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Peter Warlock: Some Little Joy I Love All Beauteous Things: Choral and Organ Music SIGDVD002 by Herbert Howells The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin A film drama about a man who, by his SIGCD151 death at thirty six, had composed some of the most perfect gems of English Herbert Howells has an assured place in the annals of English songwriting and elevated hedonism to an church music, however his popular reputation is founded largely on art form. the frequent performance of a small body of core works. This recording redresses the balance in exploring some much less well- known pieces, with impassioned performances from the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.

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THE frostbound wood 16. When the Dew is Falling Herbert Howells [3.36] 17. Full Moon Herbert Howells [2.59]

1. My Little Sweet Darling Peter Warlock [1.59] Noble Numbers Betty Roe 18. To His Saviour, a Child; a Present, by a Child [1.35] 2. Take, O Take Those Lips Away Peter Warlock [1.35] 19. To God; An anthem sung before the King in 3. And Wilt Thou Leave Me Thus? Peter Warlock [1.59] the chapel at Whitehall [2.43] 4. Sleep Peter Warlock [2.10] 20. To God [0.53] 21. To His Angrie God [1.41] 5. The Droll Lover Peter Warlock [0.57] 22. To His Sweet Saviour [3.55] 6. Mourn No More Peter Warlock [1.39] 7. My Own Country Peter Warlock [2.16] 23. My Gostly Fader Peter Warlock [1.57] 24. The Frostbound Wood Peter Warlock [2.53] The Painted Rose * Michael Howard 8. The Painted Rose [2.16] 25. Bethlehem Down Peter Warlock [4.07] 9. So By My Singing Am I Comforted [2.57] 26. The Night Peter Warlock [2.05] 10. Before Sleep [1.03] 11. David’s Lament for Johnathan [2.33] Total Timings [58.15] Three Middle English Songs* Michael Howard * world premiere recording 12. A Hymn to the Virgin [2.24] 13. May in the Grenewode [1.31] 14. This Worldes Joie [2.45] Tim Travers-Brown counter-tenor

15. Mrs. MacQueen Herbert Howells [1.44] Jeremy Filsell Piano

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Artist’s NOTE

Throughout my career I have been involved in I have felt an affinity with the purity and elegance performing and recording music from the of Howells music since first encountering it as a Renaissance, Baroque and Classical periods. cathedral chorister - his music is, for me, a Although the countertenor voice remains indelibly personal evocation of a bygone era. When I first associated with this earlier repertoire, I have performed the ‘Noble Numbers’ I was charmed by always felt equally inspired by the romantic the innocence and honesty of the textual and lyricism of much 19th and 20th Century fare. What musical settings, and it is a pleasure to include drew me to these four composers was the clarity them here. On first hearing the songs of Peter and simplicity of their respective word setting. The Warlock I was excited by the wealth of colour I songs on this disc have a wonderful translucent heard in the music. His easy juxtaposition of jazz quality, which allows the meaning of the text to elements with a Tudor-style Consort idiom is shine through. The gilded quality of much early unique. Jeremy Filsell introduced me to the music music was not lost on either Warlock or Howells, of Michael Howard, and I was immediately struck both of whom were influenced by music of the by the songs profound intimacy, and the Renaissance and Tudor periods. This ‘backward compelling manner in which the piano weaves and glance’ is seen in Michael Howard’s work, who floats around the unusually low vocal tessitura. found inspiration in Early English poetry, and also in Betty Roe, who set her music to the religious I would especially like to thank Jeremy who, with verse of 17th Century poet, Robert Herrick. his own pianistic sensitivity and brilliance, has brought these songs to life. I also wish to thank Whilst Roe and Howard wrote specifically with the Betty Roe and the late Michael Howard for counter-tenor voice in mind, Warlock and Howells permission to record their songs. I would like to did not, yet their referential approach to ‘old style’ extend my gratitude to Nigel Short, Steven, Alison music hopefully gives some credence to their and Henry for their advice, Andrew and Adrian for music’s translation to the ethereal yet very human their skills as engineer, producer and editor, and qualities of the counter-tenor voice. to my father for all his patience and support.

Tim Travers-Brown, 2009. © George Garnier.

