ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The artists are grateful for the sponsorship consideration of the following individuals and organiza- tions: Karen Vickers in memory of John E. Vickers and Velma Schuman Oglesby, Michael Wolf in memory SONGS OF JUDITH WEIR, & HAMISH MACCUNN of Clarice Theisen, Mark and Donna Hance, Nan and Raleigh Klein, Steve and Mary Wolf, Tim and Amanda Orth, Martha and Emil Cook, Brett Cook, Megan Clodi in memory of Eric McMillan, Steve Stapleton, CALEDONIAN SCENES Nathan Munson, Sherri Phelps and Ronaldus Van Uden, Jennifer Fair, Lucy Walker, Tony Solitro, Zachary Justin Vickers, tenor Geoffrey Duce & Gretchen Church, piano Wadsworth, Robert and Margaret Lane, Ian Hamilton in memory of John Hamilton, Anthony and Maria Moore, Carren Moham, Melissa Johnson, Joy Doran in memory of Steve Doran, Jonathan Schaar in memory of organist John Weissrock, Jerold Siena and Stasia Forsythe Siena in memory of William J. Forsythe, James Major in memory of Bettie Major, Roy Magnuson, Michele Robillard Raupp, Eric Saylor, Christopher Scheer, Brooks Kuykendall, Thornton Miller, Andrew Luke, Emily Vigneri, Hilary Donaldson, Imani Mosley, Annie Ingersoll and Eric Totte, and Jeanne Wilson and Gary Stoodley; research funds from the School of Music and the Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University; a grant from the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Illinois State University; an Illinois Arts Council Grant; research funds from Illinois Wesleyan University; and a PSC-CUNY Grant from City University of New York.

The MacCunn songs and the cycle on this disc may be found in Hamish MacCunn: Complete Songs for Solo Voice and Piano, Parts 1 and 2 (A-R Editions, 2016), edited by Jennifer Oates. Recorded in the Foellinger Great Hall of Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, Illinois, on a Hamburg Steinway D.

Recording Engineer: Graham Duncan Cover Image: Jennifer Oates

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Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 1-2 11/18/19 11:40 AM DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF During the compositional period of the cycle, Weir commented that she felt as if she was practicing RITA THOMSON an ancient craft in her deep connection to the age of the texts and the sound world she intended to create around them. “On closer examination, the grisly happenings of these familiar poems came as a shock,” (16 August 1944 – 11 October 2019) Weir recalls, “and the resulting songs are histrionic and nervous, though framed by ‘beautiful’ piano

CAREGIVER, NURSE, AND FRIEND TO BENJAMIN BRITTEN AND accompaniments, just as Scotland’s violent past is obscured by its abundant scenery.” The Scotland that Judith Weir conjures in Scotch Minstrelsy is one inspired by gloom and the specter of evil and cruelty. And , AND MANY OTHERS yet the ebullience of the piano accompaniment—itself a principal role in and of itself alongside that of the voice—transcends such menacing tales, occasionally providing a glimmer of hope couched in the delicacy of lightheartedness and wit. THE MUSIC The opening song of the disc is Weir at her most atmospheric. “Bessie Bell and Mary Gray” is an This recording emerged from a series of personal Scottish connections including my Scottish heritage via extended scena for the solo piano that ushers the listener into Weir’s Scotland. The introductory single my maternal grandfather; my colleague and friend, the pianist Geoffrey Duce, who grew up in Scotland; and piano line expands and contracts time and again, creating an image as if flying high above in the country- conversations and collaborations with Jennifer Oates, a foremost scholar of Hamish MacCunn. After several side. Dipping down through glens and copses, the single line repeatedly expands upward before returning to lecture-recitals with Oates and her work on a critical edition of MacCunn’s complete songs for A-R Editions, its solitary mission: speeding through the air until we reach Miss Bell and Miss Gray. The two women were we began to explore a number of the individual songs, with American pianist Gretchen Church, settling sheltered together in Lednock, because the plague had reached the neighboring town of Perth. It was 1645. on the selections represented on this disc to accompany the first recording of MacCunn’s Cycle of Six The stark realization of the song is that the very waters beside which they had built themselves a protective Love-Lyrics. The Britten and Weir cycles, staples of my recital repertoire, round out the recording and bower carried the plague to the two women, who were otherwise safe, killing them both. provide a diverse snapshot of songs inspired by Scotland and, in the case of MacCunn and Weir, “Bonnie James Campbell” is a seemingly romantic and adventurous ballad that recounts the tale composed by Scots. of Bonnie James Campbell who went gallantly out to battle one day and whose horse returns, but he does *** not. The text is collected in the Child Ballads, an anthology of 305 Scottish and English ballads, of which “Bonnie James Campbell” is number 210. His mother’s grief is eclipsed by that of his bride, crying: “My As a , Judith Weir’s Scotch Minstrelsy is unique for its overarching darkness. Saturated as it meadow lies green and my corn is unshorn, but Bonnie James Campbell will never return.” Weir’s treat- is in death—disease, murder, and intrigue—Weir creates a lilting quality that is immediately approach- ment of the three verses intensifies to the climax of the third verse, which describes his initial departure able for the listener, subject matter notwithstanding. Scotch Minstrelsy was commissioned for the tenor but lends vivid detail to the bloody saddle atop the lone horse, punctuated by a delicate, hollow response Neil Mackie by the McEwan Bequest at Glasgow University, where it was premiered on 14 May 1982. Weir in the piano. writes: “Scotch Minstrelsy is a song cycle comprising settings of five (greatly abbreviated) Scottish ballads Perhaps the most brilliant song of the cycle is “Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight.” It is certainly the whose subject matter is almost exclusively violent happenings which take place against the beautiful back- most magical. Its oscillating pair of opening piano notes creates an atmosphere that betrays the deadly ground of the Scottish countryside. It was my intention to reflect this underlying irony in the way the story to follow. Fair Lady Isobel sits innocently sewing and, upon hearing what she knows is the Elf- words are set to music.” Knight’s horn playing, offers a simple conditional “if” that very much changes her life. Her very utterance

