THE SONG LOVE - IDAGIO

President SIR ANDREW DAVIS CBE

Vice Presidents STEPHEN CONNOCK MBE, DR JOYCE KENNEDY

Chairman SIMON COOMBS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Mark Hammett (Membership Secretary)

27 Landsdowne Way, Bexhill-on-Sea,

East Sussex, TN40 2UJ

Email: [email protected]

Registered Charity no: 1156614

www.rvwsociety.com

The

RALPH VAUGHANWILLIAMS SOCIETY

Dedicated to widening the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Ralph Vaughan Williams

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ALBION RECORDS

Kitty Whately mezzo-sopranoRoderick Williams baritone

William Vann piano

Ralph Vaughan Williams

THE SONG LOVE

booklet-paginated:Layout 1 20/06/2019 13:32 Page 1

This recording is dedicated to the memory of Laura Coombs (1944-2018), a trustee of

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and wife of itschairman, Simon Coombs.

Peter Clulow, Roderick Williams, Deborah Spanton,Andrew Walton, Kitty Whately, William Vann, John Francis

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The House of Life (1903-1904)1 Love-Sight 4’422 Silent Noon 3’383 Love’s Minstrels 4’444 Heart’s Haven 3’235 Death in Love 4’196 Love’s Last Gift 4’01

Three Old German Songs (1902)7 Entlaubet ist der Walde 2’318 Wanderlied 2’399 Der Morgenstern 1’30

10 To Daffodils (Gunby Hall setting, c. 1903) 3’39

French songs (1903-1904)11 Quant li Louseignolz (Quand le Rossignol) 1’4712 L’amour de Moy 3’2313 Jean Renaud 2’5414 Le Psaume des batailles (Que Dieu Se Montre Seulement) 3’43

15 Buonaparty (1908) 1’39

Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872-1958

THE SONG LOVE

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About Albion RecordsDirectors: John Francis FCA (Chairman), Mark HammettFulfilment: Mark and Sue HammettWeb-Master: Tad Kasa

Since its formation in 1994, The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society – a registered charity witharound 1,000 members worldwide – has sought to raise the profile of the composer throughpublications, seminars and sponsorship of recordings.The Society’s recording label,Albion Records, was formed in 2007 and is devoted torecordings of works by Vaughan Williams. Each recording contains at least one world premièrerecording. Two recordings (The Solent and Discoveries) were nominated for a Grammy award,and many recordings have spent some weeks in the UK’s specialist classical chart.

For further information visit: www.rvwsociety.com/albionrecordsJoin The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society at www.rvwsociety.com

Kissing her hairVaughan Williamssongs Sarah Fox, Andrew Staples,Roderick Williams and IainBurnside

ALB

CD

002

Purer than PearlVaughan Williams songs and duetsMary Bevan, JenniferJohnston, Nicky Spence,Johnny Herford,ThomasGould, William Vann

ALB

CD

029

Time and SpaceHolst and Vaughan Williams songsMary Bevan, RoderickWilliams, Jack Liebeck andWilliam Vann

ALB

CD

038

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16 The Willow Song (1897) 4’12

Three Songs from Shakespeare (1925)17 Take, O Take, Those Lips Away 0’5318 When Icicles Hang by the Wall 1’1819 Orpheus with his Lute 1’24

20 The Spanish Ladies (1912) 2’40

21 The Turtle Dove (1919-1934) 2’59

Two Poems by Seumas O’Sullivan (1925)22 Twilight People 2’3923 A Piper 0’44

Duets (1903)24 Think of Me 1’5125 Adieu 1’40

68’52

Tracks 11-14, 16, 20, 21, 24 and 25 are arrangements of older melodies by Vaughan Williams. The remaining tracks are original compositions by him.Tracks 7-14 and 16-23 are first modern recordings in these arrangements (Steuart Wilson recorded The Spanish Ladies on a 78 rpm disc).

Kitty Whately ~ mezzo-soprano (tracks 1-6, 16-19, 24-25)Roderick Williams ~ baritone (tracks 7-15, 20-25)William Vann ~ piano

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Production credits

Musical Director: William VannExecutive Producer, booklet notes and photography: John FrancisProducer: Andrew Walton of K & A ProductionsEngineer: Deborah Spanton of K & A ProductionsScores editor: Peter ClulowMusical assistant: Lilly PapaioannouRecorded at Potton Hall, Suffolk, from 27 November to 1 December 2018Cover image: Nightingale of Light by Nancy Moniz, 2012Graphic design: S L Chai (Colour Blind Design)Proof reading: Martin Murray, Werner Bachman and several others.

With special thanksPrincipal Sponsor and Gold Supporters: The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, Chris and Adie Batt, Simon Coombs, John and Sharon Francis, Julian Ochrymowych, David Trimble.

Silver supporters: Keith Anderson, Graham Aslet, Neil Bettridge, Eric Birznieks and Carol Dean, David Bryan,Rodney Gavin Bullock, Caitlin and John Cassidy, Harold G Corwin,Allan Coughlin, MartinCunningham, Anne Curry, Marcus DeLoach, Leonard Evans, Robert Field, Michael J Gainsford, Alan Gillmor, Michael Godbee, Ronald Grames, Nigel Green, William Greenwood, Richard Hall,Jay Hicks, Andrew Keener, Tony Kitson, James Korner, Christian Körner, Trevor Lockwood,John and Janet Manning, Barry Menhenett, William Moreing, Martin Murray, Andrew Neill, Charles Paterson, Julian Pearcey, Edward Reisman,Thomas Render, Tony Richardson, Philip Robson,David Sawyer, Kevin Schutts, Brian Sturtridge, Dr Colin C Tinline, John and Muriel Treadway, Steven K White, James C. Williams.

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Albion recordings generally include world premières and this collection of songs and duetsby Ralph Vaughan Williams is no exception. It begins with the first complete ‘female’recording of the song cycle The House of Life and continues with sixteen previouslyunrecorded works. We have grouped them so as to offer a varied and enjoyable recital byKitty Whately and Roderick Williams, accompanied by William Vann.

Several of the poems set to music in this album include images that have endured, to someextent together, over many centuries – the nightingale, the rose, the lily and the violet. APersian myth associates the nightingale with the rose and thorn, against which it presses itsbreast in unrequited love for the flower. The rose is associated with female sexuality, withMary Magdalene and the Holy Grail; the lily was linked to the Virgin Mary by theVenerable Bede as early as the 7th Century. St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1154) linkedthe three flowers in describing Our Lady as ‘the violet of humility, the lily of chastity andthe rose of purity’.

The poems include three references to the nightingale. This much mythologised birdbelongs to an ancient literary and poetic tradition with two streams, one expressingmelancholy (particularly in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, personified as Philomela, a myth frequentlydrawn upon by Shakespeare) and the other joy – and the poems in this recording areconcerned with joy. Sappho (c.630-c.570 BC) wrote of ‘the messager of spring, the sweetvoiced nightingale.’ This positive view was taken up by the troubadours, as we shall see,and continued to influence poetry up to Milton and the 19th century romantic poets.Even Oscar Wilde wrote a story joining the rose and the nightingale. Accordingly, wechose a nightingale for a cover image, and as a symbol of the nightingale’s song – surely,The Song of Love.

The House of Life (1903-1904)At this early period of Vaughan Williams’s career, the Pre-Raphaelite poets were a sourceof inspiration, possibly encouraged by his friendship with Grainger and other members ofthe Frankfurt Group. Vaughan Williams made two song cycles from Dante Gabriel

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WILLIAM VANNGramophone, reviewing Purer than Pearl, Albion Records’ 2016 disc of Vaughan Williamssong, reserved ‘a special word of praise for William Vann’s deft pianism’.A multiple-prizewinning accompanist and conductor, William performs with a host of major singers andinstrumentalists across the world.

Born in Bedford, he was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and a Music Scholar atBedford School. He read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and CaiusCollege, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied pianoaccompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone.He has been awarded many prizes for piano accompaniment, including the Wigmore SongCompetition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award,the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award,the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers

Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, theSir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship atthe RAM.

William has collaborated on stage and recording with a vast array ofsingers, instrumentalists and orchestras. His discography includesrecordings with Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Navonaand SOMM.

He is a Trustee of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, an Associateof the RAM, a Samling Artist, a Freeman of the WorshipfulCompany of Musicians, the Co-Chairman of Kensington andChelsea Music Society, the Artistic Director of Bedford MusicClub, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a conductorand vocal coach at the Oxenfoord International Summer School.He is also the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and

the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival. On 3rd April 2019he made his Royal Festival Hall debut conducting Hubert Parry’s long-neglected oratorioJudith, which he has also recorded for Chandos Records.

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Rossetti’s 1881 collection of 100 sonnets, ‘The House of Life’: Willow-Wood, an ambitiouswork setting four sonnets for a singer with orchestra, begun in 1900, and The House of Lifewith piano accompaniment, setting six sonnets, probably in 1903. The second song, SilentNoon, was published separately ahead of the full cycle’s appearance in 1904. Its conclusioncelebrates The Song of Love, from which we drew the title for this recording.

Vaughan Williams chose the poems with care, setting numbers 4, 19, 9, 22, 48 and 59 fromRossetti’s collection. Love-Sight has a romantic melody, developed in a postlude on thepiano. The setting for the words ‘death’s imperishable wing’ reminds us that work on A SeaSymphony also began as early as 1903. Silent Noon was premièred by Francis Harford (bass)and Philip Agnew (piano) on 10 March 1903. On that occasion The Times reported‘passages of sheer beauty’ – a verdict which stands fast to the present day when this songremains very popular with singers and audiences. Michael Kennedy describes it as‘complete in itself ... one of the first pieces of music by Vaughan Williams which captures amoment of eternity and holds it in musical terms for perpetual contemplation.’ Love’sMinstrels was Vaughan Williams’s new title for Rossetti’s ‘Passion and Worship’, thus movingthe emphasis from stages in love-making to its musical representation. Heart’s Haven hasdramatic music which is suggestive of the operas to come much later. Death in Love hasnobilmente passages (lines 4 and 8) and almost orchestral piano writing. Love’s Last Giftbegins with a reference to the tune Sine Nomine (For all the Saints) which recurs often inRVW’s music, all the way to The Pilgrim’s Progress in his final decade.

On 2 December 1904 Vaughan Williams arranged a concert of his own works in theBechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall), London – which must have been a wonderfuloccasion. Edith Clegg, contralto, gave the first performance of The House of Lifeaccompanied by Hamilton Harty on the piano. Walter Creighton, baritone, gave the firstperformance of the first eight Songs of Travel. Beatrice Spencer and Foxton Ferguson gavethe second performance of the two Whitman duets (see ALBCD029 Purer than Pearl),with Harriett Solly on the violin. The 1903 setting of Orpheus and his Lute made its first

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RODERICK WILLIAMSRoderick Williams is one of the most sought after baritones of his generation. He performsa wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concertplatform and is in demand as a recitalist worldwide. He enjoys relationships with all themajor UK opera houses and has sung opera world premieres by David Sawer, SallyBeamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel. Recent and futureengagements include the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington, the title role in BillyBudd with Opera North, Papageno for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden andproductions with Dallas Opera, English National Opera and Netherlands Opera.

He sings regularly with all the BBC orchestras and all the major UKorchestras, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, OrchestrePhilharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris,Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Cincinnati Symphony,Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic and BachCollegium Japan amongst others. His many festival appearances includethe BBC Proms (including the Last Night in 2014), Edinburgh,Cheltenham, Bath, Aldeburgh and Melbourne festivals.