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PROGRAMME NOTE living in Dublin (1917-18). During these years he ‘Here lies Peter Warlock the composer Who lived exploited by the use of folk-song idioms, Peter associated with DH Lawrence, met the Anglo- next door to Munn the grocer He died of drink and Warlock’s songs are definitely of this country. They ‘Music is neither old nor modern: it is either good Dutch composer Bernard van Dieren (in whom he copulation A sad discredit to the nation’ (autoepitaph). take their English character from the music’s or bad music, and the date at which it was written had implicit faith and defended to the hilt), and In December 1930, just over a week before Christmas, kinship with the rise and fall of the language. has no significance whatever. Dates and periods got married - to one Minnie Lucy Channing he was found unconscious in his Chelsea flat in Warlock’s rhythms are born an identification of are of interest only to the student of musical (‘Puma’), an artist’s model with whom he already Tite Street, dying later in hospital, from gas melody and rhythm with the verbal stresses, yet history ... All old music was modern once, and had a son. Dabbling in the occult (Scriabin, Cyril poisoning. Given ‘insufficient evidence on which we never feel that the composer has slavishly much more of the music of yesterday already Scott territory), he first used the name ‘Warlock’ to decide whether death was the result of suicide followed the accents of verse; the fusion is entirely sounds more old-fashioned than works which were (male witch, sorcerer) in November 1916 (as a or accident,’ an open verdict was returned, musical; the composer has recreated his poetic writtenSackbut, three centuries ago. All good music, whatever writer) and August 1918 (composer): among his reported in the press. From the witness box John content in terms of his own art ... Perhaps Warlock its date, is ageless - as alive and significant today friends was Aleister Crowley’s lover and acolyte Ireland believed he’d been ‘worried about his work was too critically minded ever to write music of as it was when it was written’ (Warlock, The Victor Neuburg (the ‘discoverer’ of Dylan Thomas). as a composer. I think that he felt, as I suppose bigness: a composer cannot hope to burn a hot ego 1926). Bridging the Victorian, Edwardian many composers do, that he had not yet received flame of inspiration if some part of his mind is and neo-Georgian eras, dying before Delius, Elgar During the 1920s Warlock undertook sporadic the recognition his work deserved.’ A young withdrawn from the sphere of creative activity and and Holst, Peter Warlock - the pseudonym/alter journalism; wrote books on Delius (his mentor and woman who preferred to remain anonymous, living is on the watch for faults of taste’ (NC). ‘He was a of Philip Heseltine (1894-1930) - was a friend since 1911) and Gesualdo (with Cecil Gray); at the time with Warlock (Barbara Peache), said man from whom anything might be expected ... his Londoner of acerbic tongue and many colours. and composed The Curlew song cycle after Yeats, ‘he had threatened to [take his life], but I thought appearance - tall, fair-bearded, and rather Born in the Savoy Hotel to a family of stockbrokers, (1923, his masterpiece) and the Renaissance- it was just talk ... He said he felt he was a failure overbearing - was that of an Elizabethan courtier solicitors and art lovers, he attended Eton (1908- inspired Capriol Suite for strings (1926/28). A deal ... and that he could not go on. He said he seemed or an Italian Renaissance prince rather than a 20th 11), followed by two unsuccessful spells at of time was spent with his mother and step-father not to be able to do any more ... He seemed to Century musician. Unlike most of them, he was a university (1913-14: Christ Church Oxford, in Cefn Bryntalch in the Severn valley, the family worry about things’ (Times, 23 December 1930). connoisseur, a controversialist, an epicure, and a University College London). Failing to further his home in Wales. But there was also a scandalous roisterer. It may be doubted whether there is musical education or obtain a degree, he got a job sojourn of hedonism and womanising in Eynsford ‘Mr Philip Heseltine Composer and Song Writer,’ anyone in Chelsea who can take part in a carousal as a music critic on the Daily Mail in 1915 but near Swanley, Kent (1925-28), where he and E.J. the Manchester Guardian obituary, contributed by as he could with an air and a style ... Peter lasted only four months. A conscientious objector, Moeran rented a house in the High Street. Walton Neville Cardus and Eric Blom, focussed both on Warlock, the figure of fiction, was the man who he spent the First World War researching and and Augustus John visited, the baritone John composer and personality (18 December 1930). wrote innumerable songs to Old English poetry, editing early music in the British Museum, Goss too and barefooted girls fresh from the ‘Many of his songs will live for their sensibility to always chosen with unfailing taste. Philip dividing his time between Cornwall and metropolis. A ‘zest for sin’, ‘wild, drunken the words to which they are set. Without the aid of Heseltine was responsible, one felt, for the smaller ‘bohemian’ Battersea, and, to avoid conscription, anarchy’, threesomes at dawn. a superficial “Englishness” such as can be amount of music in a modern style’ (EB).