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 3-4 11/18/19 11:40 AM of his name beckons him immediately to her window. Surely this is magic. He invites her to travel by horse however, as evidenced in the fluctuating and disorienting rhythmic patterns. This dream state is set with him to the Greenwood. Upon arriving, he declares that she has arrived to the place where he will kill still more on its axis as Weir displaces the unison line in canon for the second verse, culminating in the her (and according to the Broadside Ballads, of which this is Child number 4, he will take her money and unexpected and striking text: “I dreamt my love came headless home.” As if in response to this horror, the horses). “Sev’n kings’ daughters here have I slain, and you shall be the eighth of them.” But the Fair Lady once-simple piano accompaniment assumes a wind-like quality of arpeggiation and animated frenzy: “Oh Isobel has a much different idea. Weir introduces the pair of varying notes from the opening of the song in gentle wind that bloweth south, to where my love repaireth.” This verse is an immediate and very present a sort of nod to the very clever nature of the fair lady: “O sit down a while, rest your head upon my knee, contrast to the previous pair, invoking the wind to carry a kiss back to the dreamer from his beloved. that we may have some rest before I die.” And here we find that indeed it is Lady Isobel who enchants the The winds of the third verse are consumed with chromaticism, and the song ends with the same bell-like Elf-Knight, using magic of her own: “She stroked him so softly the nearer he did creep; with a small, secret octaves—albeit a half-step lower—with which it opened. But is there hope? The narrator, haunted by the charm she lulled him fast asleep.” And in a stroke of compositional genius, Weir closes this most excellent vision of his headless lover, nevertheless sends for some answer to his deep-seated dread: “Convey a kiss of revenge sagas with a wink and nod in the piano, and a vocal line that arouses the determined silence of from her dear mouth, and tell me how she faireth.” Thus, the conclusion of the song cycle just might offer Lady Isobel’s resolve: “With his own sword belt so softly she bound him; with his own dagger so softly she the faintest hint of hope, carried back to him on a breeze. But in Judith Weir’s Scotland, his beloved may killed him.” indeed have brought him his answer from the ghostly realm. “The Gypsy Laddie” represents the climax of Scotch Minstrelsy. A Scottish “border ballad,” in Judith Weir CBE (b. 1954) was named Master of the Queen’s Music in 2014, succeeding Sir Peter which a common theme is elements of the supernatural (its text is compiled as number 200 of the Child Maxwell Davies; she is the first woman to hold this post. Ballads), “The Gypsy Laddie” dates to the early- to mid-eighteenth century. Weir’s treatment underscores this intense and dynamic tale, replete with its own epilogue. At its heart, the ballad describes a lady who Benjamin Britten’s last song cycle was a commission from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate the forswears her life of luxury in her lord’s stately castle to follow a gypsy lad and his band of fellow gypsies. seventy-fifth birthday of H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 4 August 1975. The result was Hearing the sweet singing of the gypsies, the fair lady of the castle descends to where the gypsies ply her , op. 92, for tenor and harp, a suite of seven songs. with gifts of nutmeg and ginger and—for the gypsies “cast their glamour over her” through the spell of Britten specifically asked his longtime assistant Colin Matthews to arrange the songs for piano and their singing—the lady is magically intoxicated by them, defiantly forsaking her husband and family to high voice. Matthews recalls that he and Britten discussed which songs would work best with piano. (It instead “follow the gypsy laddie.” Beneath the lady’s final statement—“Ah! whatever shall betide me”— was never intended to be a separate version of the complete cycle with a full piano transcription from the Weir creates a furor of horses hooves representing at once the lady’s departure with the gypsies and the original harp lines.) After Britten’s 1976 death, Matthews arranged Four Burns Songs for voice and piano, arrival of her husband, the lord of the castle. The lord’s discovery of his wife’s departure is evident in the selected by Britten and excerpted from A Birthday Hansel. extended piano passage that begins the epilogue. Finally the lord calls for his horses: “‘Go, saddle to me The correspondence initiated by Her Majesty The Queen with Britten, reveals an especially sensi- the black,’ he said, ‘the brown rides never so speedy: and I will neither eat nor drink nor sleep till I avenge tive and personal insight into the Sovereign, conveying humour and lightheartedness as well as the very my lady.’” After giving chase the lord succeeds in his revenge, and all fifteen of the gypsies were “hanged thoughtful request for something to celebrate her dear Mother’s milestone birthday. Rather unusually for on a tree.” The listener must beg the question: in this Scotland, what reprisal befell the lady? Britten, whose archives in Aldeburgh are filled with seemingly every shred of paper he ever encountered, The implicitly haunting quality of “The Braes of Yarrow” is immediately conjured by the perfect he did not retain copies of the letters he wrote to the Queen. However, the following series of letters gives unison between the voice and the piano octaves. The unison is not entirely one of peace and concord, a great sense of their communique with one another.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 5-6 11/18/19 11:40 AM On 12 January 1975, Her Majesty wrote to Britten on Buckingham Palace stationery: Dear Ben, Dear Ben, I am sorry not to have answered your letter sooner, enclosing the poems. It arrived just I am so glad to hear that you are feeling better and stronger once again. after I’d returned from Mexico, and I fear I had just put it into my red box to answer and it got I have a request to make, which I have been putting off, which is that as you may know, my completely covered up by other letters! mother is going to be 75 years old this year in August (4th). I thought it would be so lovely to I think the poems look very charming. Though I know my mama knows two of them very well have some little bit of music dedicated to her for her birthday. as “Songs of the North”—“Ae Fond Kiss” and “My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”. I wondered if you would possibly feel like taking this on for me—to write something I very much like the one about the thrush, and Winter is Past, as well as O Why the Deuce specially for her? and A Rosebud by the Early Walk! This is between you and me—or the daughter and the composer—but please try, I think it would be an excellent idea to bring Ruth Fermoy into the secret, and she would be a though I shall understand whatever you say. great help in knowing what my mother’s programme is likely to be etc. Yours sincerely, Elizabeth R It would be much nicer to have your manuscript, of course, but a written fair copy would be lovely as well. Britten, naturally, accepted this auspicious commission. He suggested a setting of Robert Burns, I do hope this is not proving too much of a burden for you, but it will be such a splendid thing acknowledging The Queen Mother’s Scottish ancestry. Moreover, given his inability to play the piano owing to for my mama’s birthday as a special offering. the consequences of having suffered a stroke, Britten suggested scoring the work for tenor and harp, thinking Yours very sincerely, as he was about the performance collaborations between Peter Pears and Welsh harpist . Less than Elizabeth R a fortnight later from Sandringham, Norfolk, Her Majesty wrote again to Britten, thanking him for accepting her invitation and indeed recognizing that he was in no position to write a large-scale work. At one point, Britten composed an eight-song cycle for A Birthday Hansel. Following the Queen’s wishes, “First of all,” wrote The Queen, “I’m delighted you can’t write a symphony!” She continued: Britten did, in fact, write a setting of “Ae Fond Kiss,” but in the end—as was customary for the com- I think the idea of the poems of Robert Burns is a wonderful one—and with voice and harp poser—he cut the piece from the cycle thinking the text perhaps too serious in nature. In her final piece of should be exactly right for her to really enjoy and appreciate them. Perhaps I might even be able correspondence with Britten related to the “birthday cycle,” on 26 April 1975, Her Majesty addresses her to give a small party for her, when they could have their first performance. thoughts regarding the necessity of a change to Burns’s poetry to avoid any sort of comic error (or offense), Please don’t write anything large, for everyone would be only too pleased if they appeared writing from Windsor Castle: short and musically satisfying—a real bouquet in fact! Dear Ben, I look forward to the selection of words. I think the final line should read “Our well-loved Hielan Chief”—I’m not sure the “Black Yours sincerely, Elizabeth R Watch Veteran Chief” would go down too well! I have never heard the word Hansel but I am sure it would be a good title. The Queen returned to her correspondence with Britten in a four-page letter on 25 March 1975, writing Leezie Lindsay is a gay reel and I’m sure the whole thing will be lovely. from Buckingham Palace: We are just off to Jamaica, Hong Kong and Japan, and will be away for a fortnight. Yours sincerely, Elizabeth R