Roderick Williams has an extensive discography. His numerousrecordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas forChandos and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist IainBurnside for both Naxos and Albion Records. He is a composer andhas had works premiered at Wigmore and Barbican halls, the PurcellRoom and live on national radio. In December 2016 he won the prizefor best choral composition at the British Composer Awards.

In 2015 he started a three year odyssey of the Schubert song cycles culminating inperformances at Wigmore Hall in the 17/18 season and is now in the process of recordingthem for Chandos. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder in April 2016 and won theRPS Singer of the Year award in May 2016. He was awarded an OBE in June 2017.

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appearance and Gustav Holst accompanied some of his own songs on the piano – severalof which appear on ALBCD038 Time and Space. Many newspaper critics were present andtheir reaction to The House of Life was mixed. The Globe’s opinion is representative of thosethat have stood the test of time: ‘It is proverbially difficult to set a sonnet to music, but Mr.Vaughan Williams has succeeded where many others have failed. His music is strong,melodious, and original, and it is both beautiful in itself and admirable as a musicalexpression of the feeling of the words. Silent Noon, Death in Love, and Love’s Last Gift are,perhaps, the three best songs of an excellent set’.

Some of the sonnets (especially numbers3 and 4 below) are clearly addressed to afemale beloved. Vaughan Williams was nottroubled by this when he organised that1904 first performance for the contraltoEdith Clegg – and we should be equallycomfortable in our more broad-mindedage; so it is astonishing that the ninecomplete cycles that exist in digital formtoday are by men variously described astenors, baritones and bass-baritones. Thisrecording begins to restore the balance.

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KITTY WHATELYKitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, The Guildhall School of Music andDrama, and The Royal College of Music International Opera School. Kitty was a BBC NewGeneration Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album ThisOther Eden, and was the recipient of both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th RoyalOverseas League Award in the same year. In 2017 Kitty released her second album, Nights notspent alone, to critical acclaim.

Opera highlights include: Mother/Other Mother inMark-Anthony Turnage’s latest opera Coraline at theBarbican, Paquette in Bernstein’s Candide at BergenNational Opera, Isabella in Wuthering Heights at OpéraNational de Lorraine, Dorabella in Così fan tutte forOpera Holland Park, Nancy in Albert Herring for TheGrange Festival, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’sDream in Bergen and Beijing.

Kitty is in demand as a recitalist and concert artist. Shehas given recitals at the Edinburgh International

Festival, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder, Buxton and Salisbury festivals, and performs regularlywith the UK’s major orchestras. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic singingMendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and highlights since include Duruflé’s Requiemand Mozart’s Requiem (in Oslo with the Dunedin Consort and RPO), Bach’s B Minor Mass(Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde(Mizmorim Festival), Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (Philharmonia), Haydn’s Nelson Mass(Britten Sinfonia in Spain and the Netherlands), Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia andChoir of King’s College Cambridge), Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at St John’s Smith Square andQueen Elizabeth Hall, and Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Her frequentperformances with four of the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat,recordings of Ravel’s Sheherezade, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne and songs by Rodgers &Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter.

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1 LOVE-SIGHTWhen do I see thee most, beloved one?When in the light the spirits of mine eyesBefore thy face, their altar, solemnizeThe worship of that Love through thee made known?Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone)Close-kissed and eloquent of still repliesThy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,And my soul only sees thy soul its own?O love - my love! if I no more should see Thyself,nor on the earth the shadow of thee,Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slopeThe groundwhirl of the perished leaves of HopeThe wind of Death’s imperishable wing?

2 SILENT NOONYour hands lie open in the long fresh grass, -The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms‘Neath billowing clouds that scatter and amass.All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,Are golden kingcup fields with silver edgeWhere the cow-parsley skirts the hawthornhedge.‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-flyHangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: -So this winged hour is dropt to us from above.Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,This close-companioned inarticulate hourWhen twofold silence was the song of love.

3 LOVE’S MINSTRELSOne flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-playerEven where my lady and I lay all alone;Saying: ‘Behold this minstrel is unknown;Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here:Only my songs are to love’s dear ones dear.’Then said I ‘Through thine hautboy’s rapturous toneUnto my lady still this harp makes moan,And still she deems the cadence deep and clear.’Then said my lady: ‘Thou art passion of Love,And this Love’s worship: both he plights to me.Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:But where wan water trembles in the grove,And the wan moon is all the light thereof,This harp still makes my name its voluntary.’

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Quite a number of the songs and duets on this recording were commissioned by singers fortheir own purposes, at a time when Vaughan Williams was perhaps more inclined to acceptwork as a jobbing composer – whether to broaden his knowledge, for friendship, or just forthe money! Each of them is a worthy contribution to art, and representative of VaughanWilliams’s development as a composer. Our intention is to make the works available formodern critical review, within the context of a long working life’s achievement and with theperspective granted by looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century.

John Francis

(with thanks to Florence Berland, Christian Michot, Raymond Richardson, Marcus de Loach and Stephen Connock for help and advice).

Further readingMichael Kennedy: A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (OUP 1996)

Michael Kennedy: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (2nd edition, OUP 1992)

Stephen Connock: Toward the Sun Rising - Ralph Vaughan Williams Remembered(Albion Music 2018)

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4 HEART’S HAVENSometimes she is a child within mine arms,Cow’ring beneath dark wings that love must chase,With still tears show’ring and averted face,Inexplicably filled with faint alarms:And oft from mine own spirit’s hurtling harmsI crave the refuge of her deep embrace,Against all ills the fortified strong placeAnd sweet reserve of sov’reign counter charms.And Love, our light at night and shade at noon,Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns awayAll shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.Like the moon’s growth, his face gleams throughhis tune;And as soft waters warble to the moon,Our answ’ring spirits chime one roundelay.

5 DEATH-IN-LOVEThere came an image in Life’s retinueThat had Love’s wings and bore his gonfalon*:Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,Shook in its folds; and through my heart its powerSped trackless as the memorable hourWhen birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new

But a veiled woman followed, and she caughtThe banner round its staff, to furl and cling,Then plucked a feather from the bearer’s wing,And held it to his lips that stirred it not,And said to me, ‘Behold, there is no breath:I and this Love are one, and I am Death.’

* gonfalon: a heraldic flag or banner hung froma horizontal bar

6 LOVE’S LAST GIFTLove to his singer held a glistening leaf,and said: ‘The rose-tree and the apple-treeHave fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee;And golden shafts are in the feathered sheafOf the great harvest marshal, the year’s chiefVictorious summer; aye, and ‘neath warm seaStrange secret grasses lurk inviolablyBetween the filtering channels of sunk reef...All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of loveTo thee I gave while spring and summer sang;But autumn stops to listen, with some pangFrom those worse things the wind is moaning of.Only this laurel dreads no winter days:Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.’Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

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24 THINK OF MEI stood upon a high mountainAnd look’d into the sea.And there I saw ‘twas written,That we with love were smittenAnd should some day be one.I went with her a-sporting,a-sporting in the wood,I thought to give her something,Some keepsake tho’ a dumb thingOf gold a tiny ring.A little ring it is no gift,It costeth naught but gold.A ring a trump’ry farthing,We are not all a-starving.Earth still has something left.Farewell then my fine mistress,For we must part for aye,Yet lest I one day come again,For lovers sometimes are insane,Fair maid, pray think of me.German folk song, translated by Arthur FoxtonFerguson (1866-1920)

25 ADIEULov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Since I must leave my bliss,Grant me one parting kiss.Lov’d one adieu!Lov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Keep thou as true to meas I’ll be true to thee,Lov’d one adieu!Lov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Grieve not my dearest heart,Death only can us part,Lov’d one adieu!German folk song, translated by Arthur Foxton Ferguson(1866-1920)

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7-9 THREE OLD GERMAN SONGS (1902)These arrangements were dedicated to Walter Ford (1861-1938), Professor of Singingat the Royal College of Music from 1895, a folk song collector who was atCambridge with Cecil Sharp and subsequently served on the committee of the FolkSong Society. We know from reports of Vaughan Williams’s lectures on folk songs from1902 that his knowledge of the subject was both deep and international, so there wasclearly common ground between him and Ford. Ford commissioned Vaughan Williamsto make settings of German and French songs for him to sing at several series ofconcert-lectures that he gave all over the country.

The first song, Entlaubet ist der Walde, was sung on 27 November 1902 at a recital byMr Campbell McInnes, when the first performance of Blackmwore by the Stour was alsogiven. Walter Ford performed it himself with the second song, Wanderlied, at a lecturerecital on 10 November 1905. The two songs were published together in 1937 -including extremely free English translations by Ford, though we have recorded themwith the German text. There are two references to violets in Wanderlied. Does thesymbolism extend this far, or is the poet just enjoying the early summer?

A third song, Der Morgenstern, has just a single verse in the manuscript, VaughanWilliams writing in a letter that ‘I thought Walter Ford was going to supply the rest ofthe words and a translation. I tried to start it myself but find that the German words inmy copy do not scan.’ We were able to track down an 18th century German settingfrom which the first verse matched those set in Vaughan Williams’s manuscript – so weused the remaining two verses from that source, which scanned satisfactorily. Withinthat first verse we find the first references to both joy and the nightingale.

The German texts below are as printed either by OUP in 1937 or by Breitkopf andHärtel in 1879 - with old German spellings, some of which we were able to verifyagainst sources going back to 1500.

7 ENTLAUBET IST DER WALDEEntlaubet ist der WaldeGeg’n diesem Winter kalt,beraubet werd ich baldeMeins lieb, das macht mich alt.Dass ich die schön muss meiden,

Thy cruel winds are shakingThe leaves from every tree,O winter thou’rt takingMy love away from me.The wood stands bare and dreary

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22 THE TWILIGHT PEOPLEIt is a whisper among the hazel bushes; It is a long, low, whispering voice that fills With a sad music the bending and swaying rushes; It is a heart beat deep in the quiet hills.Twilight people, why will you still be crying, Crying and calling to me out of the trees? For under the quiet grass the wise are lying, And all the strong ones are gone over the seas.And I am old, and in my heart at your calling Only the old dead dreams a-fluttering go; As the wind, the forest wind, in its falling Sets the withered leaves fluttering to and fro.Seumas O’Sullivan (1879-1958)

DUETS (1903)

Both of the songs recorded here (Think of Me and Adieu) are German folk songs in Englishtranslation by the baritone Arthur Foxton Ferguson, who was to sing them with thesoprano Beatrice [Fanny] Spencer, who was a regular singing partner since both weremembers of the ‘Folk-Song Quartet’ that Foxton Ferguson had formed in 1901. The firstLondon performance of the duets as recorded in the Catalogue, with Ernest Walker on thepiano, in Steinway Hall on 22 March 1904, was pre-empted by one in St. John’s Rooms,Southampton, on 4 February 1904 when there was apparently a third duet, Cousin Michael,which has not survived. Cousin Michael and (probably) Adieu had made an earlierappearance in Exeter in April 1903. Of the three songs, it appears that Adieu was the onethought most worthy of repeated performance at the time.

Foxton Ferguson was no doubt a good friend to Vaughan Williams; like him he was wontto deliver lectures on folk song to make ends meet, and also wrote a series of articles forthe Girl’s Own Paper.

23 A PIPERA Piper in the streets to-daySet up, and tuned, and started to play,And away, away, away on the tideOf his music we started; on every sideDoors and windows were opened wide,And men left down their work and came,And women with petticoats coloured like flame.And little bare feet that were blue with coldWent dancing back to the age of gold,And all the world went gay, went gay,For half an hour in the street to-day.Seumas O’Sullivan (1879-1958)

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Die mir gefallen thutDas bringt mir heimlich LeidenUnd macht mir schweren Muth.Was lässt du mir zur Letze,Feins braunschwarz MeideleinDas mich die Weil ergetze,So ich von dir muss sein?Hofnung thut mich erneren,Nach dir so werd ich krank;Thu bald herwider kehrenZeit und weil wird mir lang.Old German song, free English translation by Walter Ford.