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Earnest Suit to his Unkind Mistress, not to Forsake A man of prodigious musical andthus? literary output, him. (1928) Sir Thomas Wyatt, The Appeal - An lecturer; and as No 2 to Deryck Cooke in the BBC’s 1990). He also found time to write two volumes of whose word settings have been compared with Hater Radio 3 Music Presentation Unit (from 1968). memoirs, appropriately titled The Private Inferno Purcell’s and Britten’s, and who stood in the 4) Sleep (1922) John Fletcher, The Woman From an artistic/musical family, he attended the (1974) and Thine Adversaries Roar (2001). more tradition of Schubert, Fauré, Duparc, Wolf, Summer. 5) The Droll Lover from Seven Songs of Royal Academy of Music, studying composition Vaughan Williams and Quilter, Warlock was (1928) Anon, 17th Century. 6) Mourn no with William Alwyn and organ with George ‘One of the defining choral conductors of his influenced by Delius, van Dieren, Bartók, the (1919) Fletcher, The Queen of Corinth. ‘In the Dorrington Cunningham. He completed his generation [playing] a significant role in the Tudors and Elizabethans, folk music and parlour autumn of 1927, Warlock arranged this song for training under Ralph Downes (Brompton Oratory) revival of Renaissance music in post-war Britain’ song, his Celtic sympathies and travels through voice and string quartet (unpublished), adding and Marcel Dupré (St Sulpice, Paris). His principal (Shenton). ‘Howard,’ Alistair Dixon elaborates, North Africa and Eastern Europe no doubt adding two bars of introduction - the original possessing Anglican appointments were at Tewkesbury Abbey ‘developed a new system of choir training that other dimensions. Reviewing his Memorial Concert noneSongsfarrago - and having second thoughts about the (1943, Organist) and Ely Cathedral (1953-58, concentrated on the production of pure, open at the Wigmore Hall, the Musical Times concluded vocal line. 7) My Own Country from Three Belloc Organist and Master of the Choristers). Pursuing a “Italianate” vowels that were consistent from the (April 1931): ‘if [Warlock] was dissatisfied (1927) Hilaire Belloc, The Four Men. A passion for early music and performance practice, bottom to the top notes ... “Lips Tongue and Teeth” because he could not develop an extended musical . 8) My Gostly Fader (1918) Charles Duc he founded The Renaissance Society and Singers was his favourite aide memoire. Diction was argument, we for our part are content to have had d’Orléans.Times 9) The Frostbound Wood [Sacred Song] (1944-64) and, at the suggestion of Basil Lam, perhaps his greatest preoccupation and his legacy him capable of exposing a thought briefly, lucidly, (1929) Bruce Blunt (1899-1957). This first Cantores in Ecclesia (1964-86). The last thirty of recordings demonstrates the extent to which he and gracefully’. appeared in the Christmas 1928 issue of Radio years of his life consolidated his roots and demanded that his singers project their Cavalcade , replacing, at Warlock’s request, a four-part sympathies. Organist of St Marylebone Parish consonants ... Howard brought a new quality to Eleven Songs 1) My little sweet darling (? 1918- setting of a poem by Frank Kendon, The Rich Church (1972); co-founder, with George Dushkin, Anglican church music. Cathedral organists had 19) Anon, late 16th Century. Inspired by William , with which he was unhappy. 10) of the Rye Spring Music Festival (1976); Organist traditionally accompanied their choirs from the Byrd, to whom a setting of these words is Bethlehem Down (1930 from the 1927 SATB to the Franciscans of Rye (1979); Rector Chori of organ loft, leaving the singers to conduct attributed. In 1922 Warlock transcribed and edited original) Blunt. Warlock penned this solo version, St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough (1984). ‘Here, as themselves. Howard conducted the Ely choir whilst th this setting - ‘from an early 16 Century set of viol hisBelloc last-known Songs work, for Arnold Dowbiggin, an custodian of a magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ, his assistant [Arthur Wills] played. Most part-booksSongs in the British Museum (Add MSS amateur singer and close friend who’d championed his series of 1989 [Herald] recordings of Widor, cathedrals have now adopted this pattern and 17,786-91)’ - including it in his seven Elizabethan his music in Lancaster. 11) The Night from Three Vierne, Tournemire, Saint-Saëns and Franck, 16th Century music is now always to be found on for voice and string quartet (published (1927). reveal him as an organ virtuoso at the height of the music lists’ (The Renaissance Society, 1926). The present piano introduction comes from his powers’ (K Shenton, Independent obituary, 17 January/June 2002). for Measure the quartet version. 2) Take, o take those lips away For over half a century Michael (Stockwin) Howard January 2002). ‘Registrations, tempos, dynamics, (2nd setting 1918) William Shakespeare (Measure (1922-2002) was one of Britain’s leading lights. phrasing are given meticulous attention ... the Act IV sc I. 3) And wilt thou leave me As organist, conductor, composer, scholar and real stamp of authenticity’ (Gramophone, June

