MUSC 436

Vocal Literature

English Song

“Apart from church music, English song for about two centuries before 1840 was predominantly either vulgar (in the best sense – that is broad enough in treatment for the crowd to sing) or linked to the theater, or both. Then in the Victorian ‘ballad’, English song freed itself from the domination of the theater only to be almost crushed by the prevailing over-sentimentality of the drawing room.”

Arthur Jacob, History of Song, “The British Isles,” p. 125

1660-1685 Charles II reigned as king, civil war had ended. His court had musicians from France, Italy, and Portugal. There was a string orchestra modeled after the orchestra of Louis XIV. Fashionable theatrical entertainments were in the form of spectacular plays with songs and dances. English operas of the time were called Masques.

Early 17^th Century

These composers favored strophic songs, in which “the music is complete for the first stanza of the verse and is then repeated for each successive stanza. Their song-melodies, moreover, generally follow (at any rate for the first stanza) the natural rhythm and melody of speech – tamed as it were, to regular musical meter.” (p. 127)

Henry Lawes (1596-1662)

“Go, lovely rose” poem by Edmund Waller

John Dowland (1563-1626)

Lute songs

Elizabethan Madrigals

John Wilson (1595-1674)

Composer and stage actor

Mid 17^th Century

Song forms develop. Strophic songs are composed as well as declamatory songs or ‘Recitative Music.’ Word-painting was very prevalent.

Matthew Locke (1630-1677)

Regular strophic pattern or a freer declamatory style

“Vulcan Song”

“To a lady singing to herself by the Thames”

Pelham Humfrey (1647-1674)

Relatively few compositions. Mostly sacred vocal.

“Hymn to God the Father” poem by John Donne

Three stanzas, not identical but varied, “with the mastery of Schubert”

John Blow (1649-1708) Popular theater composer.

“Rise mighty monarch”

Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

Student of Humfrey and Blow. Official composer to the king and organist at Westminster Abbey and at the Royal Chapel.

Many songs come from his operas and masques.

The Prophetess, King Arthur, The Fairy Queen, The Indian Queen, The Tempest, Dido and Aeneas.

Many, many individual songs, both sacred and secular. All have been published.

Expressive melodic lines and harmonies

Dissonant leaps in the voice

Simple, strophic songs

Multisectional songs

Accompaniment issues for Purcell’s songs (and songs of all of this century): the composers did not write for the modern piano, yet this is the instrument with which we generally perform the songs (unless you have a well-trained harpsichordist, guitarist or lutenist). Modern editions of songs are written for the piano, but are typically not written pianistically. Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett have both realized editions for performance with piano. Britten’s are Britten-ish (adding modern harmonies, countermelodies, etc.), while Tippett’s realizations tend to keep more of the original character.

Late 17^th and early 18^th Century

· When these composers began their careers, the expansive, declamatory song was supreme.

· As the new century came, so did new trends in music.

· Italian operas were beginning to rise in popularity in England.

· English song became much simpler in nature.

· The lute was a less fashionable instrument.

Jeremiah Clark (1659-1707)

John Eccles (1650-1735): The bridge between Purcell and Handel

Very popular song composer of his day. Most of his songs come from plays. He composed one real English opera, Semele. This was to continue the style that Purcell started with Dido. However, by the time he finished it, Italian opera was more fashionable, and Eccles’ work was not performed.

John Weldon (1676-1736)

Daniel Purcell (1663-1717)

Richard Leveridge (1670-1758)

A noted singer and actor

George Friedrich Händel:

Born in Germany. Came to London in 1711 to run a new opera company and to compose

Italian operas.

1711 Rinaldo, first London production

1720 Acis and Galetea, ‘Pastorel Opera’

1726 Handel becomes a British citizen

Name change: Georg Frideric Handel

1732 English Oratorio is born. Handel put on a performance of an opera with extra music

and no stage movement.

1739 Israel in Egypt

1742 Messiah

1744 Semele

1745 Hercules

1752 Jephtha, Handel’s final oratorio

· Typical aria form is Da capo (more often in operas, less often in oratorios).

· Many arias in operas are appropriate for recitals (Oratorio arias often have a chorus attached to them).