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 7-8 11/18/19 11:40 AM Although the cycle was composed in 1975, it did not enjoy its first performance until 16 January 1976— *** some five month’s after its dedicatee’s birthday—at Uphall, the home of Ruth, Lady Fermoy. Britten’s selection of the word “hansel” in the title, meaning a present or a welcome gift, was specifically to honor Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916) built his reputation on Scottish works for orchestra (with and without H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The first performance of A Birthday Hansel was given by the chorus) with his first overture, The Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1887), being his biggest hit. tenor Peter Pears and harpist Osian Ellis in the presence of the dedicatee, Her Majesty the Queen, Princess These Caledonian compositions along with the Scottish persona he cultivated in the press earned him the Margaret, Lady Fermoy, Benjamin Britten and Britten’s Scottish nurse, Rita Thomson. label of a “Scottish composer.” While he was best known for these larger works, MacCunn wrote over 100 Colin Matthews’s arrangement of four of the songs from A Birthday Hansel reflected his keen songs that eschew his Scottish musical style and persona revealing a more cosmopolitan musical language insights into the sound world of the composer, one with whom Matthews had worked for years, knowing that transcends his Caledonian reputation. best how to evoke the original instrumentation. Matthews’s captures Britten’s harp accompaniment in While his Scottish works made use of a varied but consistent Scottish musical style, MacCunn’s his arrangement, which was itself an evocation by Britten of the very Celtic nature of the Burns-inspired songs encompass a broader range of musical approaches. In “My bed and pillow are cold,” for example, cycle. Unlike Britten’s original cycle, which included transitional passages for the harp between songs, the unsettling and unexpected harmonic turns and the teeth-chattering coldness of the incessant piano Matthews’s arrangement instead sets the Four Burns Songs as fixed, individual songs without any such triplet arpeggios of the accompaniment reflect the distraught lover’s agitation Unlike his more rhythmically through-composition. Neither does the Four Burns Songs retain the order of Britten’s A Birthday Hansel, active accompaniments, in both “To Julia Weeping” and “Her suffering ended,” the piano part opens will which originally placed “Wee Willie Grey” as the third song in the cycle, followed by “My Hoggie,” then all half and whole notes. Both of these songs use daring harmonies and avoid clear cadences. “To Julia “Afton Water,” and then “The Winter” as the penultimate song. Weeping” moves through five tonal centers in thirty-six measures with the first root-position tonic chord In its piano arrangement, “Afton Water” retains the hallmark of harp arpeggiation, with Matthews only appearing in the penultimate measure. MacCunn exaggerates the facetious nature of the text alluding mirroring Britten’s delicate word painting of the gently flowing waters of the River Afton in Scotland. Distinct to the harmonies and melodic leaps of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde Prelude. “Her suffering ended” depicts from A Birthday Hansel, which morphs languidly one song into the next, Matthews’s arrangement discreetly the passing of a young girl illustrating her ascent to heaven through a cycle of fifths and a more active creates each standalone mood, relevant to the specific Robert Burns texts. The whimsy of the fleeting min- piano part that moves higher in register. iature “Wee Willie Grey,” with its tongue-twisting demands, conveys at once lightness and lyricism. In stark A Cycle of Six Love-Lyrics was one of the first song cycles by a British composer and MacCunn’s contrast, “The Winter” with its pulsing internal rhythm pervasive throughout the song, is a languid and har- most substantial work for solo voice and piano. It also marks his sole venture into Eastern topics, though monically obscure song within the set. Britten’s vocal line writing in “The Winter” hearkens back to aspects he focuses on the broader emotions of the tale rather than the exotic locale. The first two songs introduce of Winter Words, specifically “Before Life and After.” Concluding the Four Burns Songs, “My Hoggie” offers the characters and place the beloved in India, the two most harmonically distant songs in the middle mark an element of highly-charged pathos to the collection. the height of the protagonist’s distress, and the final set reunites the lovers. MacCunn emphasizes distance Colin Matthews OBE (b. 1946) is former chairman of the Britten Estate, and trustee and Music and longing, but also draws upon the alignment of nature with love, a common trope in British songs and Director of the Britten-Pears Foundation, as well as an administrator of the Holst Foundation. poetry of the time. Imagery of spring, blooming flowers, light, the sun, and the East represent the beloved, —Justin Vickers while winter, night, darkness, and the West depict the narrator’s emptiness and pain. The cycle was serialized and published in The English Illustrated Magazine across six issues from December 1889 through May 1890.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 9-10 11/18/19 11:40 AM MacCunn’s songs featuring Scottish texts tend to embrace a simple, folksong-like style or adapt his TEXTS III. Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight Scottish musical style to illustrate the drama and emotions of the poem. With its relatively plain melody Judith Weir (b. 1954) Fair Lady Isobel sits in her bower sewing, and accompaniment, “The Ash Tree” combines the simplicity of a folksong and the sophistication of an art Scotch Minstrelsy There she heard the Elf-Knight blowing his horn. song to great effect. Indeed, this song was the most performed during his lifetime. Using musical gestures I. Bessie Bell and Mary Gray ‘If I had yon horn that I hear blowing, reminiscent of MacCunn’s orchestral works, “Had I a cave on some distant shore” depicts waves with Bessie Bell and Mary Gray And yon Elf-Knight to sleep in my bosom’. rolling rhythms in the piano, and the howling of the wind with abrupt chromatic shifts and frantic rhythms They were two bonny lasses, in the accompaniment. The varied accompaniment and changeable melody of “Wilt thou by my Dearie” They biggit a bow’r on the banks of the river, The maiden had scarcely these words spoken, creates a miniature drama featuring rapid shifts of emotion. And theekit it over with rashes, O! When in at her window the Elf-Knight has luppen. MacCunn’s most extensive song, the scena “I’ve found my mountain lyre again,” renders the They theekit it over with rashes green, ‘It’s a very strange matter, fair maiden’ said he, traditional Scottish ballad as a wonderfully effective and vocally challenging art song with his striking use They theekit it over with heather; ‘I canna blow my horn but ye call on me. of contrast and sensitive text setting. Commissioned by the celebrated English tenor Sims Reeves and The plague came into the river bank, featuring the first three stanzas of James Hogg’s The Queens Wake, the expansive song consists of a And slew them both together. But will ye go to yon Greenwood side? ternary of written out da capo form (AA’BB’CAA’). The intense A sections—with ambiguous harmonies If ye canna gaing, I will cause you to ride’. and stormy, chromatic triplets in the accompaniment depicting the hardship of the poet and the harsh II. Bonnie James Campbell He leapt on a horse and she on another, weather—frame an arioso love song to the lyre (BB’) and an ode to young love with a shimmering It’s up in the highlands, along the sweet Tay, And they rode on to the greenwood together. accompaniment of arpeggiated sixteenth-notes depicting the vibrating strings of the lyre and the breeze (C). Bonnie James Campbell rode many a day; The refrain, “I’ve found my mountain lyre again!,” provides a contrasting end to the A sections and He saddled, he bridled, and gallant rode he, ‘Light down, light down, fair lady Isobel’, said he, an uplifting conclusion. Additional representations of the rapid change of sentiment in the text and the And home came his good horse but never came he. ‘We are come to the place where you are to die’. unpredictable Scottish weather can be seen in the abrupt transitions between sections and keys. Out came his old mother a-crying full sair, ‘Have mercy, have mercy kind sir on me, —Jennifer Oates Out came his bonny bride, tearing her hair, Till once my dear father and mother I see’. ‘My meadow lies green and my corn is unshorn *** ‘Seven king’s daughters here have I slain, But bonny James Campbell will never return’. And you shall be the eighth of them’. Saddled and bridled and booted rode he, ‘O sit down a while, rest your head upon my knee, A plume in his helmet, a sword at his knee, That we may have some rest before I die’. Empty his saddle all bloody to see, O home came his good horse, but never came he. She stroked him so softly the nearer he did creep; With a small secret charm she lulled him fast asleep.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 11-12 11/18/19 11:40 AM With his own sword belt so softly she bound him; ‘Go, saddle to me the black’, he said, Benjamin Britten (Arr. for piano by Colin Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides, With his own dagger so softly she killed him. ‘The brown rides never so speedy: Matthews, 1978) And winds by the cot where my Mary resides; And I will neither eat nor drink nor sleep, Four Burns Songs (Robert Burns) How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave, IV. The Gypsy Laddie Till I avenge my lady’. I. Afton Water As, gathering sweet flowerets, she stems thy clear The gypsies came to our good lord’s castle gates, Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, wave. There were fifteen valiant gypsies, And O! but they sang sweetly, O! Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise; They were black, O! but they were bonny. Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes, They sang so sweet and complete My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream, They are all to be hanged on a tree Flow gently, sweet River, the theme of my lays; That down came our fair lady, O! Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. For stealing our good lord’s lady. My Mary’s asleep by thy murmuring stream, They gave to her the nutmeg brown, Thou stock dove whose echo resounds thro’ the glen, Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream. They gave the finest ginger. V. The Braes of Yarrow Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den, The gypsies saw her well-fared face, I dreamed a dreary dream last night Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear, And cast their glamour over her. That filled my heart with sorrow: I charge you disturb not my slumbering Fair. I dreamt I pulled the heather green ‘Go take from me this silver cloak Upon the braes* of Yarrow. (hillside) And bring to me a plaidie. II. Wee Willie Gray I will forget my kith and kin, I dreamed a dreary dream last night, Wee Willie Gray, and his leather wallet, And follow the gypsy laddie. That filled my heart with sorrow: Peel a willow-wand, to be him boots and jacket: I dreamt my love came headless home, The rose upon the breer* will be him trews* and doublet, (brier) / (tartan trousers) Last night I lay on a feather bed, Upon the braes of Yarrow. The rose upon the breer will be him trews and doublet. My wedded lord beside me; Wee Willie Gray, and his leather wallet, Tonight I lie with stars and moon and sky; O gentle wind that bloweth south, Twice a lily-flower will be him sark* and cravat; (shirt) Ah! Whatever shall betide me!’ to where my love repaireth; Feathers of a flee wad* feather up his bonnet, (would) Convey a kiss from her dear mouth, (Epilogue: The Lady leaves with the gypsies, and Feathers of a flee wad feather up his bonnet. And tell me how she fareth. the Lord returns.) Text: Five Scottish Ballads III. The Winter The Winter it is past, and the summer comes at last, And the small birds, they sing on ev’ry tree; Now ev’ry thing is glad,