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Michael Howard never got a university degree. But Three Middle English Songs (1951 rev 1973) Professor of Music at the University of London. A because it is superfluous. And such an imposition his scholarship was formidable. At the BBC - Dedicated to James Bowman. ‘When I spoke to retiring, kindly man, more at home in the of one essentially musical expression on another where William Glock’s Music Division amounted to Michael Howard about these songs, a year before cathedral close and university chapel than which is itself already unmistakably musical a creative, debating university forum, with the his death, he told me that he’d chosen the texts by London, valuing the support and encouragement leads to that sort of essence of beauty which, likes of Basil Lam, Hans Keller, Robert Simpson, lookingVirgin through The Oxford Book of English Verse, of Vaughan Williams, his very personal music was commendable enough as an oasis of beauty in a Leo Black, Julian Budden and Robert Layton on the usingGrenewode those he liked best!’ (TT-B). A Hymn to the English without being folkloristic. ‘Inner echoes desert of ugliness, is out of place and unnecessary Hope and Glory ‘faculty’ - he flourished. In the nicotine/alcholol sets a text from c 1300. May in the and half-tones’, ‘intricate but luminous in modern British settings ... It were less fumed Presentation Unit at Yalding House, where uses words from the beginning of The counterpoint’, ‘veiled melancholy’ (Hugo Cole) … unhealthy to set blatant jingoism such as Land of a 9-5 routine rarely applied, he carried his Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk, one of the an ‘idea of paradise ... far more than just languid’ Athenaeum ... than to steep our musical selves erudition quietly, crafting scripts accommodating earliest extant of the Robin Hood ballads (MS c (Edward Greenfield) … ‘Music of life and life’s in the vague, slender, highly imaginative, and independence of phrase within changing guidelines, 1450). This Worldes Joie (Anon, Ludlow 1340) transience’ (Christopher Palmer) convey something mystical poems of the Fiona Macleod type’ (The and counseling younger colleagues (the present ‘dates from just before the Black Death swept of the mood and nuance informing an exquisitely , December 1916). By 1919 he had writer not least). He was British to the core. Publicly, across England, when the the needs of the thought-out corpus of work. ‘The finest-grained of disowned the Op 7 songs. Consigned to oblivion, in his dapper style and Queen’s English. Privately, population exceeded agricultural production, the Georgians’ (Hugh Ottoway). their existence forgotten, they were only to in his Chelsonian/Bloomsburian disposition - his when winters were longer and colder, and re-surface in 1998. 3) Full Moon from Peacock Pie ‘Byronesque approach to the opposite sex’. At Ely summers wetter, preventing the grain from Three Songs 1) Mrs MacQueen or the Lollie-Shop (1919) de la Mare. it forced his resignation. At Yalding House it ripening, and leaving the roots to rot in the from Peacock Pie (1919) Walter de la Mare. 2) fragranced the hours. He married six times. ground’ (TT-B). First commercial recording. When the dew is falling from Songs for Low Voice Contrasting her peers, and predecessors (the Liz Op 7 (1913) Fiona Macleod. This comes from a Lutyens generation), Betty Roe (born 1930), grew The Painted Rose (1951 rev 1973) Dedicated to ‘I have composed out of sheer love of trying to collection composed while Howells was a student up in modest surroundings. Her father was a James Bowman. The first two songs draw on the make nice sounds.’ From Gloucestershire Herbert at the RCM. For his text he turned to Macleod, the fishmonger in Shepherd’s Bush Market, her mother goliard love and vagabond texts of the medieval Howells (1892-1983) studied with Stanford, pen-name of the Scottish poet William Sharp (an a book-keeper in the local butcher’s. Her early Carmina Burana codex, discovered in the Abbey at Charles Wood and Parry at the Royal College of associate of Rossetti and Yeats). Sharp was one of piano lessons, in the years leading up to the Benedictbeuern in 1803. The third sets a text by Music. He caught public attention with his the Celtic Revivalists, a fraternity whose poems Second World War, were with one ‘Madam Dorina’. Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (4th/5th Century), the russified First Piano Concerto, premiered by Arthur Howells admired but grew to have misgivings In 1942, despite her audition pieces (Ketelby) last one by Peter Abelard (12th Century). ‘Here Benjamin at the Queen’s Hall in 1914. He taught about setting. ‘Their work, as poetry, is on a high being judged unsuitable, she gained a Junior Abelard, whose love for Eloisa has been at the RCM for over fifty years (from 1920), level,’ he wrote. ‘But the music of words is in it so Exhibitionership to the Royal Academy of Music. At immortalized as a central and beautiful heterosexual succeeded Holst at St Paul’s Girls’ School (1936- evidently, so sonorously, so delicately, that the the RAM proper (from 1949), she studied piano love story, writes movingly of David and Jonathan’ 62), and in 1950 was appointed King Edward VII addition of music proper is in most cases wrong with York Bowen, cello with Alison Dalrymple (TT-B). First commercial recording. - 10 - - 11 - 161Booklet 12/3/09 09:38 Page 13

