Five Songs for Baritone and Piano
Poems set to music
Written as a foil to “Doomed Youth” and “Goodby to the Battlefields”.
These songs were written over a period of a few years and are un-connected, apart from perhaps contrasting to song cycles about the First World War. These songs can be performed in any order.
Heraclitus
William Cory, translated from Callimachus
An elegy written by Callimachus on the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Cory’s translation is perhaps longer and more sentimental than the orignal text, but both speak of the bitter loss of loved ones.
The Wind amoung the Reeds
W. B. Yeats
Written in 1899, this early poem followed Yeat’s collection “The Wanderings of Oisin”. It follows themes of love and mysticism, and in his later years he disowned much of his early work.
A Fragment
John Clare
It is unlikely that John Clare could have seen a Cataract as first hand. It is thought he was inspired by an illustration of a waterfall, the violence of which led ot this extraordinary poem.
In this song the vocal line represents the poet describing what he sees, and the piano accompniament the cataract.
No. XIII & No. XVIII from A Shropshire Lad
A. E. Housman
Taken from the well known and popular collection of sixrty three poems, the lyrical qualities of the verse has proved popular with composers. Indeed number XIII has over 40 known settings.
