where cherries grow.

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Cherry ripe, cherry ripe, ripe I cry! 6 Henry King Silence on Earth Love calls through the summer night, Full and fair ones, come and buy! (Who chewed little bits of string and was early Silence within! Love sings with a strange delight, cut off in dreadful agonies) Calls our young hearts to find his way, 4 Mustard and Cress (from The Daisy Chain) (from Four Cautionary Tales and a Moral) ) Take, O take those lips away Let him lead us where’er he may. Poem by Norman Gale from ‘Songs for the Little People’ Poem by Hilaire Belloc William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Music: Liza Lehmann (from Measure for Measure) Dear heart, shall he call in vain The chief defect of Henry King, Music: Roger Quilter When ne’er he may ask again? Elizabeth, my cousin, is the sweetest little girl, Was chewing little bits of string. Ah! Love, wherever you lead us, From her eyes, like dark blue pansies, to her tiniest At last he swallowed some which tied Take, O take those lips away, We follow the road of dreams tonight. golden curl: Itself in ugly knots inside. That so sweetly were forsworn; I do not use her great long name, but simply call her Physicians of the utmost fame And those eyes, the break of day, Swift to the dawn the enchanted hours are flying, ‘Bess’, Were called at once: but when they came, Light that do mislead the morn; Bringing the time of waking all too soon, And yesterday I planted her in Mustard and in Cress. They answered, as they took their fees, But my kisses bring again, Songs will be hushed, and the lovelight, dying, ‘There is no cure for this disease, Seals of love, but sealed in vain. Pass with the stars and the waning noon. My garden is so narrow that there’s very little room, Henry will very soon be dead.’ But I’d rather have her name than get a hollyhock to His parents stood about his bed ¡ Now sleeps the crimson petal Come as it may with tears or laughter, bloom; Lamenting his untimely death, Poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Bring as it will either rose or rue, And before she comes to visit us with Charlie and with When Henry, with his latest breath, Music: Roger Quilter Why should we care for what may come after? Tess, Cried ‘Oh, my friends, be warned by me Still for a while, only dreams are true. She’ll pop up green and bonny out of Mustard and of That breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea, Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white Cress. Are all the human frame requires...’ Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk; Love calls through the summer night, With that, the wretched child expires. Nor winks the gold fin in the porph’ry font: Love sings with a strange delight, 5 The Lily of a Day The firefly wakens: waken thou with me. Calls our young hearts to find his way, Poem by Ben Jonson 7 Fain would I change that note Now folds the lily all her sweetness up Let him lead us where’er he may. Music: Liza Lehmann Anonymous, 17th century And slips into the bosom of the lake: Music: Arthur Somervell So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip Dear heart, shall he call in vain, It is not growing like a tree in bulk, Into my bosom and be lost in me. When ne’er he may ask again? Doth make man better be, Fain would I change that note Ah! Love, together wherever you lead us, Nor standing like an oak To which fond Love hath charm’d me ™ Love calls through the summer night We take the wonderful road, the roadway of dreams. Three hundred year, Long, long to sing by rote, Poem by Rodney Bennett (1890-1948) Follow, come follow, love of my heart, tonight. To fall at last a log, Fancying that that harm’d me: Music: Roger Quilter Dry, bald and sere. Yet when this thought doth come © 1940 Ascherberg Hopwood & Crew Ltd, London W6 Love is the perfect sum Far in the darkness a nightingale is singing, Reproduced by permission of International Music The lily of a day, Of all delight, I have no other choice Singing his love and sorrow to the moon; Publications Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Were fairer far in May, Either for pen or voice Lost in the branches, the night wind, winging, Although it droop and die that night, To sing or write. Wakens the leaves to a low sweet tune. £ I will go with my father a-ploughing It