(Jaqueline du Pré’s first teacher), and singing the note ... I aim to entertain’ (October 2008). A TEXTS 3 And wilt thou leave me thus? under Jean McKenzie-Grieve. Later Lennox Berkeley Londoner all her life, she lives today next-door but gave her some composition lessons. From 1968 to one to the house where she was born: in North 1 My Little sweet darling And wilt thou leave me thus? ‘78 she was Director of Music at LAMDA, the Kensington near Ladbroke Grove. Say nay, say nay, for shame! London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Her My little sweet darling, my comfort and joy, To save thee from the blame website interestingly reflects the way she sees Noble Numbers (published 1972) Robert Herrick. (Sing lullaby, lulla!) Of all my grief and grame. And wilt thou leave me thus? herself: ‘Musician, Composer, Performer, Teacher, ‘PiousSaviour, pieces’ A Child; from A Present‘the greatest by a childsong-writer ... In beauty surpassing the princes of Troy, Adjudicator’. A jobbing professional skilled at ever born of English race’ (Swinburne), each set (Sing lullaby, lulla!) Say nay, say nay! anything from playing the organ and directing for a different counter-tenor: 1) David Ross (To his Now suck, child, and sleep, child, thy mother’s choirs to session singing and working with Cliff ). 2) James sweet boy, And wilt thou leave me thus Richard and Cilla Black. Church hall to intimate Bowman (To God: an Anthem, sung in the Chappell (Sing lullaby, lulla!) That hath loved thee so long at White-hall, before the King review to Top of the Pops. Pantomime to show- ). 3) Paul Esswood The gods bless and keep thee from cruel annoy. In wealth and woe among? Shows song, opera to ballet. Songs from the Betty Roe (To God). 4) Ian Hunter (To his angrie God). (Sing lullaby, lulla!) And is thy heart so strong (the school stage) to Noble Numbers (the 5) Owen Wynne (To his sweet Saviour). Sweet baby, lulla, lulla, lulla, lulla! As for to leave me thus? concert room). ‘I recognise myself as a miniaturist,’ Say nay, say nay! she writes, ‘and have been described as a natural © Ates Orga, 2009. Anonymous, c. 16th Century And wilt thou leave me thus, word-setter ... My composing life started by That hath given thee my heart accident, around the people I was singing and 2 Take, O take those lips away Never for to depart playing with at the time. I loved the music of Peter Neither for pain nor smart? Warlock, Benjamin Britten, Bach, Monteverdi, Take, o take those lips away, And wilt thou leave me thus? Purcell, Quilter, and eventually recognised my love That so sweetly were forsworn; Say nay, say nay! for English music, particularly of the 20th Century. And those eyes, the break of day, I don’t enjoy big music - I find large-scale Lights that do mislead the morn! And wilt thou leave me thus, orchestral works overwhelming and frightening to But my kisses bring again; And have no more pity my ears, so it is unlikely that I will ever compose a Seals of love, but seal’d in vain, seal’d in vain. On him that loveth thee? symphony. Strangely enough, I do like jazz and the Alas, thy cruelty! big-band sound ... I do not like vibrato in voices; From William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, c. 1604. And wilt thou leave me thus? well, just enough to keep them interesting, but not Say nay, say nay! so much that I cannot define the actual pitch of From Sir Thomas Wyatt’s The Appeal, c. 16th Century. - 12 - - 13 - 161Booklet 12/3/09 09:38 Page 15

4 Sleep I love thee for thy poverty, 7 My Own Country 8 - q The Painted Rose And for thy want of coin, Come, sleep, and with thy sweet deceiving For if thou had’st been worth a groat, I shall go without companions, 8 The Painted Rose Lock me in delight awhile; Then thou had’st ne’er been mine. And with nothing in my hand; Let some pleasing dreams beguile I shall pass through many places Take thou this Rose, O Rose, All my fancies, that from thence I love thee for thy ugliness, That I cannot understand - Since Love’s own flower it is, There may steal an influence, And for thy foolery, Until I come to my own country, And by that rose thy Lover captive is. All my powers of care bereaving. For if thou had’st been fair or wise, Which is a pleasant land! Then thou had’st ne’er loved me. Smell thou this rose, O rose, Tho’ but a shadow, but a sliding, The trees that grow in my own country And know thyself as sweet as dawn is sweet. Let me know some little joy. Anonymous, c. 17th Century. Are the beech tree and the yew; We, that suffer long annoy, Many stand together, Look on this Rose, O Rose, Are contented with a thought 6 Mourn No More And some stand few. And looking laugh on me, Thro’ an idle fancy wrought: In the month of May in my own country And in thy laughters ring O let my joys have some abiding. Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan, All the woods are new. The Nightingale shall sing. Sorrow calls no time that’s gone: From John Fletcher’s The Woman Hater, 1607. Violets pluck’d, the sweetest rain When I get to my own country Kiss thou this Rose, O Rose, Makes not fresh nor grow again. I shall lie down and sleep; That it may know the scarlet of thy mouth. 5 The Droll Lover Trim thy locks, look cheerfully; I shall watch in the valleys O Rose, this painted rose is not the whole; Fate’s hid ends eyes can not see. The long flocks of sheep. Who paints the flower paints not its fragrant soul. I love for thy fickleness, Joys as wingèd dreams fly fast, And then I shall dream for ever and all, And great inconstancy; Why should sadness longer last? A good dream and deep. Benedictbeuern For had’st thou been a constant lass, Grief is but a wound to woe; Then thou had’st ne’er loved me. Gentlest fair, mourn, mourn no more. From Hilaire Belloc’s The Four Men. 9 So by my singing am I comforted

