VAUGHAN WILLIAMS & THE GOLDEN AGE OF ENGLISH FOLK SONG
COLLECTING - The Seeds of Love
CONCERT PROGRAMME
Hal an
Tow, May Song, Helston,
The Inauguration of the Folk-Song Society Journal of the Folk-Song Society 1899
I Sowed the Seeds of Love,
(John England, Hambridge) arr. R. Vaughan
Williams
The Revd. Charles Manson’s
account of Sharp’s visit to Hambridge
Lord Randel
(Mrs Louie Hooper, Hambridge)
Cecil
Sharp in
Folksongs
from
The Three Gipsies, The Water is Wide, The Coal Black Smith
Ralph
Vaughan Williams:
An
innate sense of folk song: Dives and
Lazarus
First
song collected: Bushes and Briars
Folk
tunes as hymns: Our Captain calls all hands (He who would valiant be)
The Ploughboys Dream (O
little town)
Collecting
with George Butterworth: The Turtle Dove
In
a gipsy encampment: Cold blows the wind tonight
Collecting
with the Phonograph Percy
Grainger
Brigg Fair (Joseph
Taylor,
Sharp:
Collecting the Morris; Eynsham, Longborough
Morris Tunes (Alf
Hathaway of Chipping Campden) arr. Sam Hudson
Diary
of Morris-Dance Hunting George
Butterworth
The Cutty
Wren
INTERVAL
John Barleycorn (John
Stafford, Bishops Sutton)
The
War Journal
of the Folk-Song Society 1916
High
George
Butterworth Journal
of the Folk-Song Society 1916
Banks of Green
Sailors’
Chanties collected by Harry E. Piggot
Journal of the
Folk-Song Society 1916
Sally Brown/ Stormalong,
Haul Away, Shenandoah, Fire Fire, Johnny Bowker
Isn’t
it beautiful? Cecil
Sharp
A Virgin Most Pure/ I Saw Three
Ships/ Mummers Carol arr. R. Vaughan Williams
Sharp’s
death: The Travelling Morrice, Log of the First Tour
1924;
Letter from Louie
Hooper, 12/10/31
The Padstow
Maysong arr. Peter Nardone
Programme devised & produced by John Rowlands-Pritchard
The Seeds of Love. Diaries, letters and writings of Vaughan
Williams, Butterworth, Sharp and
Grainger together with their folksong
arrangements, evoke the wonder and excitement of the
early twentieth-century collectors of English folk music, as they
searched the countryside for
singers of ‘genuine’ song. OA’s
sung programme tells the moving story of an influential moment
in English music, with amusing and reflective anecdotes of
countrymen and women, of bicycles,
notebooks, and phonographs. The
programme commences at the formation of the Folk-Song
Society in 1898 and ends with the death of Cecil
Sharp in 1924; but it is also cyclic, following the
shape of the pagan year, in that it starts with a Maysong,
progresses through Springtime (The
Seeds of Love), Summertime
(Morris Dancing), Autumn (John Barleycorn) and Winter (Carols) to
return to May Day.
OPUS ANGLICANUM: Spoken word and sung music. Opus Anglicanum's 5
men singers and
former BBC reader John Touhey present their
unique sequences on literary, biographical,
historical, meditative, and social topics.
Founded in 1988 they continue to perform regularly,
commission new music, record, and give workshops. Opus Anglicanum has
worked with
English Heritage,
Festival, Festival de
Walonie, Radio 3, Stour Music and Berry Bros &
Rudd of St James.
Workshops in Gregorian Chant
have been given for Ely Cathedral choir, Durham Cathedral choir,
Exeter Cathedral choir, Chester Cathedral choir,
Salisbury Cathedral choir, Chichester Cathedral
choir, RSCM Devon, RSCM Essex, for festivals, general groups and for
OA’s ‘Music in Rural
Churches’ scheme. New work has been
commissioned from Judith Bingham, Gabriel Jackson,
Malcolm Archer, Patrick
Larley, Howard Skempton,
David Bednall, and Sally Beamish (for 2008).
www.opus-anglicanum.com Tel: 01749 675131