English Poetry & Song Society
Newsletter No. 40 April & June 2010

S.O.S.

EPSS moves to Malvern!

That wonderfully velvet-toned baritone, all-round good chap, & EPSS member, William Coleman, has invited us to his biennial Song Fest in Malvern for a lunchtime concert at 1pm on Sunday 9th June.
So our Tennyson recital will happen there, performed by our two new professional performers: Rosemary (piano) & Michael (baritone) Hancock
-Child. This will include the best 5 songs from our composers’ competition, plus existing published songs. Programme not quite finalised yet, but, from Pilkington’s, British Solo Song, I see there are settings by:

Berkeley, Bridge, Elgar, Gibbs, Head, Holst, Parry, Peel, Quilter, Somervell, Stanford, Sullivan, Vaughan Williams, & at least ten other less well-known composers, so a feast is in store!

Competition Results
Since writing the piece above, the judges have reached a decision on the
5 best songs from the competition, as follows: in 1st place is a setting of The Owl by Lyn Lloyd-Jones; & 2nd prize goes to Richard Harris for a verse from In Memoriam. In 3rd place is Roger Lord, with The Miller’s Daughter; and 4th is Michael Watts with Wind of the Western Sea; while 5th comes Geoffrey Lawrence with Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal. So these will be performed in the recital. Also short-listed were Enid Luff, with Dip Down upon the Northern Shore; and Euron Walters, with Dark House.

Now the programme has been finalised, we can reveal that four of the big names above will be performed, plus songs by Balfe, R.R.Bennett, Brian Daubney, Hilary Corke, Stephen Hough, and our pianist, Ro Hancock-Child

As some of you will have heard, our Malvern concert had to be cancelled, due to an injury to our singer, less than a week before. Glad to report he is now much better, so the concert is being re-scheduled as a private event at the home of William’s accompanist last November, Mrs Yoko Mathers, who holds such events regularly in her music room which holds up to 50 people.
Consequently, this will be a free concert, with a retiring collection, but it will be helpful for catering (tea & cakes in the interval) to know audience numbers in advance, so please let me know if you are coming!!!
3pm. Sat. 25th September, Park House, Thirlestaine Road,
Cheltenham, Glos. GL53 7AS.

Robert Browning Concert
William Coleman began his recital with three songs from what Professor Banfield has said is Somervell’s ‘best cycle’ (i.e. better than Maud, & A Shropshire Lad). The story in A Broken Arc is one of love and death, in which a young man is betrayed by his sweetheart with his best friend, who he then kills in a duel. William chose the three central songs from the drama, Nay, But You, where the poet praises his mistress, and is full of tenderness. In The Worst of It, he sadly addresses his beloved after discovering the betrayal. Finally, in After, he views the body of his friend, who he has just killed, and remembers their happy boyhood. This is serious stuff, to which William brought real feeling, with some sensitive playing from Yoko Mathers.
Three of Roger Quilter’s best-known songs followed, which lightened the mood, O Mistress Mine, playful; while Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind showed him in a rare dark minor key, which somehow Quilter resolved typically into major optimism by the conclusion. Go Lovely Rose shows Quilter at his best in a tender slow song.
Next came the five best songs from our composer’s competition, performed in reverse order of merit. Among the Rocks by Roderic Starr is a slow song, whose whole-tone scales interact with the D major tonality to produce some interesting effects. Charles Matthews’ Meeting at Night is a simple short song with basic harmony about beaching a boat at night for an assignation with a beloved. Graham Garton sets Browning’s most well-known poem, Pippa’s Song with suitable chirpiness using a lot of 4-based harmonies, and a delicious slide for the snail! Geoffrey Kimpton,s version of Meeting at Night is more extended, and with elaborate atmospheres in the piano, such as the staccato semi-quavers for the startled little waves and the restless anticipation of the lover. Brian Daubney’s winning song, Boot & Saddle portrays the galloping of a horseman, off to save his castle in the Civil War. 4th-based harmonies and melodies are again much used in this entertaining and exciting romp.
Granville Bantock was one of the most prolific composers ever, enjoying a great facility which perhaps inhibited true originality. But of his more than 400 songs, By the Fireside shows a touching tenderness of feeling. George Butterworth’s settings of the Shropshire Lad poems are quite peerless, and William chose three of them, negotiating the tricky high opening of Loveliest of Trees with great skill; portraying the ruefulness of When I was One & Twenty, and managing the two voices in Is My Team Ploughing with subtlety and irony.
Walford Davies became master of the King’s Musik after the death of Elgar in 1934, and lived latterly at Wrington near Bristol. His Solemn Melody is remembered by organists, and his Everyman cantata was recently recorded. Song of the Road (Newbolt) brings echoes of VW’s Songs of Travel, while Our Birth (Wordsworth) is in the grand manner suitable for the sentiments of the Intimations of Immortality. Never Weather-Beaten Sail sets Campion’s well-known prayer for contemporary ears; and Sweet Content (Dekker) has a rippling Schubertian accompaniiment. Richard Carder
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Apologies for the late appearance of this newsletter, caused by the injury to our singer.

We hope to see you in Cheltenham for the postponed concert on 25th September.

RSVP

Editor: R.Carder, 76 Lower Oldfield Park, Bath BA2 3HP