Vaughan Williams was conscious of his place in a long and significant tradition of writing for the voice. In his Musical Autobiography of 1950 he wrote: "We pupils of Parry have, if we have been wise, inherited from Parry the great English choral tradition which Tallis passed on to Byrd, Byrd to Gibbons, Gibbons to Purcell, Purcell to Battishill and Greene, and they in their turn through the Wesleys to Parry. He has passed on the torch to us and it is our duty to keep it alight".
The flame burned brightly for Vaughan Williams. Fuelled by his work editing the English Hymnal from 1904 to 1906 and by his energetic collecting of English folk songs from 1904 to 1914, Vaughan Williams viewed choral singing as a great art form. He felt that as a vehicle for human feeling it was unique and he turned to the voice as the foundation of his first symphony - A Sea Symphony of 1910. He admired the requirement for individual singers to put their personalities to one side and work for the choir overall. Years of conducting choirs, for example at Cambridge University in the 1890s, for the Leith Hill Music Festival from 1905, and as conductor of the Bach Choir from 1921 - 1926, had convinced him that the choral society was the bedrock of the nation's musical culture.
Through his own compositions for voice, Vaughan Williams could also indulge his love for English poetry, especially the work of the Elizabethan writers. Norman Ault's edition of Elizabethan Lyrics was a much-valued source of lyric poetry. Vaughan Williams was always looking out for suitable poems to set to music and he was fortunate in this task in his relationship with Ursula Wood, a poet in her own right, who he met in 1938 and married in 1953. It is her poetry which forms the basis of Sun, Moon, Stars and Man, the cycle of four songs that concludes this recording.
Each of the songs on this CD is presented in approximate order of composition, as follows:
[1] No longer mourn for me
This setting of Shakespeare's Sonnet 71 is for six voices, SSATBB, to which Vaughan Williams added in the manuscript score 'A poor thing but mine own'. Marked andante maestoso, the piece was almost certainly written in 1895-96 during Vaughan Williams second period of study at the Royal College of Music. It effectively captures the poet's plea for oblivion as Shakespeare anticipates his death, three score and ten sonnets having now been written.
[2] Echo's Lament for Narcissus
Also composed in 1895-96, this 'Madrigal for double chorus' is a bold setting of Ben Jonson's poem from Act 1 of Cynthia's Revels (1600, published 1601). Vaughan Williams sustains the Lento marking with considerable skill and does full justice to the pictorial nature of the poem.
Three Elizabethan Part-Songs
[3] Sweet Day
[4] Willow Song
[5] O Mistress Mine
Michael Kennedy estimates that these three part-songs were written between 1896 and 1902 although elements may have been composed as early as 1890-2 during Vaughan Williams first stint at the Royal College of Music studying with Parry. Vaughan Williams, in his Musical Autobiography says 'Parry's criticism was constructive. He was not merely content to point out faults, but would prescribe the remedy. The last two bars of my early song 'The Willow Song' were almost certainly composed by Parry".
The three songs follow in the tradition of Dowland and Campion. They have grace and charm and, in the case of the Willow Song, a sweet sadness in keeping with Shakespeare's gentle lyric.
[6] Come away, Death
This 'Madrigalian Part-Song', a setting of a passage in Twelfth Night (1600) by Shakespeare, was also composed in the period 1896 - 1902 and published in 1909. It shows a thorough absorption of 17th century influences. As Vaughan Williams put it in 1933: "Elizabethan music is still a living force both for today and tomorrow because it means something to us still....."
It was, too, a chance to set incomparable poetry to music. Vaughan Williams allows moments of more modern intensity from 'a thousand, thousand sighs to save'.
[7] Linden Lea
Vaughan Williams first published work, and his most financially successful, dates from 1901 and is sub-titled A Dorset folk-song. It is a fresh, timeless, disarming work - a song of transition between the art-songs of the late 1890s and the more folk-inspired songs from 1904. This arrangement is by Sir Arthur Somervell (1863-1937) who had joined the teaching staff at the Royal College of Music in 1901. He had studied under Parry and Stanford and the high-point of his own vocal composition is, perhaps, his Tennyson cycle Maud. He published this mixed voice setting of Linden Lea in 1929.
