Vaughan Williams : Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1911)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- I. Easter 00:00-05:05
II. I got me flowers 05:05-08:00
III. Love bade me welcome 08:00-13:50
IV. The Call 13:50-16:05
V. Antiphon (Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing) 16:05-19:15
Performed by Stephen Roberts (baritone) and the Northern Sinfonia Chorus & Northern Sinfonia of England conducted by Richard Hickox.
RIP dear Stephen Roberts, gentlest kindest man and incomparable singer.
I just LOVE the first movement... RISE UP!!! 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Lovely Music - I believe Ravel tutoried Vaughan Williams - I here echoes of Ravel, Bye for now love Alan👨🏫️
My grandmother, mother, and I all sang these-three generations of Vaughan-WIlliams. He is one of my favorite composers. Thank you for this and all the other amazing music on your channel.
Wonderful! Love the timbre, the interpretation, the enunciation... Beautifully done.
Immaculate.
Five Mystical Songs
Song Cycle by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
1. Easter
Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him may'st rise;
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more, Just.
Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name
Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.
Consort both heart and lute, and twist a song
Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied,
And multiplied;
O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.
2. I got me flowers [sung text checked 1 time]
I got me flowers to strew thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st thy sweets along with thee.
The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and the East perfume;
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.
Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.
3. Love bade me welcome
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lack'd anything.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth, Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
4. The call
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
Come, My Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love.
5. Antiphon
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King!
The heavens are not too high,
His praise may thither fly:
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King!
The church with Psalms must shout.
No door can keep them out:
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing,
My God and King!
Texts by George Herbert (1593 - 1633), appears in The Temple, first published 1633
nice!
These settings of priest/poet George Herbert's verse are close to perfection. Lovely writing for soloist and choir while the orchestral accompaniment (very Debussyan in places) is gorgeous. Atheist and latterly agnostic, the composer was, nevertheless, still fascinated by church music finding in it, I think, the same mystical quality that lies at the heart of much folk music. Marvellous performance in this upload.
The music is typical enough for RVW, and it is possible to see hints in it of some of his other pieces. He was indeed a pupil of Ravel, though the latter was kind enough to acknowledge that RVW was the only one of his pupils that did not do his music! The words above from George Herbert are tremendous, sophisticated and subtle, modern-looking. They had to wait 278 years before RVW's arrangement. Herbert's words came out 31 years before English Samuel Crossman gave us the stunningly-good Good Friday hymn "My Song is Love Unknown" - which has not aged a bit, but had to wait 261 years for John Ireland's amazing tune, which took him ten minutes to write on the back of an envelope! (Unlike RVW), Ireland was gay and had a not-easy life. But in 1954 he wrote "My dear V.W. I was delighted to get your greetings telegram on my 75th. My mind always returns nostalgically to our early RCM1 days, with Dunhill, Holst, and the others - our meetings at “Wilkins’ ” - and when we first heard Brahms No 4, and sang2", It closed with: "Thanking you, dear V.W., very affectionately for your kind thoughts, Your friend as ever". Even though Ireland held important posts as a church organist and choirmaster, he wrote in 1936: “I am a Pagan. A Pagan I was born and a Pagan I shall ever remain. That is the foundation of religion”. His letter mentions Holst - another great British composer with "an ambivalent attitude to the Church". Close parallels then, and a sign of the slightly eccentric behaviour of the beloved Holy Spirit. As the words above say: "Twist a song pleasant and long; Or since all musick is but three parts vied and multiplied. O let thy blessed Spirit bear a part, And make up our defects with his sweet art." The Spirit has always done that, continues to do so, and seems to have particular joy in inspiring British atheist music-makers! It continues. Simon Le Bon demands that he is an atheist, despite being closely associated with church choirs in his youth, like Ireland and VW. It did not stop him working on and singing the magnificent "Ordinary World". Likewise, Elbow's "One Day" and songs from The Beatles and Take That and Keane and Coldplay seemed to carry the Holy Spirit in them. How very kind and generous he is to British poets, musicians and artists. He sees something in the Brits, even in the face of their protestations of non-belief. Thanks be to God.
Easter [0:00]
I got me flowers [5:05]
Love bade me welcome [8:00]
The call [13:50]
Antiphon [16:06]
Amazing 😊
3:10