Album Booklet

A short while for dreaming Choral works by Peter Warlock Blossom Street Hilary Campbell RES10129 A short while for dreaming Choral works by 1. As dew in Aprylle [1:57] 14. I saw a fair maiden [4:16] Peter Warlock (1894-1930) 2. The Night * [2:00] 15. Ha’nacker Mill * [2:16] (arr. Fred Tomlinson) (arr. Fred Tomlinson) 3. My Own Country * [1:31] 16. One More River * [1:44] Blossom Street (arr. Fred Tomlinson) 17. The Lady’s Birthday [2:44] 4. Benedicamus Domino [1:22] 18. A Cornish Carol [1:22] Hilary Campbell director 5. The Full Heart [4:52] 19. The Rich Cavalcade [2:52] 6. The Spring of the Year [1:37] 20. Bethlehem Down [4:24] 7. Yarmouth Fair [2:07] (adapted by C. Armstong Gibbs) [2:33] Total playing time [56:33] From Three Dirges of Webster: 8. Call for the Robin-Redbreast and the Wren * [2:33] * world premiere recording 9. The Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi [4:50] About Blossom Street: 10. The Bayley Berith the Bell Away * [2:36] ‘One of my favourite choirs’ 11. Corpus Christi [4:27] David Mellor, Classic FM 12. A Cornish Christmas Carol [4:45] ‘It is some indication of the quality of the singers in Blossom Street that all the solos are outstanding’ 13. Lullaby * [1:36] Gramophone (about Down by the Sea) A short while for dreaming: can also be counted as one of the most radical Choral works by Peter Warlock of all of his compositions in this genre and dates from 1916. In August of that year Even if it were true that Peter Warlock's Warlock wrote to his friend, the poet talent was exclusively miniaturist and Robert Nichols (1893-1944), whom he had lyrical, so for that matter has been that met while a student at Oxford, ‘I have set your of many of the greatest in the history of every other art. beautiful “Alone on the shore” for 8 part Cecil Gray Peter Warlock: A Memoir chorus’. Warlock revised the work some years of Philip Heseltine (1934) later in 1921, but already visible is an immense propensity for realising every Despite mainly being known for composing nuance of a text in an incredibly condensed stunning and evocative songs for voice form, always with a sense of indulgence. and piano, as well as being one of the most The work itself is dedicated to ‘the troubled personalities from this period of immortal memory of the Prince of Venosa’, music, Peter Warlock – the nom de plume Carlo Gesualdo, and is a clear tribute to of Philip Heseltine (1894-1930) – also wrote the man whose works he was determined a regular output of choral works throughout to revive through scholarly research, his short active career. While some of performances and new editions. Warlock Warlock’s better-known choral works remain mirrors the chromatic deeply firmly in the repertoire, there is a rich unconventional style of Gesualdo’s oeuvre of miniatures that have become works from centuries earlier. Despite unjustly neglected and perhaps only Warlock’s own thoughts of The Full Heart as seldom heard. The most striking quality an early work – ‘[...] musically it is not as of this select collection of works is the good as the three Webster dirges’ – there is impressive consistency of excellence that is already a level of harmonic sophistication, found throughout. Also evident is Warlock’s exploration and experimentation that colours Peter Warlock well-documented gift for compacted many of his later works. yet expressive and beautiful works that often contain more music of exceptional calibre Known mostly now for his ubiquitous carols, than more substantial offerings from other Warlock’s first seasonal works were composers. completed in 1918 – A Cornish Christmas Carol, A Cornish Carol, As Dew in Aprylle and Warlock’s earliest choral work, The Full Heart, Benedicamus Domino. The two Cornish Carols – A Cornish Carol (or Kan Kernow) and Composed in 1919, and scored for alto and troublesome combination.’ In the same letter referring to the renowned baritone John A Cornish Christmas Carol (or Kan Nadelik) tenor solos and double chorus, Corpus he also refers to ‘[...] “Hark, now everything is Goss(1891-1953) and his colleagues from were originally written to texts in Cornish Christi was considered by Warlock as one of still” – that grisly poem from “The Duchess Westminster Cathedral Choir who made by Henry Jenner (1848-1934), who had led his strongest works in the genre. It of Malfi”’. These two particular works the earliest recording of The Lady’s Birthday. the revival of the regional language. The is dedicated to the former Dean of Christ contain some of Warlock’s darkest writing, Also from 1925 is The Spring of the Year, a inspiration for these two particular carols Church and Bishop of Oxford, Dr Thomas particularly in The Shrouding of the Duchess setting of a text by the Scottish poet had come during an extended stay with Strong (1861-1944), who had