The English Poetry and Song Society

 

Presidents: Jane Manning and Stephen Roberts

Founder: Alfred Warren

 

To contact the EPSS direct, please email the Chairman, Richard Carder, direct at menistral@yahoo.co.uk

Latest Events

The English Poetry & Song Society announces a competition to set poems by Auden & Macneice for their joint centenaries for tenor voice & piano.

Closing date: 12th Jan 2008. Details from EPSS Comp. 76 Lower Oldfield Park, Bath BA2 3HP - enclosing SAE

 

About the English Poetry and Song Society

The society exists to promote the public performance, publication and recording of English Art Songs. In order that it may be appreciated as a work of art in itself, each poem is read aloud before it is sung, a custom followed by the Lieder composer Hugo Wolf.

 

Concerts also include instrumental music by British composers; and, where possible, poets reading their own works. It is acknowledged that the art of poetry and music can be quite magical when combined in performance.

 

The EPSS publishes a newsletter twice a year, with sample songs and song-lists by living composers and new poetry; competitions are organised for composers.

 

The EPSS caters for both professional and amateur performers, and members are able to contribute at recitals by arrangement with the Committee.

 

A BRIEF HISTORY

The EPSS was founded in 1983 by Alfred Warren, a poet and amateur musician, after hearing a broadcast of English songs on the radio by John Carol Case. The first half of this century was a Golden Age for English Art Song, and produced a vast repertoire of glorious songs by all the best British composers, which has become somewhat neglected. The EPSS aims to rectify this situation.

 

Initially, recitals were held in Melksham at St. Michael’s Church, by courtesy of the vicar, Frank Fisher, whose excellent calligraphy was seen on our posters. Alfred Warren put in an enormous effort in the first year and put on eight recitals. When he moved to Cornwall early in 1984, the Chair passed to David Crocker, the organist, who organised seven concerts before he too went west to live in Devon, early in 1985.

An early stalwart of the Society was Simon Willink, who performed in most of the recitals in the first two years, before moving north of Gloucester in 1986. He specialised in the songs of Gerald Finzi, whom he had known as a young man. The Society was honoured by a visit from the composer’s wife Joy Finzi in 1983.

 

When Richard Carder became chairman in 1985 it was clear that drastic action would have to be taken to prevent the emigration of the rest of the committee! So the number of recitals was reduced, and has remained at an average of three per year, with the centre of gravity moving from Melksham to Bath. Here several concerts have been given as part of the Bath Festival Fringe and Avon Poetry Festival, as well as in Bristol, Gloucester and London.

 

Membership of EPSS costs £ 12 per year.

For more information please contact the Membership Secretary:

Gaelen Carder, EPSS, 11 Church Road, Weston Village, Bath, BA1 4BT.

EPSS Published Song List

David Crocker (1941- ) Merlin’s Song (Tennyson) Bb-D
Simon Willink (1929- ) The Kingfisher (W H Davies) Bb-Eb
Geoffrey Self (1930- ) At One (Francis Uren) C-D
Benjamin Burrows (1891- ) From Far (A E Housman) Eb-F
Anthony Elton (1935- ) Music (Shelley) C_F
Anthony Allen (1925-95) I Saw In Louisiana (W Whitman) B-D
Elaine Hugh-Jones (1927- ) The Dancer (Joseph Campbell) Db-F
Sulyen Caradon (1942- ) Clouds (R Brooke) Ab-F (& BMIC)
Lelant (E K Chambers) C-G
Margaret Wegener (1920- ) Faery Song (Shakespeare) D-F
Brian Daubney (1929- ) To A Child (W Owen) C#-F
Geoffrey Kimpton (1927- ) O Come To My Arms (J Clare) B-E
Richard Arnell (1917- ) Love Lives Beyond (J Clare) Bb-Eb
John Williamson (1929- ) The Farms Of Home (A E Housman) B-D
Brian Dennis (1941-94) Futility (W Owen) D-Gb
Madeleine Dring (1923-77) What I fancy (R Herrick) D-G
Roland Freeman (1927- ) Rendevous (A Seeger) F#-AB (voice and cello)
Alison Edgar (1927- ) Fluctuations (A Bronte) Bb-F
Judith Bailey (1941- ) Christmas Night (J Bailey) C-G
Frank Harvey (1939- ) Dawn (W Barnes) A-F
Roger Lord (1924- ) Corn-a-turnin’ Yollow (W Barnes) C-F
Dennis Wickens (1926- ) Parta Quies (A E Housman) Bb-D

Other accompaniments

Sulyen Caradon (1942- ) Nowhere (A Hodge) C-G (flute, viola & bass clarinet) pub: Da Capo

CD for Sale:

“Songs Of Dorset”
Settings of poems of William Barnes and Thomas Hardy
by
Finzi, Vaughan Williams, Carey and Somervell
together with
the five best songs from the English Poetry and Song Society’s
Composers’ Competition, 2001
To order your copy of the CD at £10.95, inclusive of postage and packing in the UK,
please post to: Dunelm Records, 2, Park Close, Glossop, Derbys. SK13 7RQ,
or order by by email from: Sales@dunelm-records.co.uk
or through their website, www.dunelm-records.co.uk