· Many of the well-known soprano arias are published in a three volume set. Other voice parts need to dig a bit.

During Handel’s life time, the popular, ‘light’ song grew in popularity. Songs with “an easy, catchy charm, in which neither woe nor jollity was allowed too deep expression. Impassioned declamatory song… would have doubtless been thought extravagant.” (History of Song, p. 136)

Word painting was used far less (if at all).

Composers under the Shadow of Italian Opera

Anthony Young (1685-17??)

George Munro

Willem Defesch (17??-1758)

Dutch, moved to London in 1731

William Croft (1678-1727)

Best known for his church music. Comopsed many pleasing songs.

“How severe is my fate”

“By purling streams” extended, multi-movement song with oboe obbligato

Thomas Arne; sometimes known as Dr. Arne (1710-1778)

Three settings from Shakespeare’s As you like it.

“Under the greenwood tree”

“When daises pied”

“Blow, blow thou winter wind”

Comus (1738) a Masque that won Arne fame in his lifetime.

Alfred (1740) a Masque which put Arne in the history books, thanks to the song

“Rule, Britannia.” The melody of this song was borrow by Handel in his oratorio Joseph (1744).

1728 Beggar’s Opera first produced. This Ballad Opera (not a real opera, but a play with songs, ensembles, and choruses interspersed.). The words are by John Gay. The melodies for all by fiveof the 69 songs were borrowed from songs by other composers that were popular in that day. There was nothing new in the Beggar’s Opera, neither musically or dramatically, but it did shift the focus from Italian opera back to English music.

The Bridge between the Handel-era and the Haydn-era

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)

· Youngest son of J. S. Bach.

· Settled in London

· Composed Italian opera and English songs.

William Boyce (1710-1779)

· A significant figure in English church music.

· Edited a three volume collection of Cathedral Music, sacred English music dating back to the days of Henry VIII.

· Prodigious composer of sacred music

· Composed songs for the theater.

Samuel Howard (1710-1782)

Thomas Linley (1733-1795)

· Simple graceful songs

Samuel Arnold (1740-1782)

· Wrote songs in the popular vein, but with more complicated key structures

Stephen Storce (1763-1796)

· A pupil of Mozart.

· Cultivated the English opera (Pasticche) of the day.

John Battishill (1738-1801)

· Composer, harpsichordist, actor, singer

John Staford Smith (1750-1836)

· A minor figure in music

· Composed the song “To Anacreon in Heaven” which later was adapted into “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Michael Arne (1741-1786)

· Son of Thomas Arne

Samuel Webb (1740-1816)

William Shield (1748-1829)

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814)

· Composed operas, but was especially known for his ‘Table Entertainments,’ one-man shows

James Hook (1746-1827)

Thomas Attwood (1765-1838)

The Guitar and the harp were becoming a popular accompaniment instruments.

The harpsichord was still popular but, beginning in the 1780s, the piano came into general use.

Franz Haydn

· Arranged numerous folksongs

· 14 original songs in English

o 2 separate songs

o 2 sets of 6 Canzonettes

o Although these songs are not highly valued by most critics, they are historically important because Haydn wrote out the song and accompaniment on three staves, not on two, as was the practice.

Late 18^th Century English song composers

Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)

John Field (1782-1837)

Mainly church music composers

Sir Henry Bishop (1786-1855)

“Home, sweet home”

“Should he upbraid”

“Bid me discourse”

“lo, here the gentle lark” for soprano and flute

John Braham (1777-1856)

C. E. Horn (1786-1849)

J. L. Hatton (1809-1886)

The Victorian Age

Composers of hymns and Church Cantatas

H. J. Gauntlett (1805-1876)

S. S. Wesley (1810-1876)

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)

“Serious” Composers: Left the country for Germany

Henry Hugh Pearson (1815-18173) [a.k.a. Heinrich Hugo Pierson]

William Sterndale Bennett (1816-1875)

Close friend of Mendelssohn and the Schumanns

Composed songs to German and English texts

Drawing-Room Songs from Popular Operas

Michael William Balfe (1808-1870)

“I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls” from The Bohemian Girl

William Vincent Wallace (1812-1865)

“Yes, let me like a soldier fall” from Maritana

Arthur Sullivan

The Victorian Ballad

· Music publishing companies from the 1860’s on sponsored song recitals by well-known opera and oratorio singers who would sing all of the company’s newest publications. The singers would sometimes receive royalties on the music that was sold as a result of their performance. The term ‘Royalty Ballad’ came into use.