8 WANDERLIEDWolauf, gut G’sell, von hinnen,Meins Bleibens ist hie nicht mehr;Der Mai, der thut uns bringen Den Veiel und grünem Klee.Vor’m Wald da hört man singen Der kleinen Vöglein G’sang, Die singen mit heller Stimme, Den ganzen Sommer lang.Ich kann nicht mehr geschweigen, Es g’lag mir nie so hart,Dass ich trag heimlich leiden Geg’n einem Frewlein zart.Ihr Lieb hat mih umbfangen Darzu ihr gut Gestalt.Dass ich dich, Lieb, muss meiden, Darzu bringt mich Gewalt.

Against the bitter coldAnd oh! my heart is weary,Forlorn I feel and old.

Leave not some word unspoken,Dark Maiden, whom I love,That I may keep for tokenThat you will constant prove.Alone I dream with yearningOf you in lands apart,And pine for your returningTo give me back my heart.

Farewell, my friend! I leave you, I can no longer stay;Though violets and the clover make bright the fields of May,And all the woods are ringing with the sweet blackbird’s song.You’ll hear their voices singing the whole glad summer long.To you I must discover my secret e’er we part,I pine with silent longing for a sweet maiden’s heart.Her love will e’er enfold meThough in strange lands I roam,For cruel fate doth hold me And sends me far from home.

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learn the songs as they worked. Now and then, the place would get a new coat of whitewashand a fresh layer of song sheets.’

Fare you well my dear, I must be gone,And leave you for a while;If I roam away I’ll come back again,Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear,Though I roam ten thousand miles.As fair thou art my bonny lass,So deep in love am I;But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I loveTill the stars fall from the sky, my dear,Till the stars fall from the sky.

TWO POEMS BY SEUMAS O’SULLIVAN (1925)Seumas (or Seumus) O’Sullivan was the adopted name of James Sullivan Starkey (1879-1958), an Irish poet and editor of ‘The Dublin Magazine’. Vaughan Williams was widely readand loved poetry, but perhaps it is significant that these settings of O’Sullivan’s poems werepublished in the year that Vaughan Williams began work on his opera based on the Irishplaywright J M Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’. Both of the poems that Vaughan Williams setwere written somewhat earlier: ‘The Twilight People’ in 1905 and ‘A Piper’ in 1908. Thesepoems have attracted composers including Arthur Benjamin, Ivor Gurney, Herbert Howells,Michael Head and Vaughan Williams’s pupil William Lloyd Webber.

The composer noted on the published scores that they may be sung without accompaniment– and Ian Partridge recorded The Twilight People in that form. This is the first recording of thesongs with Vaughan Williams’s piano accompaniment. The Twilight People is dark andmysterious, anticipating the angularity of the cycle Along the Field that was to follow in1925/26 (ALBCD038 Time and Space), or even the bleakness of the Ten Blake Songs of 1957.A Piper is warmer, very modal, but set with the lightest possible touch.

The sea will never run dry, my dear,Nor the rocks never melt with the sun,But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I loveTill all those things be done, my dear,Till all those things be done.O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove,He doth sit on yonder high tree,A-making a moan for the loss of his love,As I will do for thee, my dear,As I will do for thee.Traditional

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Das Megdlein an der Zinnen lag,Sie sah zum Fenster naus,In rechter Lieb und TreueWarf sie zwei Krenzlein ’raus,Das eine war von Veiel,Das ander von grünem Klee.‘Soll ich dich, feins Lieb, meiden,Mei’m Herzen dem g’schieht Weh!’ Traditional, 15th-16th century, English translation by Walter Ford.

9 MORGENSTERNDer Morgenstern ist auf gegangen,er leucht’ daher zu dieser Stunde,hoch über Berg’ und tiefe Thal’fur Freud’ singt die liebe Nachtigall.Der Wächter singt uns auf der Zinnen, weckt auf den Held mit sanften Sinnen:“Wach auf, wach auf! Es ist wohl an der Zeit!”und schützt der Jungfrau’n Ehre, dem Held sein’n jungen Leib.“Ade fein’s Lieb, dass Gott dich behüte,”dein denkt allzeit mein true Gemüthe;“Du hast mein junges Herz in Trauern gebracht,Dass ich muss von dir scheiden, ade zu guter Nacht!”A fifteenth century folk song.

10 TO DAFFODILS (Gunby Hall Setting c. 1903)Vaughan Williams made an early setting of Robert Herrick’s poem in 1895 – recordedby Roderick Williams with Iain Burnside on Albion ALBCD002 Kissing her Hair. Thislater setting was found at Gunby Hall, where the composer liked to visit his cousin

The maid sat at her windowAnd looked upon the street,And, as he passed, two garlandsShe dropped before his feet.The one was bound with cloverThe other with violets fine.‘Parting’ she sang ‘will neverUndo your love and mine.’

The morning star is risen,The light is now bright.High above the mountain and deep valleyThe lovely nightingale sings for joy.

The guard sings to us from the battlements,Awakening the hero with gentle senses: “Awake, awake! The time has come!”The hero shields the maiden to protect herhonour.

“May God keep you in his great love,”This thought is always in my mind;“You have broken my young heart,So that I must now leave you, farewell.”

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20 THE SPANISH LADIES (1912)This arrangement of ‘traditional’ words and tune was published in 1912, but also arrangedfor both unison and mixed voices. This old sea song became a staple of the manycompetitive choral festivals that took place annually in the first half of the 20th century;Vaughan Williams conducted it himself at the closing concert of the Leith Hill MusicalFestival in May 1914. The song describes a voyage from Spain to the Downs from theviewpoint of ratings of the Royal Navy and probably dates from the late eighteenthcentury.

Fare you well and adieu to you, Spanish ladies,Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain,For we’ve received orders for to sail for old England;And I hope in a short time to see you again.Then we’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,We’ll rant and we’ll roar across the salt sea;Until we arrive at the channel of Old England,And from Ushant to Scilly is forty-five leagues.

21 THE TURTLE DOVE (1919-1934)This 18th century folk ballad was collected by Vaughan Williams from David Penfold inThe Plough Inn, Rusper, Sussex in November 1904. It was published in an arrangementfor male voices with piano accompaniment in 1919, then for mixed voices with baritonesolo in 1924, and finally as a unison song with piano or orchestral accompaniment in1934. The recording on this disc is of that ‘unison’ arrangement, with piano. A classic songof parting and farewell, it has become one of the composer’s best-loved folk songarrangements. The folk singer A.L. Lloyd, who was co-author with Vaughan Williams of‘The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs’ wrote that: ‘Around 1770, leaflets bearing thewords of this song were being hawked about the fairgrounds of England and Scotland.Milkmaids and horse-handlers would paste such leaflets on the walls of dairy and stable to

We hove our ship to all for to get sounded,We hove our ship to, and soundings took we;We had forty fathoms and a bright sandy bottom,And we squared our main yard and up channelstood we.The first land we made was calléd the Deadman,Next Ram Head by Plymouth, Starts Portland andWight,We passéd by Beachy, by Dungeness and Fairley,Till at length we arrivéd at North Foreland Light.Traditional

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Stephen Massingberd and his wife Margaret, a couple who brought a great deal of musicto Lincolnshire. The manuscript is in a neat hand, perhaps Margaret’s, but the composerwrote the title and signed it (hyphenating Vaughan-Williams as he often did in this era),adding, with typical self-deprecating humour: ‘with the composer’s apologies’.

The 1895 setting is a confident work that Stephen Connock suggested in his notes forALBCD002 was reminiscent of Schumann, with pulsing notes in the piano part drivingforward the action, concluding in loss and sadness. This later setting, still romantic, isreminiscent of the 1903 Orpheus with his Lute; the very short lines half way through eachverse are repeated as the music builds to a climax and then concludes with gentleness.

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon; As yet the early-rising sun Has not attain’d his noon. Stay, stay, Until the hasting day has run But to the even-song; And, having pray’d together, we Will go with you along.

FRENCH SONGS (1903-1904)

Vaughan Williams made arrangements of a number of French songs in 1903 and 1904; it ispossible that they were all written for Walter Ford, but some of them (like the Germansongs of 1902) were sung at concerts by other singers. Francis Harford was a bass-baritonewho regularly pioneered new songs by English composers; he gave the ‘first London’performance of Jean Renaud and L’Amour de Moy at St. James’s Hall on 11 February 1904.Ford sang them in concert-lectures in Leighton House, London, in November 1904 buthad probably already sung them in a similar series of eight lecture-recitals in Eastbournefrom October 1903.

We have short time to stay, as you, We have as short a spring; As quick a growth to meet decay, As you, or anything. We die As your hours do, and dry away, Like to the summer’s rain; Or as the pearls of morning’s dew, Ne’er to be found again. Robert Herrick 1591-1674

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17 TAKE, O TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY Take, O take those lips away That so sweetly were forsworn;And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn; But my kisses bring again, Seals of love, but sealed in vain. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Measure for Measure

18 WHEN ICICLES HANG BY THE WALLWhen icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,Then nightly sings the staring owl,

To-who;To-whit, to-who, a merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,Then nightly sings the staring owl,

To-who;

To-whit, to-who, a merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Love’sLabours Lost

19 ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTEOrpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain tops that freeze, Bow themselves when he did sing:To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Henry VIII

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11 QUANT LI LOUSEIGNOLZ (QUAND LE ROSSIGNOL)This was catalogued as Quand le Rossignol - but Vaughan Williams set what lookedlike a modern French text (by an unknown translator, possibly Walter Ford), adding aquestion mark to indicate a line that did not make sense. He left instructions tosubstitute the early French (Langue d’oïl) words from a copy that did not survive withthe manuscript. We researched the words, and Roderick Williams performs the song asQuant li louseignolz jolis chante seur la flor d’esté. Louseignolz comes from the LatinLuscinia (Nightingale), or its diminutive Lusciniola. Linking the nightingale with the roseand the lily, this first stanza is an expression of joy or ecstasy that would have appealedto the composer of The Lark Ascending. Subsequent stanzas are more conventional lovepoetry and we concluded that the first verse was complete in itself.

Vaughan Williams’s manuscript attributes the song to Regnault de Coucy, Lord ofCoucy castle in Northern France, but the words and melody are more likely to havebeen the work of Guy IV, Castellan or Châtelain de Coucy – the man responsible forthe defence of the castle. The first died at the siege of Acre in the third crusade inNovember 1191; the second died at sea in the fourth crusade in 1203. This is number12 of 24 songs, and the poetry suggests that they were all written as lovers were aboutto depart on crusades, so they date to the early months either of 1190 or 1202. It hasprobably not been realised that Vaughan Williams made an arrangement of anything asearly as this, and it enables us to see another facet of this most versatile composer.

Quant li louseignolz jolischante seur la flor d’esté,que nest la rose et le lis,et la rousée ou vert pré,plains de bonne volontéchanterai con fins amis;Mès d’itant sui esbahis,que j’ai si très haut pensé, qu’a painnes iert acomplisli servirs dont j’atent gré.Châtelain de Coucy, in 1190 or 1202, English translation by Florence Berland

When the pretty nightingale sings of the summer flower, from which spring the rose and the lily, and the dew on the green meadow; filled with good will, I will sing as a tender lover. But I am so overwhelmed (dumbfounded), my thought is so high, that I can scarcely attain (accomplish) a song that will be appreciated.