encouraged of Malfi – Cecil Gray noted that they Allan Cunningham (1784-1842). Wistful in D.H. Lawrence in Cornwall, and the both him and William Walton as young were ‘[...] probably the gloomiest and nature, and one of Warlock’s shortest setting of these texts reflects his intense composers. It was sometimes mistaken grisliest music that even Philip Heseltine choral pieces, The Spring of the Year is interest at this point in the ongoing for an arrangement of a folk-tune ever wrote, which is saying a good deal’. tinged with sadness and the subject of death. resurgence of the Cornish tongue. In and Warlock found himself correcting April 1918, Warlock wrote to Cecil Gray: people on this; writing to his former Both composed in 1925, The Lady’s Birthday The hauntingly beautiful Bethlehem Down ‘I am writing with great enthusiasm two piano teacher at Eton, Colin Taylor, he and One More River couldn’t be in more of 1927 is probably the best known work Cornish hymns: it is probably the first time said ‘[...] it is not founded on an old stark contrast to the Three Dirges of Webster. of Warlock’s entire output, and was one the old language has ever been musicked tune as you seem to think – though I may These two uproarious part songs are part of a number of texts that Warlock set to deliberately [...] but it is wonderful for have misunderstood your reference to the of a set of Three Sociable Songs – along music by one of his closest friends, Bruce singing purposes, containing many sounds tune as “a great find”. Such as it is, it is with The Toper’s Song (although all Blunt (1899-1957), which included the almost unknown in English.’ While Warlock’s my own.’ published separately) – and are songs The Fox and The Cricketers of overriding preference was for them to arrangements of well-known melodies, Hambledon. Warlock wrote to Blunt in be performed in Cornish, they are latterly The Three Dirges of Webster were composed scored similarly for baritone solo, men’s September 1927 declaring ‘I have set your and more frequently to be heard in between 1923 and 1925 and contained voices and piano. One More River also carol to music, and if you like it, we might their English translations. The texts for three texts from the plays of John exists in an alternative version for have a monumental carouse on the both Benedicamus Domino and As dew Webster: All the flowers of the spring, The baritone solo and unison chorus, although proceeds!’ Warlock himself couldn’t possibly in Aprylle are from the Sloane MS. 2593, Shrouding of the Duchess of Malfi (’Hark, now Warlock personally thought ‘Male-voices- have imagined the eventual widespread and a collection of mediaeval poems and everything is still’’) and Call for the with-piano is a bad combination’. immense popularity of this particular carols assembled in the fifteenth Robin-Redbreast and the Wren. In a letter (Warlock’s intention was to create an festive staple. Composed in the same century and held in the British Library. to Colin Taylor in December 1925, Warlock orchestral version, but this version was year is another strophic carol, I saw a The two works are quite contrasting with wrote that the 4-part female chorus never realised.) The Lady’s Birthday, fair maiden. It sees Warlock’s return to the some similarities – while both are setting of Call for the Robin-Redbreast and contains the dedication ‘A song sung by Sloane MS. 2953 for a gentle lullaby that homophonic in nature, As dew in Aprylle the Wren was ‘[...] dedicated to you, the Mr Platt at Sadler’s Wells and arranged is much simpler in character, with none is spritely and light, while Benedicamus more appropriately because your delightful (at least 150 years later) for Mr. Goss and of the foreboding contained in the more Domino is fuller in texture and more exultant. Madonna songs were the first examples I the Cathedral Male-voice Quartet by emotive Bethlehem Down. As one of his later ever saw of good music for this rather Peter Warlock at Eynsford on Derby Day 1925', choral works, The Rich Cavalcade was written in 1928 to a text by the English poet Frank (Tomlinson also provides the English Kendon (1893-1959). It displays typically translation for Kan Kernow (A Cornish Carol)). sumptuous harmony in a through-composed Originally composed in 1927 these three setting. settings of poems by the French-born but British-based Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) are The Bayley Berith the Bell Away and Lullaby, among Warlock’s finest songs each capturing both scored for upper voices with piano perfectly the mood of the text – the uneasy accompaniment, were 1928 arrangements melancholy of Ha’nacker Mill, the sentimental of two of Warlock’s earliest published songs wistfulness of My Own Country and the of the same titles.

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