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 13-14 11/18/19 11:40 AM while I am very sad, Hamish MacCunn (1868-1916) And wait till again through the portals wide— Since my true love is parted from me. Cycle of Six Love-Lyrics 1 Her form to my longing arms shall glide. 1. A message came from the East in May The rose upon the brier, 2. Where palms make pleasant shade A message came from the East in May, by the waters running clear, Where palms make pleasant shade, And parted my Love and me— May have charms for the linnet or the bee; In India’s burning land, Their little loves are blest, From the East, where standeth the gate of day, My Love doth rest. and their little hearts at rest, That opens silently Their graceful forms around the gentle maid, But my true love is parted from me. To let the Angel of Light go through, Like courtiers round their queen, in homage stand, And the world with effulgence of morn renew. Each bows its plumed crest, IV. My Hoggie As waiting her behest. What do ye, keepers of the gate? What will I do gin* my Hoggie* die, (if) / (young sheep) How set your watch and ward? Above, the blazing sky, My joy, my pride, my Hoggie? That the gloomy form of a cruel fate The fiery sun, pour down My only beast, I had nae mae, Passed scathless through the guard, A splendor bright. And vow but I was vogie*. (fond) And shadowed all the orient sky, Keen shafts of gold betwixt the branches fly, The lee-lang night we watch’d the fauld, And smote the Spring with a bitter cry. Her head encircling with an aurora crown. Me and my faithfu’ doggie; Then shrinks the dazzled sight, I prayed, in tears: “O my love, remain! We heard nocht but the roaring linn*, (waterfall) From such excess of light. My Love, my Life, my Light!” Amang the braes sae scroggie*. (rough and thorny) Through tears she said, “I will come again, Lo! her most gorgeous dress But the howlet* cry’d frae the castle wa’. (owl) When again the skies are bright.” Fair Nature now doth wear, The blitter* frae the boggie, (snipe) Then Eastward went, beyond the morn, To greet my Love. The tod* reply’d upon the hill–– (fox) And left the darkened West forlorn. But she of beauteous hues and forms must frank I trembled for my Hoggie. O radiant East, more glorious now confess, When day did daw, and cocks did craw, For the presence of my Love! Within her realm no thing can compare The morning it was foggie; I watch thee when the sun sinks low, With my sweet Western dove, An unco tyke lap* o’er the dyke, (fierce dog leapt) When pale the stars above; My maid all maids above. And maist* has killed my Hoggie. (almost) 1 Concordant text source. Joseph Bennett, Text of Cycle of Six Love-Lyrics, A.P. Watt Records, #11036, 4.11, General and Literary Manuscripts, Manuscripts Department, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 15-16 11/18/19 11:40 AM 3. He passionately bewails her absence They say to me “Lo! in a while And now I sit in gloom appalling, 6. They are Reunited They preach to me patience, and smile Time will bring relief.” With lessening hope for comfort calling, Around me the splendour of Spring; At my heart’s sore grief; But how if they speak not the truth White on my heart despair is falling And a fullness of life’s delight They say to me “Lo! in a while In those placid tones? Like a winter’s night. Hath fallen upon every thing. Time will bring relief.” And what if the years of my youth The birds make clamour of song, But how if they speak not the truth Must be sighs and moans? 5. The news turns out to be false, and he hears From early dawn till night In those placid tones? she is coming back And one sings all night long. And what if the years of my youth 4. He hears of her death Pale and wan, the wintry sun A robe of white the thorn Must be sighs and moans? Ye whisper she is dead, Through mist is faintly showing; Doth hasten now to wear, And weep, and bow the head; All dank and sodden lie the fields, Stand apart from me, profitless friends, As though on wedding morn. O shame to mock me so, That late with flowers were glowing. Let me bear my pain; Wild roses deep in the glade With an idle tale of woe! Or, if ye would make me amends, The wind among the leafless trees To ope their sweet eyes dare, Dead! while each day the skies are glowing, Bring my Love again. Makes sound of lamentation, And blue bells ring in the shade. And all the autumn flow’rs are blowing, My Love through the gate of the day!— The roar of torrents fills the land And babbling brooks are brightly flowing! O gorgeous Earth, clad in splendor of Spring, O enraptur’d heart! With voice of desolation! These give ye answer, “No!” Dost thou know whom the morrow’s morn will bring, ‘Twas naught but my fancy at play; Wintry, too, is my heart, Through the gate of the East Still endure thy smart. Yet still ye say she’s dead! And I would fain depart To a marriage feast? And my heart is heavy as lead! I cry over lands and the sea, For the quiet home of the dead, On my brow a cold sweat stands; “We know, we know,” cry the clamorous birds “Slow the hours pass on; Where tears are never shed. I wipe it with trembling hands. In a fuller song more sweet than words; The hours that divide me from thee; —Angels who heaven’s gate are keeping, Strange! out of the East comes a sound of gladness! While the roses flush Will they never be gone?” Ever watchful, never sleeping, Can it be true? or a fancy of madness? With a deeper blush. O pitiful Fates, let the night Have ye seen a spirit weeping, For a voice in my ear keeps joyously ringing, To the day give place, The morning breaks! was ne’er such morn Pass your shining bands? And what, O thou wild beating heart! is it singing? And the sun shine forth with the light Through the Eastern gate to the West-world borne! Of my Love’s dear face. No answer from the skies, —She is not dead! She is not dead! Look! look! she is here! Nor ever earth replies. But cometh back with the bloom of spring! O my dear, my dear! They preach to me patience, and smile In vain my strained sight Love and joy in her hand to bring, Joseph Bennett (1831-1911) At my heart’s sore grief; Doth search a ray of light. The sun bright shining overhead!