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composers, and Vaughan Williams also composed a part-song to these words as one ofThree Elizabethan Songs.

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,Sing willow, willow, willow,With her hand in her bosom, her head on her knee,Sing willow, willow, willowSing willow, willow, willow my garland shall be Sing all a green willow, Willow, willow,Sing all a green willow My garland shall be.

THREE SONGS FROM SHAKESPEARE (1925)The Three Shakespeare Songs for mixed chorus (1951) are better known, so it is useful tonote that these much earlier Three Songs from Shakespeare for voice and piano arealtogether different songs. The Three Songs were published in 1925, with alternativeversions as unison songs; the last of them with an accompaniment for strings and analternative arrangement for mixed chorus. The tenor Steuart Wilson’s first performanceon 27 March 1925 attracted a rather sniffy Times review, regretting that the composer’sstyle had changed and suggesting that ‘This new marriage of music and poetry in whichboth manage their own incomes and possess their own souls may be as fruitful ofhappiness as the old Roman law, when human feeling has had time to work over it.’ Infact this was a remarkable concert, including the Four Hymns with a new piano quintetaccompaniment, Two Poems by Seumas O’Sullivan (tracks 22 and 23 below) and FourPoems by Fredegond Shove. Michael Kennedy suggested in his musical biography of thecomposer that all of these songs were too subtle for immediate appreciation.

The last of the three songs, Orpheus with his Lute, can be contrasted directly with the1903 setting of the same text (ALBCD002 Kissing her Hair).The most noticeabledifference is that the earlier setting takes twice as long to perform as the later one; boththe singer and the piano linger and luxuriate in the 1903 music, while the later style isaltogether more concise, with not an ounce of surplus fat. That more austere style, whichdeveloped after World War 1, characterises all three of these very short songs.

The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moansHer salt tears fell from her, & soften’d the stones.Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve,He was born to be fair, I to die for his love.I call’d my love false love but what said he then?If I court more women, you’ll couch with more men.Old English, adapted by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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12 L’AMOUR DE MOYL’Amour de Moy is a 14th or 15th century song. Unlike the other French songs here, thissetting was published in 1907, with a translation by Paul England. It is the third of thenightingale songs in this album, and there are more symbolic ingredients in common withthe preceding troubadour song, as joy is inspired once more by the rose, the lily and thenightingale; and finally the ‘sweeter maid’ gathers violets from a green meadow - the latter(‘en ung vert pré,’ an image also found in the troubadour song) being lost in Paul England’smetrical translation. For a contrast, you might want to compare Vaughan Williams’s setting ofit with Nana Mouskouri’s on YouTube.

L’amour de moy s’y est enclose,Dedans ung joly jardinet,Où croist la rose et le muguet,Et aussy fait la passerose.Ce jardin est bel et plaisant;Il est garny de toutes fleurs;On y prend son esbattementAutant la nuit comme le jour.Helas ! Il n’est si doulce choseQue de ce doulx rousignoletQui chante au soir, au matinet :Quand il est las, il se repose.Je la vy l’autre jour, cueillirLa violette en ung vert pré,La plus belle qu’oncques je veis,Et la plus plaisante à mon gré.French, approximately 15th century, English translation by Paul England.

13 JEAN RENAUDJean Renaud is variously attributed to the twelfth and fifteenth centuries; it is certainly oneof the oldest French songs and there are more than 90 variants of the ballad. The version set

Love hath set up his secret bowerDeep in a garden deep and fair;Lily and rose do charm the air,And fragrance blown from many a flower

Fair is that garden, full of bliss,Broider’d with blossoms fresh and gay,Where all my joy and comfort is, Sweetly to rest by night or day.

Hark! From her haunt among the rosesSweetly there sings the nightingale,Sweet thro’ the night, till stars are pale,And scarce at morn her song she closes.

I’ve seen my love at early dawnGather the violet newly blown.No fairer flower did strew the lawn, No sweeter maid was ever known.

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15 BUONAPARTY (1908)

After the French songs, Buonaparty is decidedly English, a poem taken with ThomasHardy’s approval from his magnum opus ‘The Dynasts’, ‘an epic-drama of the war withNapoleon’. Vaughan Williams loved Hardy’s novels – his last symphony was inspired by‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ - but his widow Ursula said that he could not read ‘TheDynasts’. He wrote to Gerald Finzi of another Hardy poem: ‘It is a pity Hardy had totwist his words thus’; this perhaps explains why this is one of only two settings by himof Hardy’s poetry, the other being ‘The Oxen’, drawn to his attention by Ursula and setas part of Hodie in 1954. Despite this, he praised settings of Hardy by a number ofother composers. Buonaparty was intended (though not used) for his ballad opera Hughthe Drover.

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;If he won’t sail, lest the wind should blow,We shall have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We shall have marched for nothing, O!

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;If he be sea-sick, says ‘No, no!’We shall have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We shall have marched for nothing, O!

16 THE WILLOW SONG (1897)The unpublished manuscript is dated Feb 19th 1897 and headed ‘The Willow Song –Old English, arr. by RVW’. The earliest record of it is in a book of lute music from1583, but Shakespeare used the song in ‘Othello’ – changing the victim from a man toa woman so that Desdemona could sing it.This setting of the Elizabethan or earliertune retains Shakespeare’s revised text. The piece has long been popular with

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;Never mind, mates; we’ll be merry, thoughWe may have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We may have marched for nothing, O!Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928, from The Dynasts

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by Vaughan Williams is less grisly than some others, since King Renaud is oftenportrayed riding home from battle with his ‘tripes’ (guts) in his hands. Nonetheless,the king and knight has been mortally wounded and soon expires. His wife, newly-delivered of a son, is kept from the news until she sees his tomb and has to be told.It has been reinterpreted many times, even by Edith Piaf. Vaughan Williams set it inFrench as recorded here, but the Catalogue records the existence of an Englishtranslation by Paul England (c. 1863-1932) which has not survived, so we suppliedour own. We know that Francis Harford sang the songs in French, a language whichthe London Daily News suggested was ‘not his strong point’, but we do not knowwhat language Walter Ford sang in.

Quand Jean Renaud de guerr’ revintIl en revint triste et chagrin.Sa mère à la fenêtre en haut‘Voici venir mon fils Renaud.’‘Bonjour, Renaud, bonjour mon fils,Ta femme est accouchée d’un fils.’‘Ni de ma femme ni de mon filsJe ne saurai me réjouir.’‘Que l’on me fasse vite un lit blancPour que je m’y couche dedans.’Et quand ce vint sur la minuitLe beau Renaud rendit l’esprit.« Dites-moi, ma mère, ma mie,Irai je à la messe aujourd’hui? »« Ma fille attendez à demain Et vous irez pour le certain.’Quand elle fut dans l’église entréeDe l’eau bénite-y-on a présenté,Et puis levant les yeux en hautElle aperçut le grand tombeau.

When Jean Renaud returned from the battleHe was sad and sorrowful.His mother called from the high window:‘Here comes my son Renaud.’

‘Hello, Renaud, hello my son,Your wife has given birth to a son.’‘Neither my wife nor my sonCan now make me happy.’

‘Let me quickly make a white bedSo that I may lie down on it.’And when it came to midnightThe handsome Renaud gave up his spirit.

‘Tell me, my mother, my heart,Will I go to Mass today?’‘My daughter, wait until tomorrowAnd you will go for certain.’

She got to the church entranceWhere the holy water is presented,And then, raising her eyes,She saw the great tomb.

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‘Dites-moi, ma mère, ma mie,Qu’est-ce ce tombeau signifie?’‘Ma fille, j’ne puis vous le cacher,C’est votr’mari qui a trépassé.’‘Renaud, Renaud, mon réconfort,Te voilà donc au rang des morts.Renaud, Renaud, mon réconfort,Te voilà donc au rang des morts.’Elle se fit dire trois messes,A la première elle se confesseA la seconde ell’ communiaA la troisième elle expira.French traditional

14 LE PSAUME DES BATAILLES (QUE DIEU SE MONTRE SEULEMENT)Le Psaume des batailles (Que Dieu Se Montre Seulement) is a setting of Psalm 68: ‘Let Godarise, and let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him.’ Thepsalm begins with God triumphing over his enemies, and the righteous singing praises tothe God of triumph. Its combative associations inspired Crusaders, setting out for therecovery of the Holy Land; Savonarola and his monks, chanting it as they marched totheir ‘trial of fire’ in Florence in 1498; the Huguenots, reformed Christians in sixteenthcentury France who suffered terrible persecution; and Oliver Cromwell as the sun rose onthe mists of the morning before the battle of Dunbar in 1650.

John Calvin published the first, incomplete, version of the ‘Psautier Huguenot’ (theGeneva Psalter) in 1539 - but Psalm 68, set in metrical verse by Théodore de Bèze,followed in the complete edition of 1562. The tune from which Vaughan Williams madehis setting is sometimes attributed to Claude Goudimel, but he made a four part harmony(not used by Vaughan Williams) and the tune itself is more likely to have been composedby Matthias Greiter (c.1494-1550). Vaughan Williams set just the first stanza, representingverses 1 to 2 (of 35), but left instructions to take the words from a source that did notsurvive with the manuscript; we added a second stanza in a version from the GenevaPsalter of 1729.

Walter Ford performed it in a lecture concert in January 1905 and The Times describedit as: ‘a wonderfully successful arrangement by Mr. R.Vaughan Williams, who has treatedthe tune in the manner of Bach’s organ chorales, with delightful imitative passages inthe accompaniment, and with the happiest possible assumption of the old character.Nothing could have been better than the air, the arrangement, the spirited rendering ofthe song, or the admirable accompanying of Mr. Bird.’

Que Dieu se montre seulementEt l’on verra soudainementAbandonner la place.Le camp des ennemis épars,Et ses haineux, de toutes parts,Fuir devant sa face.Dieu les fera tous s’enfuirAinsi qu’on voit s’évanouirUn amas de fumée.Comme la cire auprès du feu,Ainsi des méchants, devant Dieu,La force est consumée.

Mais, en présence de Seigneur,Les justes chantent sa grandeurEt sa gloire immortelle.Et dans la grande joie qu’ils ontQu’en fuite, les méchants s’en vont,Ils sautent d’allégresse.Justes chantez tout d’une voixAu Dieu des dieux, au Roi des rois,La louange immortelle,Car par l’orage il est porté,Son nom est plein de majesté,L’Eternel il s’appelle!Psalm 68, vv. 1-4, from the Psautier Huguenot, translated by Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605).English translation by Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), from the Book of Common Prayer.

‘Tell me, my mother, my heart,What does this tomb mean?’‘My daughter, I cannot hide it from you,It is your husband who has passed away.’

‘Renaud, Renaud, my solace,So here you are among the dead.Renaud, Renaud, my comfort,You have joined the ranks of the dead.’

She heard three masses:At the first she confessed;At the second she ate the bread;At the third she expired.

Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: Let themalso that hate him flee before him. Like as the smokevanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: and like as waxmelteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at thepresence of God.

But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God: letthem also be merry and joyful. O sing unto God, and singpraises unto his Name: magnify him that rideth upon theheavens, as it were upon an horse; praise him in his NameJah, and rejoice before him.

