A Shropshire Lad & other songs by Finzi § Britten § Copland § Blake Fischer Claire Cooper WINNER OF THE CITY OF MELBOURNE SONG RECITAL AWARD in an intimate song recital that demands source of poetry from folk and traditional, A RECITAL OF great concentration and sensitivity when through Shakespeare and the romantics ENGLISH AND they are constantly being bombarded to the contemporary. Many of the greatest with music in their homes and cars, in British and American composers have AMERICAN FOLK, shops, elevators, restaurants; in fact almost been attracted to the song form and have TRADITIONAL AND anywhere. found inspiration in English language But in the recording and broadcast poetry. ART SONG media the recital seems to have found its saviour. As a bonus to major artists, For years commentators have being the multinational record companies, A SHROPSHIRE LAD trying to tell us that the song recital is a often grudgingly, record recital programs George Butterworth (1885-1916) / dead art form. Nowadays big is better: when the latest all-star opera set is A. E. Housman (1859-1936) the major symphonic repertoire and complete. However, as CDs become grand opera. Chamber and ‘early’ music less prohibitively expensive to produce, The list of Butterworth’s compositions is have loyal followers but, in general, the younger artists no longer have to depend sadly short. Having destroyed many of the larger the musical form, the larger the on contracts with the major record manuscripts of his original compositions audience. Hence the live solo vocal recital companies. And public broadcasting before leaving for the war, he never has become the province of established groups with FM radio band access are returned from the trenches in France. major opera stars. Singing ‘safe’ repertoire, always looking for new talent to showcase The brilliant son of a lawyer and railway it is they who have the drawing power on their programs. company general manager, Butterworth to fill large concert halls with admirers. A truly successful recital is not a became an avid collector of folksong in Admittedly they have developed the vocal collection of songs shunted together the company of Cecil Sharp and Vaughan powers to fill vast halls with sound. like a string of ill-matched freight cars. Williams. While folk-like in their melodic In the past, however, a recital was Given true commitment, atmosphere style, all but one of the six songs from always used as the launching pad for and concentration by both artists and Housman’s A Shropshire Lad, are purely of young singers on the brink of their audience, it can take you on a dramatic Butterworth’s invention. careers. Rather than major operatic roles, and/or emotional journey that will be as Self-published in 1896, Housman’s recital repertoire is more suited to artists satisfying as a symphony, string quartet sixty-three poems are set in a land of lost with developing vocal and dramatic or sonata. And the audience can be one content. This is an imagined Shropshire powers. And the byways of song offer listener in the comfort of a quiet living seen through the eyes of a soldier or a voice interesting opportunities to be room. The solo song recital will survive in young farmer. While it was not until the heard without direct comparison to an some form. horrors of the First World War were being established ‘big name’. But many of the All composers aspiring to important experienced that the poems gained wider smaller venues suitable for recitals are musical thought in song look to the great popularity, Butterworth made his settings no longer available or acceptable to the song cycles of Schubert. They are at the in 1911. concert-going public. pinnacle of the art form. But a well-chosen The journey of this cycle of songs begins The advent of easy access to program of individual songs can achieve a with Loveliest of trees in which a 20-year- entertainment has seen the demise of satisfying line of thought, even philosophy. old lad contemplates the turn of winter small local organizations that were able to At the same time it will show off the voice into spring and the fact that his life is offer professional opportunities to young at its best. finite. With the piano principally capturing artists. It is difficult to interest an audience English speaking composers have a rich the stillness of the scene, Butterworth’s melody meanders with the lads thoughts. achieved a happy relationship. If it is Gifts, a song from the austere religious A ‘traditional tune’, When I was one- he who is alive, and that is more likely, sect, the Shakers. There is gentle irony in and-twenty finds the lad two years later then his happiness is haunted by the this setting. The simple hymn chords that perhaps strumming