· Songs were almost always published as separate entities.

W. H. Weiss (1820-1867)

A singer and some-time song composer

J. P. Knight (1812-1887)

Edward Loder (1813-1865)

J. P. Hullah (1812-1884)

Frank Lambert (18??-1925)

Henry Russell (1812-1900)

Singer, pianist, author, composer

Frederick Clay (1839-1889)

Introduced Sullivan to Gilbert

Arthur Sullivan

More successful with his light music than his serious

“’The Lost Chord’ stands for many as the epitome of all that is worst in the Victorian ballad.” (HS 154)

Edward German (1862-1936)

The English Renaissance

Hubert Parry (1848-1918)

Four Symphonies

Three Oratorios

74 ‘English Lyrics’

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Seven Symphonies

Seven major operas

· Both prolific and popular composers in their day. Now, none of their music is performed at all, besides a few sacred choral anthems. Perhaps ‘Renaissance’ is an overstatment.

· Both composed many songs which were all of higher value than their English predecessors.

· ‘Brahms-ian’ in sound

· Conscious of the contemporary German Lied

· Typically set Shakespeare, Herrick, etc.

· “Extraordinary care for the natural inflexions of English words (HS 155).”

Sir Frederic Cowen (1852-1935)

Composed 12 sets of 6 songs

Liza Lehmann (1862-1918)

In a Persian Garden, song cycle for solo quartet and piano

Lehmann composed the first English song cycles

Maude Valerie White (1855-1937)

• First female composer in England to be firmly established.
• Mainly a song composer

Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944)

· One of the most distinguished female English composer

· Wrote a few songs in English and a few in German

Arthur Somervell (1863-1937)

Made his mark as a song-cycle composer

Maud (Tennyson)

Shropshire Lad (Housman)

Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

• Mainly a composer of orchestral and choral works.
• Produced a few songs throughout his career (last songs are from 1931).

· Sea Pictures, Cycle of five songs for voice and orchestra

Frederick Delius (1862-1934)

• Born in England but musically, he is more associated with Scandinavia than with England
• Composed songs in German, Norwegian, Danish, and English
• Cynara, tenor and orchestra (1907)
• A late lark, baritone and orchestra (1925)
• “Delius thus brings a master’s use of ‘modern harmony’ to English song, and a new era is reached.” (HS 160)

Early 20^th Century

Much of the inspiration for this music comes from a renewed interest in English folkmusic and English church music.

Cecil Sharp (1859-1924)

Folksong revivalist. His work inspired Vaughan Williams do also research folk music

First song set in 1903.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Folksong revivalist – his arrangements do not sound like folksongs

Many songs and song cycles:

On Wenlock Edge (pre-WWI)

Songs of Travel (R. Stevenson) (1910)

The House of Life (D. G. Rossetti) six sonnets (1910)

Four Hymns for Tenor, Viola and Piano (pre-WWI)

Five Mystic Songs, baritone, orchestra, chorus (optional) (pre-WWI)

Along the Field (Housman), voice and violin (pub. 1954)

Composed songs until the 1930s, then focused on choral music and larger forms

Gustav Holst (1874-1935)

Did not have the same interest in English folkmusic as other composers.

Interest in Indian religion lead to

Savitri, opera

Vedic Hymns, voice and piano (1907-08)

Four Songs for Voice and Violin (1920)

Twelve Songs, poems by Humphrey Wolfe (with piano accompaniment)

Others minor composers of the early 20^th century

“Other song-composers continued to develop a tradition in which the Victorian ballad and the German art-song still formed the principal and partially opposite points of reference (HS 163).”

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1948)

Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1948)

Six volumes of ‘Songs from the East”

Hamilton Harty (1879-1941)

Sir Walford Davies (1869-1941)

Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)

Landon Ronald (1873-1938)

Son of Henry Russell

Herbert Bedford (1867-1945)

Husband of Liza Lehmann

Unaccompanied Song

Josef Holbrooke (1878-1958)

Wrote many songs in the romantic vein

Cyril Scott (1879-19??)