16t 17


‘Dites-moi, ma mère, ma mie,Qu’est-ce ce tombeau signifie?’‘Ma fille, j’ne puis vous le cacher,C’est votr’mari qui a trépassé.’‘Renaud, Renaud, mon réconfort,Te voilà donc au rang des morts.Renaud, Renaud, mon réconfort,Te voilà donc au rang des morts.’Elle se fit dire trois messes,A la première elle se confesseA la seconde ell’ communiaA la troisième elle expira.French traditional

14 LE PSAUME DES BATAILLES (QUE DIEU SE MONTRE SEULEMENT)Le Psaume des batailles (Que Dieu Se Montre Seulement) is a setting of Psalm 68: ‘Let Godarise, and let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him.’ Thepsalm begins with God triumphing over his enemies, and the righteous singing praises tothe God of triumph. Its combative associations inspired Crusaders, setting out for therecovery of the Holy Land; Savonarola and his monks, chanting it as they marched totheir ‘trial of fire’ in Florence in 1498; the Huguenots, reformed Christians in sixteenthcentury France who suffered terrible persecution; and Oliver Cromwell as the sun rose onthe mists of the morning before the battle of Dunbar in 1650.

John Calvin published the first, incomplete, version of the ‘Psautier Huguenot’ (theGeneva Psalter) in 1539 - but Psalm 68, set in metrical verse by Théodore de Bèze,followed in the complete edition of 1562. The tune from which Vaughan Williams madehis setting is sometimes attributed to Claude Goudimel, but he made a four part harmony(not used by Vaughan Williams) and the tune itself is more likely to have been composedby Matthias Greiter (c.1494-1550).Vaughan Williams set just the first stanza, representingverses 1 to 2 (of 35), but left instructions to take the words from a source that did notsurvive with the manuscript; we added a second stanza in a version from the GenevaPsalter of 1729.

Walter Ford performed it in a lecture concert in January 1905 and The Times describedit as: ‘a wonderfully successful arrangement by Mr. R. Vaughan Williams, who has treatedthe tune in the manner of Bach’s organ chorales, with delightful imitative passages inthe accompaniment, and with the happiest possible assumption of the old character.Nothing could have been better than the air, the arrangement, the spirited rendering ofthe song, or the admirable accompanying of Mr. Bird.’

Que Dieu se montre seulementEt l’on verra soudainementAbandonner la place.Le camp des ennemis épars,Et ses haineux, de toutes parts,Fuir devant sa face.Dieu les fera tous s’enfuirAinsi qu’on voit s’évanouirUn amas de fumée.Comme la cire auprès du feu,Ainsi des méchants, devant Dieu,La force est consumée.

Mais, en présence de Seigneur,Les justes chantent sa grandeurEt sa gloire immortelle.Et dans la grande joie qu’ils ontQu’en fuite, les méchants s’en vont,Ils sautent d’allégresse.Justes chantez tout d’une voixAu Dieu des dieux, au Roi des rois,La louange immortelle,Car par l’orage il est porté,Son nom est plein de majesté,L’Eternel il s’appelle!Psalm 68, vv. 1-4, from the Psautier Huguenot, translated by Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605).English translation by Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), from the Book of Common Prayer.

‘Tell me, my mother, my heart,What does this tomb mean?’‘My daughter, I cannot hide it from you,It is your husband who has passed away.’

‘Renaud, Renaud, my solace,So here you are among the dead.Renaud, Renaud, my comfort,You have joined the ranks of the dead.’

She heard three masses:At the first she confessed;At the second she ate the bread;At the third she expired.

Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: Let themalso that hate him flee before him. Like as the smokevanisheth, so shalt thou drive them away: and like as waxmelteth at the fire, so let the ungodly perish at thepresence of God.

But let the righteous be glad and rejoice before God: letthem also be merry and joyful. O sing unto God, and singpraises unto his Name: magnify him that rideth upon theheavens, as it were upon an horse; praise him in his NameJah, and rejoice before him.

16t 17


15 BUONAPARTY (1908)

After the French songs, Buonaparty is decidedly English, a poem taken with ThomasHardy’s approval from his magnum opus ‘The Dynasts’, ‘an epic-drama of the war withNapoleon’. Vaughan Williams loved Hardy’s novels – his last symphony was inspired by‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ - but his widow Ursula said that he could not read ‘TheDynasts’. He wrote to Gerald Finzi of another Hardy poem: ‘It is a pity Hardy had totwist his words thus’; this perhaps explains why this is one of only two settings by himof Hardy’s poetry, the other being ‘The Oxen’, drawn to his attention by Ursula and setas part of Hodie in 1954. Despite this, he praised settings of Hardy by a number ofother composers. Buonaparty was intended (though not used) for his ballad opera Hughthe Drover.

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;If he won’t sail, lest the wind should blow,We shall have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We shall have marched for nothing, O!

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;If he be sea-sick, says ‘No, no!’We shall have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We shall have marched for nothing, O!

16 THE WILLOW SONG (1897)The unpublished manuscript is dated Feb 19th 1897 and headed ‘The Willow Song –Old English, arr. by RVW’. The earliest record of it is in a book of lute music from1583, but Shakespeare used the song in ‘Othello’ – changing the victim from a man toa woman so that Desdemona could sing it. This setting of the Elizabethan or earliertune retains Shakespeare’s revised text. The piece has long been popular with

We be the King’s men, hale and hearty,Marching to meet one Buonaparty;Never mind, mates; we’ll be merry, thoughWe may have marched for nothing, O!Right fol-lol! Right fol-lol!We may have marched for nothing, O!Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928, from The Dynasts

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by Vaughan Williams is less grisly than some others, since King Renaud is oftenportrayed riding home from battle with his ‘tripes’ (guts) in his hands. Nonetheless,the king and knight has been mortally wounded and soon expires. His wife, newly-delivered of a son, is kept from the news until she sees his tomb and has to be told.It has been reinterpreted many times, even by Edith Piaf. Vaughan Williams set it inFrench as recorded here, but the Catalogue records the existence of an Englishtranslation by Paul England (c. 1863-1932) which has not survived, so we suppliedour own. We know that Francis Harford sang the songs in French, a language whichthe London Daily News suggested was ‘not his strong point’, but we do not knowwhat language Walter Ford sang in.

Quand Jean Renaud de guerr’ revintIl en revint triste et chagrin.Sa mère à la fenêtre en haut‘Voici venir mon fils Renaud.’‘Bonjour, Renaud, bonjour mon fils,Ta femme est accouchée d’un fils.’‘Ni de ma femme ni de mon filsJe ne saurai me réjouir.’‘Que l’on me fasse vite un lit blancPour que je m’y couche dedans.’Et quand ce vint sur la minuitLe beau Renaud rendit l’esprit.« Dites-moi, ma mère, ma mie,Irai je à la messe aujourd’hui? »« Ma fille attendez à demain Et vous irez pour le certain.’Quand elle fut dans l’église entréeDe l’eau bénite-y-on a présenté,Et puis levant les yeux en hautElle aperçut le grand tombeau.

When Jean Renaud returned from the battleHe was sad and sorrowful.His mother called from the high window:‘Here comes my son Renaud.’

‘Hello, Renaud, hello my son,Your wife has given birth to a son.’‘Neither my wife nor my sonCan now make me happy.’

‘Let me quickly make a white bedSo that I may lie down on it.’And when it came to midnightThe handsome Renaud gave up his spirit.

‘Tell me, my mother, my heart,Will I go to Mass today?’‘My daughter, wait until tomorrowAnd you will go for certain.’

She got to the church entranceWhere the holy water is presented,And then, raising her eyes,She saw the great tomb.

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composers, and Vaughan Williams also composed a part-song to these words as one ofThree Elizabethan Songs.

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,Sing willow, willow, willow,With her hand in her bosom, her head on her knee,Sing willow, willow, willowSing willow, willow, willow my garland shall be Sing all a green willow, Willow, willow,Sing all a green willow My garland shall be.

THREE SONGS FROM SHAKESPEARE (1925)The Three Shakespeare Songs for mixed chorus (1951) are better known, so it is useful tonote that these much earlier Three Songs from Shakespeare for voice and piano arealtogether different songs. The Three Songs were published in 1925, with alternativeversions as unison songs; the last of them with an accompaniment for strings and analternative arrangement for mixed chorus. The tenor Steuart Wilson’s first performanceon 27 March 1925 attracted a rather sniffy Times review, regretting that the composer’sstyle had changed and suggesting that ‘This new marriage of music and poetry in whichboth manage their own incomes and possess their own souls may be as fruitful ofhappiness as the old Roman law, when human feeling has had time to work over it.’ Infact this was a remarkable concert, including the Four Hymns with a new piano quintetaccompaniment, Two Poems by Seumas O’Sullivan (tracks 22 and 23 below) and FourPoems by Fredegond Shove. Michael Kennedy suggested in his musical biography of thecomposer that all of these songs were too subtle for immediate appreciation.

The last of the three songs, Orpheus with his Lute, can be contrasted directly with the1903 setting of the same text (ALBCD002 Kissing her Hair). The most noticeabledifference is that the earlier setting takes twice as long to perform as the later one; boththe singer and the piano linger and luxuriate in the 1903 music, while the later style isaltogether more concise, with not an ounce of surplus fat. That more austere style, whichdeveloped after World War 1, characterises all three of these very short songs.

The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moansHer salt tears fell from her, & soften’d the stones.Let nobody blame him, his scorn I approve,He was born to be fair, I to die for his love.I call’d my love false love but what said he then?If I court more women, you’ll couch with more men.Old English, adapted by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

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12 L’AMOUR DE MOYL’Amour de Moy is a 14th or 15th century song. Unlike the other French songs here, thissetting was published in 1907, with a translation by Paul England. It is the third of thenightingale songs in this album, and there are more symbolic ingredients in common withthe preceding troubadour song, as joy is inspired once more by the rose, the lily and thenightingale; and finally the ‘sweeter maid’ gathers violets from a green meadow - the latter(‘en ung vert pré,’ an image also found in the troubadour song) being lost in Paul England’smetrical translation. For a contrast, you might want to compare Vaughan Williams’s setting ofit with Nana Mouskouri’s on YouTube.

L’amour de moy s’y est enclose,Dedans ung joly jardinet,Où croist la rose et le muguet,Et aussy fait la passerose.Ce jardin est bel et plaisant;Il est garny de toutes fleurs;On y prend son esbattementAutant la nuit comme le jour.Helas ! Il n’est si doulce choseQue de ce doulx rousignoletQui chante au soir, au matinet :Quand il est las, il se repose.Je la vy l’autre jour, cueillirLa violette en ung vert pré,La plus belle qu’oncques je veis,Et la plus plaisante à mon gré.French, approximately 15th century, English translation by Paul England.

13 JEAN RENAUDJean Renaud is variously attributed to the twelfth and fifteenth centuries; it is certainly oneof the oldest French songs and there are more than 90 variants of the ballad. The version set

Love hath set up his secret bowerDeep in a garden deep and fair;Lily and rose do charm the air,And fragrance blown from many a flower

Fair is that garden, full of bliss,Broider’d with blossoms fresh and gay,Where all my joy and comfort is, Sweetly to rest by night or day.

Hark! From her haunt among the rosesSweetly there sings the nightingale,Sweet thro’ the night, till stars are pale,And scarce at morn her song she closes.

I’ve seen my love at early dawnGather the violet newly blown.No fairer flower did strew the lawn, No sweeter maid was ever known.