his guitar as he sings thought that he is benefiting from his could be from a harmonium played at a of his regret at not having taken the advice friends death. From the first questioning Shaker meeting just don’t come down of a wiser man. Our lad has lived and chord, through the bluff and confident in the place just right a phenomenon still learned. Or has he? harmonies accompanying our lads replies, heard in many small country and suburban In Look not in my eyes he struggles to to the unanswered question that is the churches. Tolling bell effects in the second come to terms with his latest bout of love- coda, Butterworth finds the perfect mix of stanza reinforce the religious connection. sickness. Butterworth’s choice of uneven resignation, wistfulness, self-delusion and Also a virtuoso pianist, Copland and changing meter and uncertain tonality irony. Our journey with the Shropshire lad accompanied William Warfield (a famous captures our lads inner turmoil and the is complete. But is his? Porgy) at the first performance of the ambiguity. Housman presents us with his second set of Old American Songs in 1952. At reference to the Grecian lad, Narcissus, the river is to be performed ‘with dignity’ and the jonquil (genus Narcissus). Think OLD AMERICAN SONGS throughout. The slow bass line of this no more, lad finds our lad drowning his Aaron Copland (1900-1990) / hymn tune setting walks with firm steps thoughts in drink. It takes until the end of Various / Traditional at first then more excitedly as we join the the first stanza for Butterworth to settle saints. But the dignity is never lost. As into the key of this song (G sharp minor), Regarded by many as the father of modern befitting a gathering at the throne of God, so drunk is our lad. His second stanza American music, Aaron Copland’s major Copland creates a rich and shining texture begins more confidently but there is a early influence was the great teacher Nadia by gradually weaving extra lines into the moment of introspection as the Think no Boulanger in Paris. While still in Europe in fabric of the music. Capturing the energy more theme returns, augmented this time. the twenties, he developed a recognisable and spirit of the old American Minstrel Apparently regaining his composure, our personal style that often incorporated jazz Shows, Chin-a-ring chaw is a delightfully lad reiterates his philosophical stance. rhythms and blues harmonies. He found upbeat spiritual complete with banjo But now the ground (accompaniment) is inspiration in other, more traditional, imitations by the voice. moving under him. American music as well and became the Our knowledge of the composers fate doyen of his countrys musical life. makes Butterworth’s setting of the four Copland’s first set of Old American Songs LET US GARLANDS stanzas of The lads in their hundreds was arranged in 1950 and first performed BRING chillingly prophetic. Here, he is at his that year at the Aldeburgh Festival by Gerald Finzi (1901-1956) / simplest, most folk-like in both melody his friends Peter Pears and Benjamin William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and harmony. Yet, with the senza rigore Britten. The wistful melody of Long time ago dates from the 1830s. Copland (not strictly) marking, the prosody is This cycle five songs was dedicated to takes his inspiration from the opening ideal and the whole song captures a Finzi’s friend and one-time teacher Ralph words of the ballad to create a gently sense of the prevailing pre-war carefree Vaughan Williams on the occasion of his rocking accompaniment reminiscent of spirit. Is my team ploughing? may set 70th birthday. Finzi’s is an English pastoral a small boat on a lake. It was in his 1943 the listener a further question. Has our voice given to introspection tempered score for the ballet Appalachian Spring, lad died, or is it the ghost of his friend with joy in nature. Treating the songs choreographed by Martha Graham, that questioning him from the grave? If our independently of the context of the lad is dead, he went to his grave having Copland first used the melody ofSimple plays from which they come, Finzi reacts Prelude in D flat (Op.28, No.15). Throughout to the texts in a sensitive yet direct way FOLKSONG Britten’s hauntingly beautiful setting the eschewing Shakespeare’s often bawdy ARRANGEMENTS constant even quavers express the young subtext. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) / mans longing for a love found and lost Come away, death (Twelfth Night) has the Various / Traditional in Dublin’s popular courting place, the quality of a funeral processional. Yet the Phoenix Park willow tree (genus Salix) text tells us that this death is that of love, A prolific composer in all art-music gardens.