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 17-18 11/18/19 11:40 AM Selected Songs of Hamish MacCunn Ye bring the deid years frae their graves Wilt thou be my dearie? 5 From Six Settings of Robert Bridges From Album of Six Songs To weary me, to weary me! Wilt thou be my dearie? My bed and pillow are cold 6 The Ash Tree 2 Thomas Davidson (1840-1900) When sorrow wrings thy gentle heart, My bed and pillow are cold, There grows an ash by my bour door, O wilt thou let me cheer thee? My heart is faint with dread, And a’ its boughs are buskit braw, To Julia Weeping 3 By the treasure of my soul, The air hath an odour of mould, In fairest weeds o’ simmer green, Oh! if your tears are giv’n to care, That’s the love I bear thee! I dream I lie with the dead: And birds sit singing on them a’. If real woe disturbs your peace, I swear and vow that only thou I cannot move, But cease your sangs ye blithesome birds, Come to my bosom, weeping fair! Shall ever be my dearie! O come to me, love, An o’ your liltin’ let me be; And I will bid your weeping cease. Only thou, I swear and vow, Or else I am dead. Ye bring deid simmers frae their graves Shall ever be my dearie! But if with Fancy’s vision’d fears, The feet I hear on the floor To weary me, to weary me! With dreams of woe your bosom thrill; Lassie, say thou lo’es me!— Tread heavily over head: There grows an ash by my bour door, You look so lovely in your tears, Or if thou wilt na be my ain, O Love, come down to the door, And a’ its boughs are clad in snaw; That I must bid you drop them still. Say na thou’lt refuse me! Come, Love, come ere I be dead: The ice-drap hings at ilka twig, Thomas Moore (1779-1852) If it winna, canna be, Make shine thy light, And sad the nor’ wind soughs thro’ a’. Thou, for thine may chuse me, O Love in the night; Oh, cease thy mane, thou norlan’ wind, Her Suffering Ended 4 Let me, lassie, quickly die, Or else I am dead. And o’ thy wailin’ let me be; Her suffr’ing ended with the day, Trusting that thou lo’es me! Robert Bridges (1844-1930) Thou brings deid winters frae their graves Yet lived she at its close, Lassie, let me quickly die, To weary me, to weary me! And breathed the long, long night away, Trusting that thou lo’es me! In statue-like repose. Robert Burns (1759-1796) Oh, I wad fain forget them a’;