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17 TAKE, O TAKE THOSE LIPS AWAY Take, O take those lips away That so sweetly were forsworn;And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn; But my kisses bring again, Seals of love, but sealed in vain. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Measure for Measure

18 WHEN ICICLES HANG BY THE WALLWhen icicles hang by the wall,

And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,And Tom bears logs into the hall,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,Then nightly sings the staring owl,

To-who;To-whit, to-who, a merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,And birds sit brooding in the snow,

And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,Then nightly sings the staring owl,

To-who;

To-whit, to-who, a merry note,While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Love’sLabours Lost

19 ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTEOrpheus with his lute made trees, And the mountain tops that freeze, Bow themselves when he did sing:To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads, and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Henry VIII

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11 QUANT LI LOUSEIGNOLZ (QUAND LE ROSSIGNOL)This was catalogued as Quand le Rossignol - but Vaughan Williams set what lookedlike a modern French text (by an unknown translator, possibly Walter Ford), adding aquestion mark to indicate a line that did not make sense. He left instructions tosubstitute the early French (Langue d’oïl) words from a copy that did not survive withthe manuscript. We researched the words, and Roderick Williams performs the song asQuant li louseignolz jolis chante seur la flor d’esté. Louseignolz comes from the LatinLuscinia (Nightingale), or its diminutive Lusciniola. Linking the nightingale with the roseand the lily, this first stanza is an expression of joy or ecstasy that would have appealedto the composer of The Lark Ascending. Subsequent stanzas are more conventional lovepoetry and we concluded that the first verse was complete in itself.

Vaughan Williams’s manuscript attributes the song to Regnault de Coucy, Lord ofCoucy castle in Northern France, but the words and melody are more likely to havebeen the work of Guy IV, Castellan or Châtelain de Coucy – the man responsible forthe defence of the castle. The first died at the siege of Acre in the third crusade inNovember 1191; the second died at sea in the fourth crusade in 1203. This is number12 of 24 songs, and the poetry suggests that they were all written as lovers were aboutto depart on crusades, so they date to the early months either of 1190 or 1202. It hasprobably not been realised that Vaughan Williams made an arrangement of anything asearly as this, and it enables us to see another facet of this most versatile composer.

Quant li louseignolz jolischante seur la flor d’esté,que nest la rose et le lis,et la rousée ou vert pré,plains de bonne volontéchanterai con fins amis;Mès d’itant sui esbahis,que j’ai si très haut pensé, qu’a painnes iert acomplisli servirs dont j’atent gré.Châtelain de Coucy, in 1190 or 1202, English translation by Florence Berland

When the pretty nightingale sings of the summer flower, from which spring the rose and the lily, and the dew on the green meadow; filled with good will, I will sing as a tender lover. But I am so overwhelmed (dumbfounded), my thought is so high, that I can scarcely attain (accomplish) a song that will be appreciated.

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20 THE SPANISH LADIES (1912)This arrangement of ‘traditional’ words and tune was published in 1912, but also arrangedfor both unison and mixed voices. This old sea song became a staple of the manycompetitive choral festivals that took place annually in the first half of the 20th century;Vaughan Williams conducted it himself at the closing concert of the Leith Hill MusicalFestival in May 1914. The song describes a voyage from Spain to the Downs from theviewpoint of ratings of the Royal Navy and probably dates from the late eighteenthcentury.

Fare you well and adieu to you, Spanish ladies,Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain,For we’ve received orders for to sail for old England;And I hope in a short time to see you again.Then we’ll rant and we’ll roar like true British sailors,We’ll rant and we’ll roar across the salt sea;Until we arrive at the channel of Old England,And from Ushant to Scilly is forty-five leagues.

21 THE TURTLE DOVE (1919-1934)This 18th century folk ballad was collected by Vaughan Williams from David Penfold inThe Plough Inn, Rusper, Sussex in November 1904. It was published in an arrangementfor male voices with piano accompaniment in 1919, then for mixed voices with baritonesolo in 1924, and finally as a unison song with piano or orchestral accompaniment in1934. The recording on this disc is of that ‘unison’ arrangement, with piano. A classic songof parting and farewell, it has become one of the composer’s best-loved folk songarrangements. The folk singer A.L. Lloyd, who was co-author with Vaughan Williams of‘The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs’ wrote that: ‘Around 1770, leaflets bearing thewords of this song were being hawked about the fairgrounds of England and Scotland.Milkmaids and horse-handlers would paste such leaflets on the walls of dairy and stable to

We hove our ship to all for to get sounded,We hove our ship to, and soundings took we;We had forty fathoms and a bright sandy bottom,And we squared our main yard and up channelstood we.The first land we made was calléd the Deadman,Next Ram Head by Plymouth, Starts Portland andWight,We passéd by Beachy, by Dungeness and Fairley,Till at length we arrivéd at North Foreland Light.Traditional

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Stephen Massingberd and his wife Margaret, a couple who brought a great deal of musicto Lincolnshire. The manuscript is in a neat hand, perhaps Margaret’s, but the composerwrote the title and signed it (hyphenating Vaughan-Williams as he often did in this era),adding, with typical self-deprecating humour: ‘with the composer’s apologies’.

The 1895 setting is a confident work that Stephen Connock suggested in his notes forALBCD002 was reminiscent of Schumann, with pulsing notes in the piano part drivingforward the action, concluding in loss and sadness.This later setting, still romantic, isreminiscent of the 1903 Orpheus with his Lute; the very short lines half way through eachverse are repeated as the music builds to a climax and then concludes with gentleness.

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon; As yet the early-rising sun Has not attain’d his noon. Stay, stay, Until the hasting day has run But to the even-song; And, having pray’d together, we Will go with you along.

FRENCH SONGS (1903-1904)

Vaughan Williams made arrangements of a number of French songs in 1903 and 1904; it ispossible that they were all written for Walter Ford, but some of them (like the Germansongs of 1902) were sung at concerts by other singers. Francis Harford was a bass-baritonewho regularly pioneered new songs by English composers; he gave the ‘first London’performance of Jean Renaud and L’Amour de Moy at St. James’s Hall on 11 February 1904.Ford sang them in concert-lectures in Leighton House, London, in November 1904 buthad probably already sung them in a similar series of eight lecture-recitals in Eastbournefrom October 1903.

We have short time to stay, as you, We have as short a spring; As quick a growth to meet decay, As you, or anything. We die As your hours do, and dry away, Like to the summer’s rain; Or as the pearls of morning’s dew, Ne’er to be found again. Robert Herrick 1591-1674

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learn the songs as they worked. Now and then, the place would get a new coat of whitewashand a fresh layer of song sheets.’

Fare you well my dear, I must be gone,And leave you for a while;If I roam away I’ll come back again,Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear,Though I roam ten thousand miles.As fair thou art my bonny lass,So deep in love am I;But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I loveTill the stars fall from the sky, my dear,Till the stars fall from the sky.

TWO POEMS BY SEUMAS O’SULLIVAN (1925)Seumas (or Seumus) O’Sullivan was the adopted name of James Sullivan Starkey (1879-1958), an Irish poet and editor of ‘The Dublin Magazine’. Vaughan Williams was widely readand loved poetry, but perhaps it is significant that these settings of O’Sullivan’s poems werepublished in the year that Vaughan Williams began work on his opera based on the Irishplaywright J M Synge’s ‘Riders to the Sea’. Both of the poems that Vaughan Williams setwere written somewhat earlier: ‘The Twilight People’ in 1905 and ‘A Piper’ in 1908. Thesepoems have attracted composers including Arthur Benjamin, Ivor Gurney, Herbert Howells,Michael Head and Vaughan Williams’s pupil William Lloyd Webber.

The composer noted on the published scores that they may be sung without accompaniment– and Ian Partridge recorded The Twilight People in that form. This is the first recording of thesongs with Vaughan Williams’s piano accompaniment. The Twilight People is dark andmysterious, anticipating the angularity of the cycle Along the Field that was to follow in1925/26 (ALBCD038 Time and Space), or even the bleakness of the Ten Blake Songs of 1957.A Piper is warmer, very modal, but set with the lightest possible touch.

The sea will never run dry, my dear,Nor the rocks never melt with the sun,But I never will prove false to the bonny lass I loveTill all those things be done, my dear,Till all those things be done.O yonder doth sit that little turtle dove,He doth sit on yonder high tree,A-making a moan for the loss of his love,As I will do for thee, my dear,As I will do for thee.Traditional

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Das Megdlein an der Zinnen lag,Sie sah zum Fenster naus,In rechter Lieb und TreueWarf sie zwei Krenzlein ’raus,Das eine war von Veiel,Das ander von grünem Klee.‘Soll ich dich, feins Lieb, meiden,Mei’m Herzen dem g’schieht Weh!’ Traditional, 15th-16th century, English translation by Walter Ford.

9 MORGENSTERNDer Morgenstern ist auf gegangen,er leucht’ daher zu dieser Stunde,hoch über Berg’ und tiefe Thal’fur Freud’ singt die liebe Nachtigall.Der Wächter singt uns auf der Zinnen, weckt auf den Held mit sanften Sinnen:“Wach auf, wach auf! Es ist wohl an der Zeit!”und schützt der Jungfrau’n Ehre, dem Held sein’n jungen Leib.“Ade fein’s Lieb, dass Gott dich behüte,”dein denkt allzeit mein true Gemüthe;“Du hast mein junges Herz in Trauern gebracht,Dass ich muss von dir scheiden, ade zu guter Nacht!”A fifteenth century folk song.

10 TO DAFFODILS (Gunby Hall Setting c. 1903)Vaughan Williams made an early setting of Robert Herrick’s poem in 1895 – recordedby Roderick Williams with Iain Burnside on Albion ALBCD002 Kissing her Hair. Thislater setting was found at Gunby Hall, where the composer liked to visit his cousin

The maid sat at her windowAnd looked upon the street,And, as he passed, two garlandsShe dropped before his feet.The one was bound with cloverThe other with violets fine.‘Parting’ she sang ‘will neverUndo your love and mine.’

The morning star is risen,The light is now bright.High above the mountain and deep valleyThe lovely nightingale sings for joy.

The guard sings to us from the battlements,Awakening the hero with gentle senses: “Awake, awake! The time has come!”The hero shields the maiden to protect herhonour.

“May God keep you in his great love,”This thought is always in my mind;“You have broken my young heart,So that I must now leave you, farewell.”

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22 THE TWILIGHT PEOPLEIt is a whisper among the hazel bushes; It is a long, low, whispering voice that fills With a sad music the bending and swaying rushes; It is a heart beat deep in the quiet hills.Twilight people, why will you still be crying, Crying and calling to me out of the trees? For under the quiet grass the wise are lying, And all the strong ones are gone over the seas.And I am old, and in my heart at your calling Only the old dead dreams a-fluttering go; As the wind, the forest wind, in its falling Sets the withered leaves fluttering to and fro.Seumas O’Sullivan (1879-1958)

DUETS (1903)

Both of the songs recorded here (Think of Me and Adieu) are German folk songs in Englishtranslation by the baritone Arthur Foxton Ferguson, who was to sing them with thesoprano Beatrice [Fanny] Spencer, who was a regular singing partner since both weremembers of the ‘Folk-Song Quartet’ that Foxton Ferguson had formed in 1901. The firstLondon performance of the duets as recorded in the Catalogue, with Ernest Walker on thepiano, in Steinway Hall on 22 March 1904, was pre-empted by one in St. John’s Rooms,Southampton, on 4 February 1904 when there was apparently a third duet, Cousin Michael,which has not survived. Cousin Michael and (probably) Adieu had made an earlierappearance in Exeter in April 1903. Of the three songs, it appears that Adieu was the onethought most worthy of repeated performance at the time.

Foxton Ferguson was no doubt a good friend to Vaughan Williams; like him he was wontto deliver lectures on folk song to make ends meet, and also wrote a series of articles forthe Girl’s Own Paper.