I love thee for thy wantonness, From John Fletcher’s The Queen of Corinth, 1607. So by my singing am I comforted And for thy drollery, Even as the swan that singing makes death sweet For if thou had’st not loved to sport, For from my face is gone the wholesome red and Then thou had’st ne’er loved me. soft grief In my heart is sunken deep. - 14 - - 15 - 161Booklet 12/3/09 09:38 Page 17

For sorrow still increasing and travail unreleasing The still Lethean waters Peace, O my stricken lute! e May in the Grenewode And strength fast from me flying, Now steal through every vein, Thy strings are sleeping. And I for sorrow dying, dying, dying, dying, And men no more remember Would that my heart could still In Somer when the shawes be sheyne, Since she I love cares nothing for my sighing. The meaning of their pain. Its’ bitter weeping And leves be large and long,

Poem by Peter Abelard (1079-1142) Hit is full merry in feyre foreste Innocent breasts when I have looked upon them, Let the weary body lie To here the foulys songe. Would that my hands were there: Sunk in slumber deep, w - r Three Middle English Songs How I have craved and dreaming thus upon them The heart shall still remember Christ To se the dere draw to the dale Love wakened from despair. In it’s very sleep. w A Hymn to the Virgin And leve the hilles so hee, And shadow him in the leves grene Beauty on her lips flaming, Prudentius Of one that is so fayr and bright Under the grenewode tree. Rose red with her shaming, Velut maris stella, And I with passion burning q David’s Lament for Johnathan Brighter than the dayes light Hit befell on Whitsontide And with my whole heart yearning for her mouth, Parens et puella: Early in a May morning, That on her beauty I might slake my drouth. Low in thy grave with thee Ic crie to the, thou see to me, The Sonne up faire can shyne, Happy to lie, Levedy, preye thi Sone for me, And the briddis mery can syng. Benedictbeuern Since there’s no greater thing left Love to do: Tam pia, And to live after thee That ich mote come to thee, "This is a mery mornyng" said litulle Johne, 0 Before Sleep Is but to die, Maria. "Be Hym that dyed on tre; For with but half a soul what can Life do? A more mery man than I am one The toil of day is ebbing, Levedy, flour of alle thing, Lyves not in Christiantè. The quiet comes again, So share thy victory Rosa sine spina, In slumber deep relaxing Or else thy grave, Thu bere Jhesu, hevene king, Pluk up thi hert, my dere mayster," The limbs of tired men. Either to rescue thee or with thee lie: Gratia divina: Litulle Johne can say, Ending that life for thee, Of alle thu berst the pris, "And thynk hit is a full fayre tyme And minds with anguish shaken That thou didst save, Levedy, quene of Parays In a mornyng of May." And spirits racked with Grief, So Death that sundereth might bring thee Electa, The cup of all forgetting more nigh. Maide milde, Moder es From the 15th Century Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk Have drunk and found relief. Effecta. c. 1300 - 16 - - 17 - 161Booklet 12/3/09 09:38 Page 19

r This Worldes Joie (circa 1300) At six she rises; Where the brown burn slippeth thro’ the hollows i - s Noble Numbers At nine you see green and still. Set to poems by Robert Herrick (1591 - 1674) Winter wakeneth al my care, Her candle shine out Now thise leves waxeth bare; In the linden tree: And O the sorrow upon me, i To His Saviour, a Child; a Present, by a Child Ofte I sike and mourne sare The grey grief upon me, When hit cometh in my thoht And at half-past nine For a voice that whispered once, and now for aye Go prettie child, and beare this Flower Of this worldes joie, hou hit geth al to noht. Not a sound is nigh is still: Unto thy little Saviour; But the bright moon’s creeping O heart forsaken, calling And tell Him, by that bud now blown, Nou hit is, and nou hit nys, Across the sky; When the dew is falling, He is the Rose of Sharon known: Al so hit ner nere, ywys; To the one that comes not ever o’er the low When thou hast said so, stick it there Al goth bote Godes wille: Or a far dog baying; green hill. Upon his Bibb, his Bibb or Stomacher: Alle we shule deye, thah us like ylle. Or a twittering bird And tell Him, (for good hand-sell too) In its drowsy nest, Poem by Fiona Macleod (William Sharp, 1855 - 1905) That thou hast brought a whistle new, Al that gren me graveth grene, In the darkness stirred; Made of a clean, strait oaten reed, u Nou hit faleweth al bydene: Full Moon To charme his cries at time of need: Jehsu, help that hit be sene, Or like the roar Tell Him, for Corall, thou hast none; And shild us from helle! Of a distant sea One night as Dick lay half asleep, But if thou hadst, He sho’d have one; For y not whider y shal, ne hou longe her duelle. A long-drawn S-s-sh Into his drowsy eyes But poore thou art, and knowne to be In the linden tree. A great still light began to creep Even as moniless, as He. [sike: sigh] From out the silent skies. Lastly, if thou canst win a kisse It was the lovely moon’s, for when Poem by Walter de la Mare (1873 - 1956) From those mellifluous lips of his; He raised his dreamy head, Anon. Ludlow, 1340 Then never take a second on y When the dew is falling Her surge of silver filled the pane To spoile the first impression. t Mrs. MacQueen And streamed across his bed. When the dew is falling So, for a while, each gazed at each - o To God; An anthem sung in the Chappell at With glass like a bull’s-eye, I have heard a calling Dick and the solemn moon - Whitehall before the King And shutters of green, Of aerial sweet voices o’er the low green hill; Till, climbing slowly on her way, Down on the cobbles And when the moon is dying She vanished, and was gone. My God, I’m wounded by my sin, I have heard a crying Lives Mrs. MacQueen, Poem by Walter de la Mare And sore without, and sick within:

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I come to Thee, in hope to find Thou dost my bread That I may see the cheerfull peeping day. f The Frostbound Wood Salve for my body and my mind. With ashes knead, Sick is my heart! O Saviour! do Thou please In Gilead though no balme be found, Each evening and each morrow: To make my bed soft in my sicknesses: Mary that was the Child’s mother To ease this smart, or cure this wound, Mine eye and eare Highten my candle, so that I beneath Met me in the frostbound wood: Yet, Lord, I know there is with Thee Do see, and heare Sleep not for ever in the vaults of death: Her face was lovely and care-laden All saving health, and help for me. The coming in of sorrow. Let me Thy voice betimes i’the morning heare; Under a white hood. Then reach Thou forth that hand of Thine, Call and I’le come; say Thou, the when, and where: That powres in oyle, as well as wine. Thy scourge of steele, Draw me, but first, and after Thee I’le run, She who once was heaven’s chosen And let it work, for I’ll endure (Aye me!) I feele, And make no-one stop, till my race be done. Moved in lowliness to me, The utmost smart, so Thou wilt cure My God Upon me beating ever: With a slow grace and weary beauty While my sick heart d My Gostly Fader Pitiful to see. p To God With dismall smarte Is disacquainted never. My gostly fader, I me confesse, Bethlehem could hear sweet singing, God gives not onely corne, for need, First to God and then to you, ‘Peace on earth, a Saviour’s come.’ But likewise sup’rabundant seed; Long, long, I’m sure, That at a window (wot ye how?) Here the trees were dark, the heavens Bread for our service, bread for shew; This can’t endure; I stale a cosse of grete sweteness, Without stars, and dumb. Meat for our meales, and fragments too: But in short time ‘twill please Thee, Which don was out avisèness; He gives not poorly, taking some My gentle God, But hit is doon, not undoon now. Past she went with no word spoken, Between the finger and the thumb; To burn the rod, My gostly fader, I me confesse Past the grave of Him I slew, But, for our glut, and for our store, O strike so as to ease me. First to God and then to you. Myself the sower of the woodland Fine flowre preste down, and running o’er. And my heart the yew, s To His Sweet Saviour But I restore it shall doutless a To His Angrie God Agein, if so be that I mow; Mary that was the Child’s mother Night hath no wings, to him that cannot sleep; And that to God I make a vow Met me in the frostbound wood: Through all the night And Time seems then, not for to flie, but creep; And elles I axè for yefness. Her face was lovely and care-laden Thou dost me fright, Slowly her chariot drives, as if that she My gostly fader, I me confesse Under a white hood. And hold’st mine eyes from sleeping; Had broke her wheele, or crackt her axel tree. First to God and then to you. And day by day, Just so it is with me, who list’ning, pray Poem by Bruce Blunt (1899 - 1957) My cup can say, The winds to blow the tedious night away; Poem by Charles Duc d’Orleans (1391 - 1466) My wine is mixt with weeping. - 20 - - 21 - 161Booklet 12/3/09 09:38 Page 23

g Bethlehem Down h The Night BIOGRAPHIES

"When He is King we will give Him the Kings’ gifts, Most Holy Night, that still dost keep Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown, The keys of all the doors of sleep, TIM TRAVERS-BROWN Beautiful robes," said the young girl to Joseph, To me when my tired eyelids close Euridice Arthur. Fair with her firstborn on Bethlehem Down. Give thou repose. Tim Travers-Brown studied at the Royal Academy House. He has sung title roles in Gluck’s Orfeo ed of Music and is now a Professor of Vocal Studies Fairy Queen, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and King Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight, And let the far lament of them at Trinity College of Music, London. He works with He sang Didymus (Theodora) at the Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold, That chant the dead day’s requiem many of the foremost early music groups, Dartington International Summer School and The Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music Make in my ears, who wakeful lie, orchestras and conductors. for Christopher Hogwood. Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold. Soft lullaby. His opera engagements include chorus in Lorin He has appeared regularly with The Parley of Galatea When He is King, they will clothe Him in Let them that guard the horned moon Maazel’s 1984 and the Dido & Aeneas/Acis & Instruments under Peter Holman, and performs grave-sheets, By my bedside their memories croon. double bill production at the Royal Opera frequently with the Monteverdi Choir, the Gabrieli Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown, So shall I have new dreams and blest He that lies now in the white arms of Mary In my brief rest. Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down. Fold your great wings about my face, Here He has peace and a short while for dreaming, Hide dawning from my resting-place, Close huddled oxen to keep Him from cold, And cheat me with your false delight, Mary for love, and for lullaby music Most Holy Night. Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold. Poem by Hilaire Belloc (1870 - 1953) Poem by Bruce Blunt © George Garner.