Remember’d guid but deepens ill, But when the sun, in all his state,

As gleids o’ licht far seen by nicht Illum’d the eastern skies,

Mak’ the near mirk but mirker still. She passed through Glory’s Morning-gate, Then silent be, thou dear auld tree— And walked in Paradise! O’ a’ thy voices let me be; James Aldrich (1810-1856) 4  Aldrich titled his poem “A Death-Bed.” Concordant text source. Poets of America: Illustrated by One of Her Painters, 2 vols., edited by John Keese, 5th ed. (Boston: Samuel Colman, 1841), vol. 1, p. 107. 2 Concordant text source. James Brown, The Life of Scottish Probationer: Being a Memoir of Thomas Davidson with his Poems and Extracts from 5 Concordant text source. The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, with new annotations, biographical notices, etc. by William Scott Douglas his Letters, 6th ed. (Glasgow: James Maclehouse & Sons, 1908), p. 66. (London: Sonnenschein & Co., 1890), vol. 2, p. 31. 3  Concordant text source. The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1853), p. 58. 6 Concordant text source. The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges (London: Geo Bell & Sons, 1890), p. 57.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 19-20 11/18/19 11:40 AM Had I a cave on some wild distant shore7 Your ruth or fury I disdain, THE PERFORMERS Had I a cave on some wild distant shore, I’ve found my Mountain Lyre again. Justin Vickers, American lyric tenor, made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 25 with Opera Orchestra Where the winds howl to the wave’s dashing roar; Come to my heart, my only stay! of New York in the American première of Donizetti’s Adelia. He has returned to the venue on multiple occa- There would I weep my woes, Companion of a happier day! sions as a principle artist singing both opera and oratorio, notably alongside Renée Fleming in Lucrezia There seek my lost repose, Thou gift of Heaven, thou pledge of good, Borgia, an opera Vickers performed in Boston and was again assigned for the Washington National Opera Till grief my eyes should close, Harp of the mountain and the wood! production with Fleming under the baton of Plácido Domingo. In addition to repeat solo performances at Ne’er to wake more! I little thought, when first I tried venues ranging from Alice Tully and Avery Fisher Halls at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the 92nd Street Y, The Kennedy Center, and San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, he has bowed at Falsest of womankind, can’st thou declare Thy notes by lone Saint Mary’s side, Moscow’s International House of Music, Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall, Shenyang’s Grand Theatre, All thy fond, plighted vows fleeting as air! When in a deep introdden den, Albania’s National Opera House, and Vienna’s Stephansdom. With more than seventy-five standard leading To thy new lover hie, I found thee in the bracken glen, tenor operatic and oratorio/concert roles, Vickers has also sung the world premières of operas by Daniel Laugh o’er thy perjury; I little thought that idle toy Catán, Seymour Barab, Alexander Zhurbin, Jerrold Morgulas, William Banfield, and Francis Thorne. In April Then in thy bosom try Should e’er become my only joy. 2015, Navona Records released Full Fathom Five, on which Vickers offered the first recording of Michael What peace is there! A maiden’s youthful smiles had wove Tippett’s harpsichord version of the Songs for Ariel with R. Kent Cook, as well as first performances on The Robert Burns (1759-1796) Around my heart the toils of love, Fair Ophelia (Navona, 2013) and Shakespeare’s Memory (Navona, 2013); Vickers recorded the title role When first thy magic wires I rung, in Francis Thorne’s Mario and the Magician (Albany Records). Recent and upcoming seasons feature the I’ve Found My Mountain Lyre Again! 8 And on the breeze they numbers flung. tenor in premières and recordings of multiple newly-commissioned song cycles by American composers Now burst, ye Winter clouds that lower, The fervid tear played in mine eye; John David Earnest, Martha Horst, Colin Matthews, Jerrold Morgulas, Thomas Schuttenhelm, Tony Solitro, Fling from your folds the piercing shower; and Zachary Wadsworth. As a frequent interpreter of Britten’s music, Vickers has performed the orchestral Sing to the tower and leafless tree, I trembled, wept, and wondered why. song cycles, the Burns, Donne, Hardy, Hölderlin, and Michelangelo cycles, in addition to the and Ye cold winds of adversity; Sweet was the thrilling ecstasy: the . In addition to his scholarly writing, Vickers is currently developing opera librettos in Your blights, your chilling influence shed, I know not if ‘twas love of thee. collaboration with American composer Tony Solitro. On wareless heart, and houseless head, James Hogg (1770-1835) In spring 2017, the Vickers and Duce performed American, British, and Canadian musical responses to World War I at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. During the summer of 2017, Vickers par- ticipated extensively in the Britten-Pears Foundation’s 2017 exhibition – Queer Talk: Homosexuality in Britten’s Britain – commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the partial decriminalization of homosexual- ity. There in Aldeburgh, England, Vickers appeared in recital pianist with Karyl Carlson at Britten’s home, The Red House, where he performed the world premiere of Zachary Wadsworth’s Secret Songs (Edward 7 Concordant text source. Life and Works of Robert Burns, ed. by Robert Chambers, 4 vols. (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishing, 1852), vol. 4, p. 23. Carpenter), a song cycle that the tenor commissioned for the anniversary of decriminalization. Vickers has 8 Concordant text source. James Hogg, The Queen’s Wake, 5th ed. (Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1819), pp. 3-4.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 21-22 11/18/19 11:40 AM also contributed essays to the Britten-Pears Foundation’s 2018 exhibition booklet, Britten in America, and Scottish pianist Geoffrey Duce has performed in Carnegie Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, will offer a further essay to the 2020 exhibition booklet on Peter Pears’s eclectic range of commissions. In London’s Wigmore Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall, across Europe and in 2010, Vickers sang the first performance of Benjamin Britten’s “Epilogue” (1943) to The Holy Sonnets of Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Dr. Duce’s career has featured both solo and collaborative performances. John Donne, using his own transcription from the composer’s lost manuscript, which Vickers uncovered in As a concerto soloist he has appeared with the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, the Chattanooga and Olympia the Britten-Pears Library; his article on the work’s discovery is published in The Musical Times (December Symphony Orchestras, the Scottish Sinfonia, Edinburgh Philharmonic, New York , and the 2015) and an expanded version in Kate Kennedy’s Literary Britten (The Boydell Press, 2018). Vickers is Dundee Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician and accompanist, he has recorded for BBC Radio 3 editor of and contributor to the recently published Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art and performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., with Justin Vickers. He won the Young Artists with Vicki P. Stroeher (The Boydell Press, 2017). His current monograph project, The of Award from the National Federation of Music Societies and was awarded the Prix de Piano at the American Music and the Arts: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948–1986, will be published by The Boydell Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. He was the Peoria Symphony Orchestra’s first Artist in Residence Press to mark the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Aldeburgh Festival in 2022. Vickers is again joining for the 2018-2019 season, including performances of concertos by Mendelssohn, MacDowell, and Duke Vicki P. Stroeher as co-editor of Britten in Context for the new Composers in Context Series by Cambridge Ellington. He has given masterclasses at institutions including Hawaii University, St. Thomas University University Press, to which he is also a contributor. Vickers holds his Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance in New Brunswick, Canada, Shorter and Darton Colleges, Georgia, the Academy of Music Northwest in and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his 2011 dissertation on the Seattle, for the Orquesta Filharmónica in Bogota, Colombia, at the City of Edinburgh Music School, and genesis and compositional process of Tippett’s The Heart’s Assurance was awarded the 2014 Nicholas in the Middle East. He has also served on the faculty of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival. During the Temperley Prize for Excellence in a Dissertation. While at the University of Illinois, Vickers also completed summer of 2016 he was an International Visiting Faculty member at the University of Taipei, Taiwan, and the coursework for the Ph.D. in historical musicology. has taught at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan. In 2019, he was a faculty member of the inaugural At Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois, Vickers was director of the international Benjamin Britten Global Immersion Program at Southwest University in Chongqing, China. Duce initially studied at the Royal at 100: An American Centenary Symposium (24-27 October 2013), where he is Artist Teacher of Voice, Northern College of Music and Manchester University before receiving a DAAD scholarship to the Univer- Artistic Director of Illinois Festival Opera, and Associate Professor of Music. Please visit justinvickers.com sität der Künste, Berlin. His principal teachers have included Phillip Kawin, Ferenc Rados, Klaus Hellwig and Renna Kellaway. He received his doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a Pianist Gretchen Church has more than 30 years of experience accompanying vocalists, instrumentalists, faculty member, and has previously held positions at the State University of New York (Westchester Com- and choirs. She is the opera coach and a staff accompanist at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, munity College) and at Indiana University, South Bend. He is currently Associate Professor of Music and Illinois. Gretchen is a graduate of Illinois State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Artist Teacher of Piano at Illinois State University, where he is coordinator of the piano area. Champaign, where she earned a master’s degree in accompanying and vocal coaching. She has played for Opera Illinois, DuPage Opera Theater, Sugar Creek Opera Festival, and the opera and musical theater departments at University of Illinois, Illinois State University, and Illinois Wesleyan University. Her choral accompanying experience includes the Philharmonic Chorales in Naples, Florida, and Peoria, Illinois, and the Nova Singers in Galesburg, Illinois.