23 A PIPERA Piper in the streets to-daySet up, and tuned, and started to play,And away, away, away on the tideOf his music we started; on every sideDoors and windows were opened wide,And men left down their work and came,And women with petticoats coloured like flame.And little bare feet that were blue with coldWent dancing back to the age of gold,And all the world went gay, went gay,For half an hour in the street to-day.Seumas O’Sullivan (1879-1958)

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Die mir gefallen thutDas bringt mir heimlich LeidenUnd macht mir schweren Muth.Was lässt du mir zur Letze,Feins braunschwarz MeideleinDas mich die Weil ergetze,So ich von dir muss sein?Hofnung thut mich erneren,Nach dir so werd ich krank;Thu bald herwider kehrenZeit und weil wird mir lang.Old German song, free English translation by Walter Ford.

8 WANDERLIEDWolauf, gut G’sell, von hinnen,Meins Bleibens ist hie nicht mehr;Der Mai, der thut uns bringen Den Veiel und grünem Klee.Vor’m Wald da hört man singen Der kleinen Vöglein G’sang, Die singen mit heller Stimme, Den ganzen Sommer lang.Ich kann nicht mehr geschweigen, Es g’lag mir nie so hart,Dass ich trag heimlich leiden Geg’n einem Frewlein zart.Ihr Lieb hat mih umbfangen Darzu ihr gut Gestalt.Dass ich dich, Lieb, muss meiden, Darzu bringt mich Gewalt.

Against the bitter coldAnd oh! my heart is weary,Forlorn I feel and old.

Leave not some word unspoken,Dark Maiden, whom I love,That I may keep for tokenThat you will constant prove.Alone I dream with yearningOf you in lands apart,And pine for your returningTo give me back my heart.

Farewell, my friend! I leave you, I can no longer stay;Though violets and the clover make bright the fields of May,And all the woods are ringing with the sweet blackbird’s song.You’ll hear their voices singing the whole glad summer long.To you I must discover my secret e’er we part,I pine with silent longing for a sweet maiden’s heart.Her love will e’er enfold meThough in strange lands I roam,For cruel fate doth hold me And sends me far from home.

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24 THINK OF MEI stood upon a high mountainAnd look’d into the sea.And there I saw ‘twas written,That we with love were smittenAnd should some day be one.I went with her a-sporting,a-sporting in the wood,I thought to give her something,Some keepsake tho’ a dumb thingOf gold a tiny ring.A little ring it is no gift,It costeth naught but gold.A ring a trump’ry farthing,We are not all a-starving.Earth still has something left.Farewell then my fine mistress,For we must part for aye,Yet lest I one day come again,For lovers sometimes are insane,Fair maid, pray think of me.German folk song, translated by Arthur FoxtonFerguson (1866-1920)

25 ADIEULov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Since I must leave my bliss,Grant me one parting kiss.Lov’d one adieu!Lov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Keep thou as true to meas I’ll be true to thee,Lov’d one adieu!Lov’d one adieu! Parting is rue!Grieve not my dearest heart,Death only can us part,Lov’d one adieu!German folk song, translated by Arthur Foxton Ferguson(1866-1920)

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7-9 THREE OLD GERMAN SONGS (1902)These arrangements were dedicated to Walter Ford (1861-1938), Professor of Singingat the Royal College of Music from 1895, a folk song collector who was atCambridge with Cecil Sharp and subsequently served on the committee of the FolkSong Society. We know from reports of Vaughan Williams’s lectures on folk songs from1902 that his knowledge of the subject was both deep and international, so there wasclearly common ground between him and Ford. Ford commissioned Vaughan Williamsto make settings of German and French songs for him to sing at several series ofconcert-lectures that he gave all over the country.

The first song, Entlaubet ist der Walde, was sung on 27 November 1902 at a recital byMr Campbell McInnes, when the first performance of Blackmwore by the Stour was alsogiven. Walter Ford performed it himself with the second song, Wanderlied, at a lecturerecital on 10 November 1905.The two songs were published together in 1937 -including extremely free English translations by Ford, though we have recorded themwith the German text. There are two references to violets in Wanderlied. Does thesymbolism extend this far, or is the poet just enjoying the early summer?

A third song, Der Morgenstern, has just a single verse in the manuscript, VaughanWilliams writing in a letter that ‘I thought Walter Ford was going to supply the rest ofthe words and a translation. I tried to start it myself but find that the German words inmy copy do not scan.’ We were able to track down an 18th century German settingfrom which the first verse matched those set in Vaughan Williams’s manuscript – so weused the remaining two verses from that source, which scanned satisfactorily. Withinthat first verse we find the first references to both joy and the nightingale.

The German texts below are as printed either by OUP in 1937 or by Breitkopf andHärtel in 1879 - with old German spellings, some of which we were able to verifyagainst sources going back to 1500.

7 ENTLAUBET IST DER WALDEEntlaubet ist der WaldeGeg’n diesem Winter kalt,beraubet werd ich baldeMeins lieb, das macht mich alt.Dass ich die schön muss meiden,

Thy cruel winds are shakingThe leaves from every tree,O winter thou’rt takingMy love away from me.The wood stands bare and dreary

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Quite a number of the songs and duets on this recording were commissioned by singers fortheir own purposes, at a time when Vaughan Williams was perhaps more inclined to acceptwork as a jobbing composer – whether to broaden his knowledge, for friendship, or just forthe money! Each of them is a worthy contribution to art, and representative of VaughanWilliams’s development as a composer. Our intention is to make the works available formodern critical review, within the context of a long working life’s achievement and with theperspective granted by looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century.

John Francis

(with thanks to Florence Berland, Christian Michot, Raymond Richardson, Marcus de Loach and Stephen Connock for help and advice).

Further readingMichael Kennedy: A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (OUP 1996)

Michael Kennedy: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (2nd edition, OUP 1992)

Stephen Connock: Toward the Sun Rising - Ralph Vaughan Williams Remembered(Albion Music 2018)

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4 HEART’S HAVENSometimes she is a child within mine arms,Cow’ring beneath dark wings that love must chase,With still tears show’ring and averted face,Inexplicably filled with faint alarms:And oft from mine own spirit’s hurtling harmsI crave the refuge of her deep embrace,Against all ills the fortified strong placeAnd sweet reserve of sov’reign counter charms.And Love, our light at night and shade at noon,Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns awayAll shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.Like the moon’s growth, his face gleams throughhis tune;And as soft waters warble to the moon,Our answ’ring spirits chime one roundelay.

5 DEATH-IN-LOVEThere came an image in Life’s retinueThat had Love’s wings and bore his gonfalon*:Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,Shook in its folds; and through my heart its powerSped trackless as the memorable hourWhen birth’s dark portal groaned and all was new

But a veiled woman followed, and she caughtThe banner round its staff, to furl and cling,Then plucked a feather from the bearer’s wing,And held it to his lips that stirred it not,And said to me, ‘Behold, there is no breath:I and this Love are one, and I am Death.’

* gonfalon: a heraldic flag or banner hung froma horizontal bar

6 LOVE’S LAST GIFTLove to his singer held a glistening leaf,and said: ‘The rose-tree and the apple-treeHave fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee;And golden shafts are in the feathered sheafOf the great harvest marshal, the year’s chiefVictorious summer; aye, and ‘neath warm seaStrange secret grasses lurk inviolablyBetween the filtering channels of sunk reef...All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of loveTo thee I gave while spring and summer sang;But autumn stops to listen, with some pangFrom those worse things the wind is moaning of.Only this laurel dreads no winter days:Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.’Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

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KITTY WHATELYKitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, The Guildhall School of Music andDrama, and The Royal College of Music International Opera School. Kitty was a BBC NewGeneration Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album ThisOther Eden, and was the recipient of both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th RoyalOverseas League Award in the same year. In 2017 Kitty released her second album, Nights notspent alone, to critical acclaim.

Opera highlights include: Mother/Other Mother inMark-Anthony Turnage’s latest opera Coraline at theBarbican, Paquette in Bernstein’s Candide at BergenNational Opera, Isabella in Wuthering Heights at OpéraNational de Lorraine, Dorabella in Così fan tutte forOpera Holland Park, Nancy in Albert Herring for TheGrange Festival, and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’sDream in Bergen and Beijing.

Kitty is in demand as a recitalist and concert artist. Shehas given recitals at the Edinburgh International

Festival, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder, Buxton and Salisbury festivals, and performs regularlywith the UK’s major orchestras. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic singingMendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and highlights since include Duruflé’s Requiemand Mozart’s Requiem (in Oslo with the Dunedin Consort and RPO), Bach’s B Minor Mass(Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde(Mizmorim Festival), Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (Philharmonia), Haydn’s Nelson Mass(Britten Sinfonia in Spain and the Netherlands), Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia andChoir of King’s College Cambridge), Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at St John’s Smith Square andQueen Elizabeth Hall, and Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Her frequentperformances with four of the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat,recordings of Ravel’s Sheherezade, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne and songs by Rodgers &Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter.

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1 LOVE-SIGHTWhen do I see thee most, beloved one?When in the light the spirits of mine eyesBefore thy face, their altar, solemnizeThe worship of that Love through thee made known?Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone)Close-kissed and eloquent of still repliesThy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,And my soul only sees thy soul its own?O love - my love! if I no more should see Thyself,nor on the earth the shadow of thee,Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slopeThe groundwhirl of the perished leaves of HopeThe wind of Death’s imperishable wing?

2 SILENT NOONYour hands lie open in the long fresh grass, -The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms‘Neath billowing clouds that scatter and amass.All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,Are golden kingcup fields with silver edgeWhere the cow-parsley skirts the hawthornhedge.‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-flyHangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: -So this winged hour is dropt to us from above.Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,This close-companioned inarticulate hourWhen twofold silence was the song of love.

3 LOVE’S MINSTRELSOne flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-playerEven where my lady and I lay all alone;Saying: ‘Behold this minstrel is unknown;Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here:Only my songs are to love’s dear ones dear.’Then said I ‘Through thine hautboy’s rapturous toneUnto my lady still this harp makes moan,And still she deems the cadence deep and clear.’Then said my lady: ‘Thou art passion of Love,And this Love’s worship: both he plights to me.Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:But where wan water trembles in the grove,And the wan moon is all the light thereof,This harp still makes my name its voluntary.’

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RODERICK WILLIAMSRoderick Williams is one of the most sought after baritones of his generation. He performsa wide repertoire from baroque to contemporary music, in the opera house, on the concertplatform and is in demand as a recitalist worldwide. He enjoys relationships with all themajor UK opera houses and has sung opera world premieres by David Sawer, SallyBeamish, Michael van der Aa, Robert Saxton and Alexander Knaifel. Recent and futureengagements include the title role in Eugene Onegin for Garsington, the title role in BillyBudd with Opera North, Papageno for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden andproductions with Dallas Opera, English National Opera and Netherlands Opera.

He sings regularly with all the BBC orchestras and all the major UKorchestras, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Russian National Orchestra, OrchestrePhilharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris,Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Cincinnati Symphony,Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic and BachCollegium Japan amongst others. His many festival appearances includethe BBC Proms (including the Last Night in 2014), Edinburgh,Cheltenham, Bath, Aldeburgh and Melbourne festivals.

Roderick Williams has an extensive discography. His numerousrecordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas forChandos and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist IainBurnside for both Naxos and Albion Records. He is a composer andhas had works premiered at Wigmore and Barbican halls, the PurcellRoom and live on national radio. In December 2016 he won the prizefor best choral composition at the British Composer Awards.

In 2015 he started a three year odyssey of the Schubert song cycles culminating inperformances at Wigmore Hall in the 17/18 season and is now in the process of recordingthem for Chandos. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder in April 2016 and won theRPS Singer of the Year award in May 2016. He was awarded an OBE in June 2017.