[8] Ring out your bells
This Madrigal, to words from Sir Philip Sidney's In Arcadia (1598) is an ambitious SSATB setting dedicated to Lionel Benson and the Magpie Madrigal Society who first performed it in 1902. Vaughan Williams' link to the Magpies was his cousin Diana Massingberd (later Lady Diana Montgomery - Massingberd).
[9] Rest
Also dedicated to the Magpie Madrigal Society, this andante sostenuto part-song is a setting of Christine Rossetti, a favourite poet of Vaughan Williams in 1902. He composed Boy Johnny and If I were a Queen by the same poet, in this year alone. (Recorded on Albion Records ALB CD 002) Rest has a refined, timeless quality reflecting Vaughan Williams' musicianship at the time.
[10] Fain would I change that note
A 'Canzonet for Four Voices' this setting of an anonymous poem is taken from Tobias Hume's Musical Humours of 1605. It is an untroubled, tranquil andante composed in 1907. It was shortly after writing this piece that Vaughan Williams felt he was 'tongue-tied' and too influenced by 'Teutonic' teaching styles. This led to his period of study from 12 December 1907, with the young Maurice Ravel.
[11] Alister McAlpine's Lament
Although Vaughan Williams collected over 800 folk songs, mainly in the period 1904 - 1914, he concentrated on English counties, not venturing beyond Northumberland. Nevertheless he arranged a number of Scottish ballads, including Ca' the Yowes and Loch Lomond (see track [15]) Alister McAlpine's Lament was published in 1912 to words by the poet Robert Allan (1774 - 1841). It is a moving, nostalgic Scottish air as the poet reminisces about the snow-white hills of his 'ain countrie'.
[12] The Winter is Gone
An English folk song for tenors and baritones, four part. It was published in 1912, a rich year for Vaughan Williams' folk song arrangements. The Fantasia on Christmas Carols and Folk Songs of England were produced in the same year.
The colour and texture of male voices always appealed to Vaughan Williams and this setting is lovingly arranged. The composer pays tribute to his friend Cecil Sharp by using words for the last two verses collected by Sharp in Somerset.
[13] Mannin Veen (Dear Mona)
An arrangement from 1913 of a traditional Manx melody, taken from Dr John Clague's (pronounced 'Clegg') collection of Manx songs, melodies, hymns and dance tunes (1911). The work is sung here in the original Manx dialogue. The use of the humming tone 'to be sung with open lips but a closed tone' is reminiscent of the Fantasia on Christmas Carols of 1912. This arrangement of Mannin Veen shows Vaughan Williams' lyrical response to the expressive power of folk-song.
[14] Our love goes out to English skies
This 'Patriotic Song' was adapted from a march in Henry Purcell's The Indian Queen. Arranged in 1920, the work reflects Vaughan Williams' love of the music of Purcell who he described in 1914 as being: "Not only our greatest composer but one of the greatest composers the world has ever seen". Vaughan Williams had edited Purcell's works for The Purcell Society in 1905 and 1910, and included Purcell settings in the English Hymnal.
For this homage to Purcell, Vaughan Williams turned to Harold Child (1869 - 1945), Times leader writer, critic and librettist for Hugh the Drover, to provide the text.
The timing of this arrangement cannot be co-incidence. Vaughan Williams had just returned from active service in the Great War, initially as a stretcher-bearer on Vimy Ridge and in Salonika. Towards the end of the war, he served as an officer in the Royal Garrison Artillery in the Somme area. Contemplating English skies, English wolds and waters to music of his beloved Purcell, must have been of immense restorative value to the war-weary Vaughan Williams.
© Stephen Connock
Vice President - Ralph Vaughan Williams Society
Chairman - Albion Records
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