Caledonian Scenes_1800_book.indd 23-24 11/18/19 11:40 AM caledonian scenes

Hamish MacCunn (1868-1889) CALEDONIAN Cycle of Six Love-Lyrics (1899)** 10 A message came from the East TROY1800 SCENES (Joseph Bennett) [4:47] Justin Vickers, tenor 11 Where palms make pleasant shade [3:59] Geoffrey Duce & Gretchen Church, piano 12 He passionately bewails her absence [4:51] 13 He hears of her death [4:02] SONGS OF JUDITH WEIR, BENJAMIN BRITTEN & HAMISH MACCUNN 14 The news turns out to be false [3:58] 15 They are reunited [6:05]

Judith Weir (b. 1954) Hamish MacCunn Scotch Minstrelsy (1982) Selected Songs 1 Bessie Bell and Mary Gray [4:03] 16 The ash tree (Thomas Davidson) [3:31] 2 Bonnie James Campbell [2:39] 17 To Julia weeping (Thomas Moore) [1:45] 3 Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight [2:02] 18 Her suffering ended (James Aldrich) [2:20] 4 The Gypsy Laddie [2:50] 19 Wilt thou be my dearie? (Robert Burns) [2:23] 5 The Braes of Yarrow [2:02] 20 My bed and pillow are cold (Robert Bridges) [1:38] 21 Had I a cave on some wild distant shore Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) (Robert Burns) [1:49] Four Burns Songs, Op. 92 (1975)* 22 I’ve found my mountain lyre again! 6 Afton Water (Robert Burns) [2:43] (James Hogg) [6:21] 7 Wee Willie Gray [0:54] Justin Vickers, tenor | Gretchen Church, piano 8 The Winter [2:57]

SONGS OF JUDITH WEIR, BENJAMIN BRITTEN & HAMISH MACCUNN 9 My Hoggie [1:56] Total Time = 69:48 Justin Vickers, tenor | Geoffrey Duce, piano *Arr. for piano at the composer’s request by Colin Matthews, 1978 **World première recording

TROY1800

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1800 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2019 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. caledonian scenes

Caledonian Scenes_1800_inlay.indd 1 11/18/19 11:47 AM