“English Folk Song Suite” by Ralph Vaughan Williams - authentic recordings of the nine folk songs
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- 0:00 Introduction
0:11 Seventeen Come Sunday
0:53 Pretty Caroline
2:16 Dives and Lazarus
3:22 My Bonny Boy
4:11 Green Bushes
5:12 Blow Away the Morning Dew
6:11 High Germany
6:51 Whistle, Daughter, Whistle
7:43 Claudy Banks
8:35 John Barleycorn
9:56 Summary
English Folk Song Suite is one of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' most famous works. It was first published for military band as Folk Song Suite and its premiere was given in London on 4 July 1923, conducted by Lt Hector Adkins. The piece was then arranged for full orchestra in 1924 by Vaughan Williams' student Gordon Jacob and published as English Folk Song Suite. The piece was later arranged for British-style brass band in 1956 by Frank Wright and published as English Folk Songs Suite. All three versions were published by Boosey & Hawkes; note the use of three different titles for the three different versions.
Ralph Vaughan Williams used nine authentic folk songs in his English Folk Song Suite (1923). I have matched each folk song as used by Vaughan Williams with a field recording of the same song.
Five of these are early phonograph recordings (two probably made by Vaughan Williams himself), which were most likely the actual recordings from which he derived the melodies. The others are traditional performances of the same songs recorded in more recent years. For these, I attempted to find recordings that were as similar as possible to the melodies used by Vaughan Williams, since versions of the same folk song often use completely different tunes.
All of the nine recordings are authentic in the sense that they were performed by ordinary people who most likely learnt them orally from older members of their communities. Most of the songs are hundreds of years old, and the “Roud” and “Child” numbers can be used to find further information and recordings.
I encourage anyone interested in traditional folk music to explore and subscribe to Reynard the Fox’s channel: / @liederfuchs
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website may also be of interest: www.vwml.org/
It's a huge database of folk song recordings, manuscripts and references, and the resource I used to find many of these recordings.
Don't forget to also subscribe to this channel! There are several videos planned, including something on sea shanties and possibly one showcasing lots of authentic folk recordings that I think are particularly interesting or beautiful.
I'll be gradually restoring the phonograph recordings and uploading them in full on my second channel with added information and lyrics: ua-cam.com/channels/KM43SPcxYNPDs4CWt9JHdA.html
Here is the first one, "Pretty Caroline" by Ellen Powell, which was recorded by Vaughan Williams: ua-cam.com/video/zhqFORX2pxE/v-deo.html
Here is a recording which I didn't feature in this video but should have: ua-cam.com/video/vCM67BWldLM/v-deo.html It's another version of "Blow Away the Morning Dew" (5:12), but it's much closer to the version arranged by Vaughan Williams than Sam Larner's version which I included in this video.
Thanks for this. These are all wonderful and I had been wondering of their origins every time I listened to the Suite. I was looking forward to High Germany the whole way through, as I do when I listen to it. I didn't even know that some of the ones surrounding it were their own folk songs -- to me, they sounded like they were just variations on the melody of High Germany, and so I supposed they were, i.e. "Claudy Banks"/"Whistle, Daughter, Whistle". I could even sing the lyrics of High Germany along to it.
It's kind of sad that so many of these songs are completely forgotten. I wonder how many more folk songs are completely lost and irretrievable
To This Day We Greatly Appreciate The Painstaking Efforts of Vaughan Williams ( And His Great Love For The English Folk Songs ) That Compelled Him ( And His Comrade And Greatest Friend Gustav Holst )....In Accumulating And Collecting These Historic Songs Before They Became Extinct In The Oral Tradition !!....Your Scholarly Efforts in Matching These Songs to Their Respective Coresponding Themes In The Great Folk Song Suite, ( Like The Efforts of Vaughan Williams In Collecting These Historic Songs ) Was Truly A Labor of Love That Is GREATLY APPRECIATED By Myself And Millions of Devotees of This Greatest of All Contemporary English Composers !!!.....
Thank you so much! That means a lot.
What a wonderful thing you have done here. Thank you so much. This reminds me of my dear Dad, who loved playing The English Folk Song Suite.
Amazing work. Thank you so much!
You're welcome! Subscribe to my channel so you don't miss the next video!
@@TheFolkRevivalProject done :)
came from a year old comment, very cool stuff!
Thank you for doing this. As a long-time fan of Vaughan Williams and the Folk Song Suite, I've been looking for something like this for years.
Wonderful! Thank you for making this.
It's my pleasure! There will be more projects on the way so feel free to subscribe!
Cloudy Banks sounds exactly like the trio from movement 1 of Holst's second suite
Thank you for this amazing piece. I've loved the music of VW for many years. This just brings to full life his inspirations. I cannot even begin to say how important this is to me.
Thank you so much for doing this.
Fantastic video - I've not heard the source material and the VW piece played side-by-each before. Enlightening. Thanks you.
Love this. Great job. I am so glad those phonograph recordings are out there
Excellent presentation.. this inspires me to dig deep into the past and find other old tunes for updated interpretation
My favourite part of the entire suite (to listen to) has to be Pretty Caroline, but I can never find anything about it, not even in the Roud index. It makes me sad to know that something as well known as this was lost, let alone many other lesser-known folk songs.
Pretty Caroline is also my favourite! Have you seen this video that I uploaded on my second channel? ua-cam.com/video/zhqFORX2pxE/v-deo.html
Great work done! Your best efforts are really more than appreciable! Thanks a lot for providing the information around the world.
Excellent video, absolute perfection.
Thank you for watching and for your kind words!