was the plant and flow’r of light. Poem by Joseph Campbell In small proportions we just beauties see O Love! they wrong thee much Oft have I heard them, nights unending, Music: Roger Quilter And in short measures life may perfect be. That say thy sweet is bitter, Heard them and loved them and gone my way; When thy rich fruit is such Now with their passion a new note is blending, I will go with my father a-ploughing As nothing can be sweeter. Born of their beauty but more than they. To the green field by the sea, Fair house of joy and bliss, And the rooks and the crows and the sea-gulls Will come flocking after me. 8.557559-60 12 17 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:01am Page 16

Now in these silences And where the great their greatness squander, Where truest pleasure is, The mourners follow’d after, Lean to the cadences, And while the wise their wisdom lose, I do adore thee: And so to church went she, Moulding their grace Squirrels will leap, and deer will wander, I know thee what thou art, And would not wait for me. To the line of your face. Gracefully, down the avenues. I serve thee with my heart, The bells they sound on Bredon, And fall before thee. And still the steeples hum. Now at the end of all, * Margrete’s Cradle Song ‘Come all to church, good people,’ Loveliest friend of all, Poem by William Blake 8 In summer-time on Bredon (from A Shropshire Lad) Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; All things are yours Music: Gustav Holst Poem by A.E. Housman I hear you, I will come. In this peace that endures. Music: Arthur Somervell Sweet dreams, form a shade 9 The lads in their hundreds (from A Shropshire Lad) & The dream-city (from 12 Humbert Wolfe Songs) O’er my lovely infant’s head; In summer-time on Bredon Poem by A.E. Housman Music: Gustav Holst Sweet dreams of pleasant streams The bells they sound so clear; Music: Arthur Somervell By happy, silent, moony beams. Round both the shires they ring them, On a dream-hill we’ll build our city, In steeples far and near, The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow come in to the And we’ll build gates that have two key Sweet sleep, with soft down A happy noise to hear. fair, Love to let in the vanquished, and pity Weave thy brows an infant crown. There’s men from the barn and the forgeand the mill To close the locks that shelter these. Sweet sleep, Angel mild, Here of a Sunday morning and the fold, Hover o’er my happy child. My love and I would lie, The lads for the girls, and the lads for the liquor are There will be quiet open spaces, And see the coloured counties, there, And shady towers sweet with bells, Sweet smiles, in the night And hear the larks so high And there with the rest are the lads that will never be old. And quiet folks with quiet faces, Hover over my delight; About us in the sky. Walking among these miracles. Sweet smiles, Mother’s smile, There’s chaps from the town and the field and the till All the live long night beguile. The bells would ring to call her and the cart, There’ll be a London Square in Maytime In valleys miles away, And many to count are the stalwart, and many the With London lilacs, whose brave light Sweet moans, dove-like sighs, ‘Come all to church, good people; brave, Startles with coloured lamps the daytime, Chase not slumber from thine eyes. Good people, come and pray. And many the handsome of face and the handsome of With sudden scented wings the night. Sweet moans, sweeter smile, But here my love would stay. heart; All the dove-like moans beguile. And few that will carry their looks or their truth to the A silent Square could but a lonely And I would turn and answer grave. Thrush on the lilacs bear to cease ( The heart worships Among the springing thyme, His song, and no sound else save only Music: Gustav Holst ‘O peal upon our wedding, I wish one could know them, I wish there were tokens The traffic of the heart at peace. And we will hear the chime, to tell Silence in Heav’n, And come to church in time.’ The fortunate fellows that now you can never discern; And we will have a river painted Silence on Earth And then one could talk to them friendly and wish them With the dawn’s wistful stratagems Silence within! But when the snows at Christmas farewell, Of dusted gold, and night acquainted Thy hush, O Lord, On Bredon top were strown, And watch them depart on the way that they will not With the long purples of the Thames. O’er all the world covers the din. My love rose up so early return. I do not fear to speak of thee in mortal kind And stole out unbeknown, And we will have, oh yes! the gardens And yet to all thy namelessness I am not blind. And went to church alone. But now you may stare as you like but there’s nothing Kensington, Richmond Hill and Kew, Only I need and kneel again to scan; And Hampton, where winter scolds, and pardons Thy touch to win; They toll’d the one bell only, And brushing your elbow unguessed at and not to be The first white crocus breaking through. Silence in Heav’n Groom there was none to see, told

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They carry back bright to the coiner the mintage of For love is crowned with the prime The supper stands on the clean-scrubbed board, Such a Truth, as ends all strife: man, In spring time, the only pretty ring time, And the miller drinks like a thirst lord; Such a Life, as killeth death. The lads that will die in their glory and never be old. When the birds do sing, hey ding a ding ding; The young men come for his daughter’s sake, Sweet lovers love the spring But she never knows which one to take: Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength: 0 Among the rocks (from James Lee’s Wife) She drives her needle and pins her stuff, Such a Light, as shows a feast: Poem by Robert Browning @ The Water Mill While the moon shines gold, and the lamp shines buff. Such as Feast, as mends in length: Music: Arthur Somervell Poem by Fredegond Shove Such a Strength, as makes his guest. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams # On Wenlock Edge (from On Wenlock Edge) Oh good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth, Poem by A.E. Housman Come, my joy, my Love, my Heart: This Autumn morning! How he sets his bones There is a mill, an ancient one, Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams Such a joy, as none can move: To bask i’ the sun, and thrusts out knee and feet Brown with rain, and dry with sun, Such a Love, as none can part: For the ripple to run over in its mirth; The miller’s house is joined with it On Wenlock Edge the wood’s in trouble; Such a Heart, as joys in love. List’ning the while, where on a heap of stones And in July the swallows flit His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves; The white breast of the sea-lark twitters sweet. To and from, in and out, The gale, it plies the saplings double, % Silent Noon Round the windows, all about. And thick on Severn snow the leaves. Poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti That is doctrine, simple, ancient, true; Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams Such is life’s trial, as old earth smiles and knows The mill wheel whirrs and the waters roar ‘Twould blow like this through bolt and hanger If you loved only what were worth your love Out of the dark arch by the door, When Uricon the city stood: Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass, Love were clear gain, and wholly well for you: The willows toss their silver heads, ‘Tis the old wind in the old anger, The finger points look through like rosy blooms: Make the low nature better by your throes! And the phloxes in the garden beds But then it threshed another wood. Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms Give earth yourself, go up for gain above! Turn red, turn grey, with the time of day, ‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass. And smell sweet in the rain, then die away. Then, ‘twas before my time, the Roman All around our nest, far as the eye can pass, ! It was a Lover and his Lass At yonder heaving hill would stare: Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge, William Shakespeare The miller’s cat is a tabby, she The blood that warms an English yeoman, Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorne hedge. (from As You Like It, Act V, Scene 3) Is as lean as a healthy cat can be, The thoughts that hurt him, they were there. ‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams She plays in the loft, where the sunbeams stroke Deep in the sun-search’d growths the dragonfly The sacks’ fat backs, and beetles choke in the floury dust. There, like the wind through woods in riot, Hangs like a blue thread loosen’d from the sky: It was a lover