Oxford Book of Flexible Choral Songs

Bob Chilcott: Catch a

Bob Chilcott: Catch a Falling Star This expressive setting of John Donne’s poem demonstrates Chilcott’s ability to ‘get inside’ a text. His wistful melody, varied vocal textures, and rich harmony combine with the poet’s powerful imagery to create a picture of unsettling beauty. Oliver Tarney: Chimes ‘Chimes’ is a setting of a poem by the writer and suffragist Alice Meynell, who, with her publisher husband Wilfrid Meynell, became a supporter and colleague of Francis Thompson (see Archer’s ‘What is the song the stars sing?’). Tarney writes that for him the words ‘conjure up the wonderfully evocative image of a flight of bells pealing from a bell tower by night’. Ian Assersohn: Dwell on the beauty ‘Dwell on the beauty’ creates an atmosphere of calm reflection and spirituality using secular, humanist words. The text is a short quotation from Marcus Aurelius, the second-century Roman philosopher emperor, who wrote his Meditations for his own guidance and self-improvement. for online perusal only Ben Parry: Eletelephony ‘Eletelephony’ is a setting of a wonderfully quirky poem by the American writer Laura Elizabeth Richards. The composer writes: ‘What fun to have the challenge of writing a song that is complete nonsense! Thoughts that immediately sprang to mind when I was coming up with a musical theme were zany, silly, and ludicrous, and that is how it needs to be performed as well!’ Toby Young: Fall, leaves, fall This setting of Emily Brontë’s ‘Fall, leaves, fall’ captures the delicate elegance of autumn by highlighting the contrast between the rich colours of the leaves and their brittle and fragile textures. Young writes: ‘I was particularly inspired by the way that leaves become suspended over the ground in their final moments—seemingly timeless as they hang, barely attached to the branches.’ John Dowland, adap. Alan Bullard: Flow my tears Originally composed as a slow instrumental dance entitled Lachrimae Pavane, and later published as a song for voice and lute, this beautifully sorrowful piece was one of the most popular works of its time, bearing out Dowland’s own witty but partially true epithet ‘semper dolens’ (always doleful). Alan Bullard: Four Bird Songs I set myself a little challenge with these four songs: to write short character pieces in two parts that could be performed by any voice group, achieving contrasting moods within a short space of time, and that could be performed as a set or separately. The first song, a setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s description of the mysterious and unfathomable owl, suggested a lively sense of colour and atmosphere within a nineteenth-century context of windmills, haymaking, and milk-maids. By contrast Tennyson’s vividly portrayed eagle, in the second song, could be for any century, deftly summing up power, skill, and the fight for survival in just a few lines, to which I respond with a simple upward and downward movement, ending with a dramatic twist. xiii

Almost every choral singer knows Orlando Gibbons’s ‘The silver swan’, and for my third song I have taken his anonymous text and aimed to suggest the glorious period of the English madrigal by paying gentle tribute to Gibbons’s setting. This age-old belief of the swan singing as it approaches death can also be seen, in less restrained form, in Grieg’s ‘A Swan’. The fourth song is ‘The Robin’. John Clare’s poetry often celebrates the rural life of which he was a part, and these lines, taken from his long poem The Shepherd’s Calendar, show acute observation and wit, to which I hope I have responded in kind! Trad. English folk song, arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Greensleeves Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of several musicians involved in the English folk song revival at the turn of the twentieth century, visiting villages around the United Kingdom, talking to folk singers, and notating their songs to preserve them for future generations. This arrangement of ‘Greensleeves’ clothes the original folk song with a lovely range of colours and textures. for online perusal only Libby Larsen: If I can stop one heart from breaking Libby Larsen responds to the studied simplicity of Emily Dickinson’s spiritual poem with a slowly unfolding and fluid melodic line. She writes: ‘I worked to partner Dickinson’s language by using economy of rhythm along with clear, unfettered counterpoint and, here and there, intentionally tailored word-painting, such as “or help one fainting robin unto his nest again”.’ This piece is the third movement of Today, this Spring, originally for upper voices and piano. Thomas Morley, arr. Alan Bullard: It was a lover and his lass This well-known setting, originally for voice, lute, and bass viol, was first published in Morley’s First Book of Ayres or Little Short Songs in 1600. The bass viol part was printed upside down so that the performers could sit around a table and all see the music. The poem is found in Shakespeare’s As You Like It (1599), though the closeness of the dates has led some scholars to suggest that both Shakespeare and Morley were using an already existing poem. Pierre Certon: La, la, la Pierre Certon wrote much music for the church, but he is particularly known for his secular pieces such as this lively and slightly risqué gossipy song. It is typical of the lighthearted chansons that were popular in sixteenth-century Paris. Trad. Spanish, arr. Alan Bullard: Juanita (A Spanish Ballad) The words of this popular song were written by the Hon. Mrs Caroline Norton, whose unhappy marriage led her to campaign successfully for the rights of divorced women to have custody of their children and to own their own property. Against this background, the sentimental text has a somewhat poignant feel. The melody is derived from a Spanish folk song, with, probably, some input from Norton’s contemporary T. G. May. Alison Willis: My Boy Jack Rudyard Kipling’s poem My Boy Jack, inspired by his work as a journalist during the Battle of Jutland in the First World War, probably refers to ‘Jack Tar’—the generic name for all sailors. The composer writes that the setting reflects the constant movement of the sea in the piano accompaniment, with the key changes portraying the rising hysteria of the speaker asking for news of their lost son. xiv