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appearance and Gustav Holst accompanied some of his own songs on the piano – severalof which appear on ALBCD038 Time and Space. Many newspaper critics were present andtheir reaction to The House of Life was mixed. The Globe’s opinion is representative of thosethat have stood the test of time: ‘It is proverbially difficult to set a sonnet to music, but Mr.Vaughan Williams has succeeded where many others have failed. His music is strong,melodious, and original, and it is both beautiful in itself and admirable as a musicalexpression of the feeling of the words. Silent Noon, Death in Love, and Love’s Last Gift are,perhaps, the three best songs of an excellent set’.

Some of the sonnets (especially numbers3 and 4 below) are clearly addressed to afemale beloved. Vaughan Williams was nottroubled by this when he organised that1904 first performance for the contraltoEdith Clegg – and we should be equallycomfortable in our more broad-mindedage; so it is astonishing that the ninecomplete cycles that exist in digital formtoday are by men variously described astenors, baritones and bass-baritones. Thisrecording begins to restore the balance.

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WILLIAM VANNGramophone, reviewing Purer than Pearl, Albion Records’ 2016 disc of Vaughan Williamssong, reserved ‘a special word of praise for William Vann’s deft pianism’. A multiple-prizewinning accompanist and conductor, William performs with a host of major singers andinstrumentalists across the world.

Born in Bedford, he was a Chorister at King’s College, Cambridge and a Music Scholar atBedford School. He read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and CaiusCollege, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied pianoaccompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone.He has been awarded many prizes for piano accompaniment, including the Wigmore SongCompetition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award,the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’ Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award,the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers

Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, theSir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship atthe RAM.

William has collaborated on stage and recording with a vast array ofsingers, instrumentalists and orchestras. His discography includesrecordings with Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Navonaand SOMM.

He is a Trustee of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, an Associateof the RAM, a Samling Artist, a Freeman of the WorshipfulCompany of Musicians, the Co-Chairman of Kensington andChelsea Music Society, the Artistic Director of Bedford MusicClub, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a conductorand vocal coach at the Oxenfoord International Summer School.He is also the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and

the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival. On 3rd April 2019he made his Royal Festival Hall debut conducting Hubert Parry’s long-neglected oratorioJudith, which he has also recorded for Chandos Records.

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Rossetti’s 1881 collection of 100 sonnets, ‘The House of Life’: Willow-Wood, an ambitiouswork setting four sonnets for a singer with orchestra, begun in 1900, and The House of Lifewith piano accompaniment, setting six sonnets, probably in 1903. The second song, SilentNoon, was published separately ahead of the full cycle’s appearance in 1904. Its conclusioncelebrates The Song of Love, from which we drew the title for this recording.

Vaughan Williams chose the poems with care, setting numbers 4, 19, 9, 22, 48 and 59 fromRossetti’s collection. Love-Sight has a romantic melody, developed in a postlude on thepiano. The setting for the words ‘death’s imperishable wing’ reminds us that work on A SeaSymphony also began as early as 1903. Silent Noon was premièred by Francis Harford (bass)and Philip Agnew (piano) on 10 March 1903. On that occasion The Times reported‘passages of sheer beauty’ – a verdict which stands fast to the present day when this songremains very popular with singers and audiences. Michael Kennedy describes it as‘complete in itself ... one of the first pieces of music by Vaughan Williams which captures amoment of eternity and holds it in musical terms for perpetual contemplation.’ Love’sMinstrels was Vaughan Williams’s new title for Rossetti’s ‘Passion and Worship’, thus movingthe emphasis from stages in love-making to its musical representation. Heart’s Haven hasdramatic music which is suggestive of the operas to come much later. Death in Love hasnobilmente passages (lines 4 and 8) and almost orchestral piano writing. Love’s Last Giftbegins with a reference to the tune Sine Nomine (For all the Saints) which recurs often inRVW’s music, all the way to The Pilgrim’s Progress in his final decade.

On 2 December 1904 Vaughan Williams arranged a concert of his own works in theBechstein Hall (now Wigmore Hall), London – which must have been a wonderfuloccasion. Edith Clegg, contralto, gave the first performance of The House of Lifeaccompanied by Hamilton Harty on the piano. Walter Creighton, baritone, gave the firstperformance of the first eight Songs of Travel. Beatrice Spencer and Foxton Ferguson gavethe second performance of the two Whitman duets (see ALBCD029 Purer than Pearl),with Harriett Solly on the violin. The 1903 setting of Orpheus and his Lute made its first

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Production credits

Musical Director: William VannExecutive Producer, booklet notes and photography: John FrancisProducer: Andrew Walton of K & A ProductionsEngineer: Deborah Spanton of K & A ProductionsScores editor: Peter ClulowMusical assistant: Lilly PapaioannouRecorded at Potton Hall, Suffolk, from 27 November to 1 December 2018Cover image: Nightingale of Light by Nancy Moniz, 2012Graphic design: S L Chai (Colour Blind Design)Proof reading: Martin Murray, Werner Bachman and several others.

With special thanksPrincipal Sponsor and Gold Supporters: The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, Chris and Adie Batt, Simon Coombs, John and Sharon Francis, Julian Ochrymowych, David Trimble.

Silver supporters: Keith Anderson, Graham Aslet, Neil Bettridge, Eric Birznieks and Carol Dean, David Bryan, Rodney Gavin Bullock, Caitlin and John Cassidy, Harold G Corwin, Allan Coughlin, MartinCunningham, Anne Curry, Marcus DeLoach, Leonard Evans, Robert Field, Michael J Gainsford, Alan Gillmor, Michael Godbee, Ronald Grames, Nigel Green, William Greenwood, Richard Hall, Jay Hicks, Andrew Keener, Tony Kitson, James Korner, Christian Körner, Trevor Lockwood, John and Janet Manning, Barry Menhenett, William Moreing, Martin Murray, Andrew Neill, Charles Paterson, Julian Pearcey, Edward Reisman, Thomas Render, Tony Richardson, Philip Robson,David Sawyer, Kevin Schutts, Brian Sturtridge, Dr Colin C Tinline, John and Muriel Treadway, Steven K White, James C. Williams.

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Albion recordings generally include world premières and this collection of songs and duetsby Ralph Vaughan Williams is no exception. It begins with the first complete ‘female’recording of the song cycle The House of Life and continues with sixteen previouslyunrecorded works. We have grouped them so as to offer a varied and enjoyable recital byKitty Whately and Roderick Williams, accompanied by William Vann.

Several of the poems set to music in this album include images that have endured, to someextent together, over many centuries – the nightingale, the rose, the lily and the violet. APersian myth associates the nightingale with the rose and thorn, against which it presses itsbreast in unrequited love for the flower. The rose is associated with female sexuality, withMary Magdalene and the Holy Grail; the lily was linked to the Virgin Mary by theVenerable Bede as early as the 7th Century. St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1154) linkedthe three flowers in describing Our Lady as ‘the violet of humility, the lily of chastity andthe rose of purity’.

The poems include three references to the nightingale. This much mythologised birdbelongs to an ancient literary and poetic tradition with two streams, one expressingmelancholy (particularly in Homer’s ‘Odyssey’, personified as Philomela, a myth frequentlydrawn upon by Shakespeare) and the other joy – and the poems in this recording areconcerned with joy. Sappho (c.630-c.570 BC) wrote of ‘the messager of spring, the sweetvoiced nightingale.’ This positive view was taken up by the troubadours, as we shall see,and continued to influence poetry up to Milton and the 19th century romantic poets.Even Oscar Wilde wrote a story joining the rose and the nightingale. Accordingly, wechose a nightingale for a cover image, and as a symbol of the nightingale’s song – surely,The Song of Love.

The House of Life (1903-1904)At this early period of Vaughan Williams’s career, the Pre-Raphaelite poets were a sourceof inspiration, possibly encouraged by his friendship with Grainger and other members ofthe Frankfurt Group. Vaughan Williams made two song cycles from Dante Gabriel

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About Albion RecordsDirectors: John Francis FCA (Chairman), Mark HammettFulfilment: Mark and Sue HammettWeb-Master: Tad Kasa

Since its formation in 1994, The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society – a registered charity witharound 1,000 members worldwide – has sought to raise the profile of the composer throughpublications, seminars and sponsorship of recordings.The Society’s recording label, Albion Records, was formed in 2007 and is devoted torecordings of works by Vaughan Williams. Each recording contains at least one world premièrerecording. Two recordings (The Solent and Discoveries) were nominated for a Grammy award,and many recordings have spent some weeks in the UK’s specialist classical chart.

For further information visit: www.rvwsociety.com/albionrecordsJoin The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society at www.rvwsociety.com

Kissing her hairVaughan Williamssongs Sarah Fox, Andrew Staples,Roderick Williams and IainBurnside

ALB

CD

002

Purer than PearlVaughan Williams songs and duetsMary Bevan, JenniferJohnston, Nicky Spence,Johnny Herford, ThomasGould, William Vann

ALB

CD

029

Time and SpaceHolst and Vaughan Williams songsMary Bevan, RoderickWilliams, Jack Liebeck andWilliam Vann

ALB

CD

038

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16 The Willow Song (1897) 4’12

Three Songs from Shakespeare (1925)17 Take, O Take, Those Lips Away 0’5318 When Icicles Hang by the Wall 1’1819 Orpheus with his Lute 1’24

20 The Spanish Ladies (1912) 2’40

21 The Turtle Dove (1919-1934) 2’59

Two Poems by Seumas O’Sullivan (1925)22 Twilight People 2’3923 A Piper 0’44

Duets (1903)24 Think of Me 1’5125 Adieu 1’40

68’52

Tracks 11-14, 16, 20 and 21 are arrangements of older melodies by Vaughan Williams. The remaining tracks are original compositions by him.Tracks 7-14 and 16-23 are first modern recordings in these arrangements (Steuart Wilson recorded The Spanish Ladies on a 78 rpm disc).

Kitty Whately ~ mezzo-soprano (tracks 1-6, 16-19, 24-25)Roderick Williams ~ baritone (tracks 7-15, 20-25)William Vann ~ piano

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This recording is dedicated to the memory of Laura Coombs (1944-2018), a trustee of

The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society and wife of itschairman, Simon Coombs.

Peter Clulow, Roderick Williams, Deborah Spanton, Andrew Walton, Kitty Whately, William Vann, John Francis

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The House of Life (1903-1904)1 Love-Sight 4’422 Silent Noon 3’383 Love’s Minstrels 4’444 Heart’s Haven 3’235 Death in Love 4’196 Love’s Last Gift 4’01

Three Old German Songs (1902)7 Entlaubet ist der Walde 2’318 Wanderlied 2’399 Der Morgenstern 1’30

10 To Daffodils (Gunby Hall setting, c. 1903) 3’39

French songs (1903-1904)11 Quant li Louseignolz (Quand le Rossignol) 1’4712 L’amour de Moy 3’2313 Jean Renaud 2’5414 Le Psaume des batailles (Que Dieu Se Montre Seulement) 3’43

15 Buonaparty (1908) 1’39

Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872-1958

THE SONG LOVE

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President SIR ANDREW DAVIS CBE

Vice Presidents STEPHEN CONNOCK MBE, DR JOYCE KENNEDY

Chairman SIMON COOMBS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Mark Hammett (Membership Secretary)

27 Landsdowne Way, Bexhill-on-Sea,

East Sussex, TN40 2UJ

Email: [email protected]

Registered Charity no: 1156614

www.rvwsociety.com

The

RALPH VAUGHANWILLIAMS SOCIETY

Dedicated to widening the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of Ralph Vaughan Williams

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ALBION RECORDS

Kitty Whately mezzo-sopranoRoderick Williams baritone

William Vann piano

Ralph Vaughan Williams

THE SONG LOVE


Documents

THE SONG LOVE - IDAGIO