and his lass, The wheel goes round Through him the gale of life blew high; So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above. With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, And the miller’s wife sleeps fast and sound. The tree of man was never quiet: Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower, That o’er the green corn-field did pass, Then ‘twas the Roman, now ‘tis I. This close-companion’d inarticulate hour, In spring time, the only pretty ring time, There is a clock inside the house, When twofold silence was the song of love. When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Very tall and very bright, The gale, it plies the saplings double, Sweet lovers love the spring. It strikes the hour when shadows drowse It blows so hard, ‘twill soon be gone: ^ Now in these fairylands Or showers make the windows white; Today the Roman and his trouble (from 12 Humbert Wolfe Songs) This carol they began that hour, Loud and sweet, in rain and sun, Are ashes under Uricon. Music: Gustav Holst With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, The clock strikes, and the work is done. How that a life was but a flower $ IV. The Call (from Five Mystical Songs) Now in these fairylands In spring time, the only pretty ring time, The miller’s wife and his eldest girl Poem by George Herbert Gather your weary hands When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; Clean and cook while the mill wheels whirl. Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams Close to your breast, Sweet lovers love the spring The children take their meat to school, And be at rest. And at dusk they play by the twilit pool; Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life: And therefore take the present time, Barefoot, barehead, till the day is dead, Such a Way, as gives us breath: With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino, And their mother calls them in to bed. 8.557559-60 14 15 8.557559-60 557559-60 bk English Song US 26/01/2005 11:01am Page 14

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8.557559-60 28 557559-60 rear English Song US 26/01/2005 11:02am Page 1 N N AXOS ENGLISH SONG AXOS CD 1 77:42 CD 2 72:05 Charles Villiers STANFORD (1852-1924) Eric COATES (1886-1957) DDD ENGLISH SONG 1 A Soft Day 2:48 1 The Grenadier 3:21 ENGLISH SONG 2 Irish Skies 5:13 2 The Young Lover 2:59 8.557559-60 Liza LEHMANN (1862-1918) 3 Betty and Johnny 2:12 3 Cherry Ripe 2:42 4 Rise up and reach the stars 1:39 Total 4 Mustard and Cress 1:52 Cecil Armstrong GIBBS (1889-1960) Playing Time 5 The Lily of a Day 2:37 5 The Bells 3:01 6 Henry King 3:21 6 Ann’s Cradle Song 3:21 2:29:47 Arthur SOMERVELL (1863-1937) 7 As I Lay in the Early Sun 1:49 7 Fain would I change that note 3:07 8 The Cherry Tree 2:31 8 In summer-time on Bredon 3:56 9 Dusk 1:31 9 The lads in their hundreds 2:54 Peter WARLOCK (1894-1930) 0 Among the rocks 3:30 0 Peter Warlock’s Fancy 2:12 Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) ! The frostbound wood 3:05 ! It was a lover and his lass 1:53 @ Chopcherry 1:04 @ The Water Mill 4:02 # A Sad Song 2:09 # On Wenlock Edge 3:51 $ Rutterkin 1:08 $ % The Call 2:17 Bethlehem Down 4:36 www.naxos.com Made in Canada Sung texts included Booklet notes in English Naxos Rights International Ltd. h % Silent Noon 4:38 William WALTON (1902-1983) 1993-2004 & Gustav HOLST (1874-1934) ^ Wapping Old Stairs 2:23 ^ Now in these fairylands 1:26 & Long Steel Grass 2:31 & The dream-city 3:17 * Tango – Pasodoble 2:09 * Margrete’s Cradle Song 2:45 ( Popular Song 2:14 ( The Heart Worships 3:14 ) Beatriz’s Song 2:51

Roger QUILTER (1877-1953) Lennox BERKELEY (1903-1989) g

) Take, O take those lips away 1:26 ¡ Lay your sleeping head, my love 5:34 2005 ¡ Now sleeps the crimson petal 2:26 Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) ™ Love calls through the summer night 5:30 ™ Early One Morning 3:23 £ I will go with my father a-ploughing 2:26 £ The foggy, foggy dew 2:38 Lord BERNERS (1883-1950) ¢ Now the leaves are falling fast 2:00 ¢ ∞ 8.557559-60 8.557559-60 The Rio Grande (Capstan Shanty) 2:34 Tell me the truth about love 5:41 ∞ Theodore, or the Pirate King 0:55 § The Choirmaster’s Burial 4:05 § A Long Time Ago (Hilliard’s Shanty) 1:28 Arnold BAX (1883-1953) A full track list and recording details ¶ Oh dear, what can the matter be? 1:36 can be found in the booklet