English Poetry & Song Society
2012 SONGWRITING COMPETITION
-click here for entry form & details
Newsletter 44 Spring 2012
Water Competition
There were 25 entries for our competition on the theme of water, including some from the USA, & poems ranged from pools & wells through streams, rivers & rain, to the sea, - which last attracted most composers; while the poets included Burns, Hardy, Yeats, Housman, Edward Thomas, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Longfellow, Shakespeare, and quite a few written by the composers. Apologies for the delay in publishing, which is due to one of the judges having suffered from pneumonia; so special thanks to them. The first prize goes to Frank Harvey for his setting of The Convergence of the Twain, Thomas Hardy's poem about the sinking of the Titanic, remembered in its centenary year. The second prize goes to Eve Barsham, with her setting of Robert Burns' Afton Water; while in 3rd place is Brian Daubney setting one of his own poems, Soothing Waters. These three(two of whom are EPSS members) will be included in the concert at the end of this month, along with songs by Dowland, Elgar, Ireland, Gurney, Vaughan Williams, Barber & Warlock.
3pm, Sunday 29th April, St Mary's Church, Bathwick Hill, Bath; Richard Frewer (baritone); Nicholas Thorne (piano); Carolyn Frewer (reader);
Tickets: £9, concessions £6, Festival Box Office: 01225 463362.
Diamond Jubilee
In celebration of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee this year, our two new presidents, Sarah Leonard and Stephen Varcoe will be presenting a recital of songs at the Colston Hall, Bristol on Friday 12th October, to include songs by as many of the previous Masters of the Royal Musik as can be found, going back to the time of Purcell, as well as some popular songs of the Queen's lifetime, and some folk-songs arrangements. In conjunction we shall run a composer's competition to set poems written during this era for soprano or baritone voice.
More details follow soon.
Recording Project
The in-house recording project for members by our retiring presidents, Jane Manning and Stephen Roberts was almost fixed for a day in April, when it was realised that the pianist (who has the most work to do!) had been left out of the calculations, and was far too busy; so the session has now been postponed until July.
Ivor Gurney
Please find details enclosed of the forthcoming meeting of the Ivor Gurney Society on Saturday 5th May in Gloucester Cathedral, with premieres of a chorale prelude on Rockingham, and anthem for double choir, Since I Believe in God the Father
Editor: Richard Carder, 76 Lower Oldfield Park, Bath BA2 3HP
REVIEWS
Seasonal Songs
Gordon Pullin & Jolyon Laycock, Sunday 23rd October, Bristol Music Club.
Though the theme for our composer's competition was Autumn, it was felt that this season alone would not allow enough variety of moods, so the other seasons were also included. The first group of songs featured four by Ivor Gurney, with one for each season, starting with Spring (Nashe) from the Five Elizabethan Songs, featuring the cuckoo in piano part; Summer was represented by his lovely The Fields are Full of Summer (Shanks), and Autumn by The Apple Orchard (Carman), - one of the lighter Sappho settings; while for Winter we heard the bleak Snow (E.Thomas), - the story of the distress of one of the poet's daughters on finding a bird shot by hunters. Interspersed between these were two songs by John Jeffries (who died only last year), both settings of poems by Gurney: Near Spring, a nostalgic song of horses, ploughboys and daffodils, which might have come from Gurney's time; then a darker poem of remembering walking in October, when no longer able to so, When the Body Might Free.
The second group featured the six short-listed songs from the competition, performed in reverse order of merit. In 6th place was On Wenlock Edge (Housman) by William Knight, undeterred by previous settings by illustrious British composers! His song featured a striking tune in the minor from the pianist,
though some of the word setting seemed rather a scramble. Brian Daubney struck a lighter tone with a witty Auden-esque song, Autumn Change, to his own words about the seasonal changes, from fried breakfast, through curried supper, to falling leaves and the aches and chills of winter, all achieved with a sparkling variety of textures from voice and piano. Dennis Wickens set the long poem by Dylan Thomas, Especially When the October Wind, achieving some spectacularly dramatic and drafty effects on the piano, though with quieter episodes for the raven's sins. Graham Garton has set many poems by his friend, Patrick Heron, and in his Autumn Song started with a slow lament for the passing of Summer, before livening the tempo for the tumbling of apples in the orchard.
Janet Oates used spare and bleak textures for her powerful setting of F.W.Harvey's November, which conjures the drab, wet days of the month, He has hanged himself, the sun, concluding with a depiction of the depressing random fall of raindrops on the piano. Thou Comest, Autumn (Longfellow), Kenneth Hytch's prize-winning song is interesting in that it is in optimistic vein, with fanfares and trills on the piano welcoming the season, and continues in this mood, with much use of tremolando, and a vocal part that is often like recitative.
To start the second half of the recital we heard two songs by the American composer, Edward Macdowall; firstly, A Winsome Morning, welcoming the Spring, and then To a Wild Rose, probably his best remembered piece, still available in arrangements for various instruments.
Of the few song-cycles by British composers in the 20th century, one of the most memorable is E.J.Moeran's Seven Poems of James Joyce, written in 1929. Moeran was a devoted disciple of Delius, and visited him in France early in 1929
with his friend, Peter Warlock. The slower songs in the cycle all show lush chromatic harmonies typical of Delius and Warlock, tinged with a poignant melancholy, as they tell the story of a love affair; while the four joyful songs in the central section are more diatonic, with a feeling of folk song, especially in Donnycarney, 'along with us the summer wind went murmuring.
The recital concluded with three more Moeran songs, Spring Goeth All in White, (to words by the Poet Laureate in the twenties, Robert Bridges), - one of his earliest songs from 1920, with harmonies influenced by his former teacher, John Ireland; and full of tricky arabesques, nimbly executed by the pianist; then In Youth is Pleasure, to an Elizabethan poem by Wever. To end we had one of the folk song arrangements from County Kerry, Kitty I am in Love with You, a witty fast song, brought off with great aplomb by the singer, I was on top of Mount Brandon and she in the valley below, I took off my shoes and my stockings to follow my Kitty eye-O.
Richard Carder