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Consort and Tenebrae. Other engagements include JEREMY FILSELL concerto roles as both a pianist and organist and, astonishing interpretative and technical skills Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for Nicholas Kraemer, as an organist specifically, has a discography make for compulsive listening … truly distinguished, Bach’s St. John Passion for Harry Christophers, Jeremy Filsell enjoys a concert career as one of comprising over 20 solo recordings for labels compelling and unquestionably authoritative Handel’s Judas Maccabeus for Laurence only a few virtuoso performers on both the Piano Signum, Guild, Gamut, Herald and ASV. performances; Filsell has phenomenal technique.” DominusPurcell Cummings, John Blow’s Ode on the Death of Henry and the Organ. He has performed as a solo pianist Gramophone magazine, writing on the series of 12 In 2005, Signum released a 3-disc set on the with Michael Chance, Handel’s Dixit in Russia, the USA and throughout the UK and has CDs comprising the premiere recordings of Marcel famous 1890 Cavaillé-Coll organ in St. Ouen with the English Concert, and Purcell’s appeared regularly at St John’s Smith Square and Dupré’s complete organ works for Guild in 2000, Rouen of the complete organ symphonies of Louis Ode for St. Cecilia for Paul McCreesh. the Conway and Wigmore Halls in London. His praised his performance as “one of the greatest Vierne. These were BBC Radio 3’s Disc of the Week Concerto repertoire encompasses Mozart and achievements in organ recording…Filsell’s in September of that year. Chamber music includes a recital of 20th Century Beethoven through to Rachmaninov (2nd and 3rd English music in Oslo with pianist Jonathan Concertos), Shostakovich and John Ireland and in Beatty, a Scottish Tour of cantatas by Bach, recent years, he has recorded the solo piano music Buxtehude and Beamish with ‘The Dunedin of Carl Johann Eschmann, Eugene Goossens and Consort’, a recital with lutenist Jacob Heringman the two Sonatas of Liszt’s pupil Julius Reubke. In for BBC Radio 3, and a recital at the Handel House the piano music of Herbert Howells and Bernard Museum, London. Stevens, Classic CD magazine commented that “he does not attract for his virtuosity but for his His recordings include two discs with the Parley of ability to make the music unfold with irresistible Instruments for Hyperion, ‘Handel and his Italian logic and clarity: music-making of the highest contemporaries’ with the Musicke Companye for calibre.” He is pianist with the London-based Intim Musik, a disc of Bach Cantatas with Bach Burghersh Piano Trio and performs regularly with Collegium Japan for BIS, ‘Mother and Child’ with Oliver Lewis (Violin), with whom he has recorded Tenebrae for Signum, a disc of music for ‘Vespers’ discs of Elgar, Ireland, Ferguson and Goossens for by the 18th Century Spanish composer, José de Guild. With Michael Bundy (Baritone), two discs of Nebra with La Grand Chappelle for Lauda Musica Mélodies by Widor, Vierne and Dupré are due for and ‘Pilgrimage to Santiago’ with The Monteverdi release by Naxos. Choir for Soli Deo Gloria. Jeremy Filsell has recorded for BBC Radio 3, USA and Scandinavian radio networks in solo and © Carpenter Turner. London. © Carpenter Turner.

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Jeremy studied as a music scholar at Oxford University, then as a post-graduate pianist under David Parkhouse and Hilary McNamara at the Royal College of Music before completing a PhD at Birmingham Conservatoire researching aesthetic and interpretative issues in the organ music of Marcel Dupré. Over the course of his career, he has taught piano, organ and academic studies at Cranleigh, Eton and the London Oratory School, Recorded at Charterhouse School Hall, Surrey, UK, from 3rd - 4th November 2006 and on 1st July 2008. given masterclasses at universities and summer Engineer, producer & editor - Andrew Post schools in both the UK and USA, served twice on Co-producer - Adrian Peacock

international competition juries and, until Cover Image - Shutterstock recently, held lectureships at the Royal Northern Design and Artwork - Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk College of Music in Manchester and London’s P 2009 Signum Records Ltd. Royal Academy of Music. He lives currently in the C 2009 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd.

USA and is Principal Organist at the Basilica of Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, in Washington D.C., one of the largest churches in mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd. the world and the flagship Catholic Church in SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK North America. +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com

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