“The English Debussy”

Roger Quilter (1877-1953)

“A peak in that tradition of English of decorous romanticism (HS 166).”

Very lyrical, melodic songs, gratifying to sing and to listen to.

Bernard van Dieren (1884-1936)

Born in Holland, settled in London in 1909

Wrote music with “complex chromatic harmony (HS 167)” – German in style.

Not well received in England

John Ireland

The composition teacher of Benjamin Britten while he attended the RCM

Composed mainly songs and piano music

“Sea fever”

The Land of Lost Content (1921) Housman

Songs Sacred and Profane (1934)

Arnold Bax (1883-1953)

Percy Grainger (1882-19??)

Known best today for his folksong arrangements

Lord Berners (1883-1950)

Humorous songs

Peter Warlock [Philip Heseltine] (1894-1930)

Inspiration from Folk music, 16^th and 17^th century music

Mainly a song composer

Wide variety of songs

Ivor Gurney (1890-1937)

George Butterworth (1885-1916)

Herbert Howells (1892-19??)

Armstrong Gibbs (1889-19??)

Sir Arthur Bliss (1891-19??)

Arthur Benjmain (1893-19??)

Notable singers of the period

Harry Plunket Greene (1865-1936)

Gervase Elwes (1866-1921)

John Goss (1894-1953)

The popularity of English light music (songs) waned in the first decades of the 20^th century as American ‘popular’ music and jazz made its way across the ocean.

Mid 20^th century

• Composers did not necessarily turn to the song genre as an easy money maker. Instead composers wrote for films and radio programs. There was an increased following of the symphonic orchestra.
• Song recitals centered on Schubert, Schumann and Wolf and audiences were less willing to hear other composers, especially new works.

Composers influenced by Vaughan Williams

Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)

Dies Natalis, voice and string orchestra

Grace Williams

Composers influenced by Warlock or Quilter

Michael Head (1900-19??)

Elizabeth Poston (1905-19??)

Geoffrey Bush (1920-19??)

New Sounds

William Walton (1902-19??)

“Tritons” (1920) first song

Not too much activity in song writing throughout his career

Façade, speaker and chamber orchestra (E. Sitwell)

Anon in Love, voice and guitar

Michael Tippett (1905-19??)

As Britten, he was influnced by Purcell

Boyhood’s End (1943) Cantata for tenor and piano

Heart’s Assurance (1955)

Lennox Berkeley (1903-19??)

Student of Nadia Boulanger

Four Poems of St. Teresa of Avila, contralto and orchestra

Three Greek Songs (1953)

Benjmain Britten (1913-1976)

• “The New Renaissance”
• “It is hardly too much to say that with Benjamin Britten Englsih song has been born again (HS 175).”
• Purcellian influence
• Song cycles
• On this Island (Auden) (1938)
• Les illuminations (1939)
• Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo (1940)
• Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (1943)
• Holy Sonnets of John Donne (1944)
• Charm of Lullabies
• Canticle I, II, III, IV, V
• Nocturne (1954)

o Winter Words

· Britten had a profound effect upon other composers of his day, even those older than him

Alan Rawsthorne (1905-19??)

Edmund Rubbra (1901-19??)

Three Psalms (1947)

Matyas Seiber (1905-19??)

Hungarian by birth

To Poetry (1953)

Alan Bush (1900-19??)

Voices of the Prophets (1953)

Priaulx Rainier (1903-19??)

Cycle for Declamation (Donne) (1953) unaccompanied voice

Howard Ferguson (1908-19??)

Benjamin Frankel (1906-19??)

Aftermath (1947) voice, strings, kettle drum, off-stage trumpet

Humphrey Searle (1915-19??)

Composed in the 12-tone method

Put Away the Flutes, voice and six instruments

Peter Racine Fricker (1920-19??)

Richard Arnell (1917-19??)

Malcolm Arnold (1921-19??)

Iain Hamilton (1922-19??)

John Joubert (1927-19??)

“The makings of a modern day Quilter (HS 179).”

Antony Hopkins (b. 1921)