Roger Cuthbert Quilter was known particularly for his art songs. His songs, which number over a hundred, often set music to text by William Shakespeare and are a mainstay of the English art song tradition.
i I say, ‘I’ll seek her side’, ii O Fair to See, iii As I lay in the early sun, vii Since we loved
Gerald Raphael Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Unlike previous publications of Gerald Finzi’s songs, Oh Fair To See contains the poetry of six poets: Thomas Hardy, Christina Rossetti, Edward Shanks, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden and Robert Bridges. Robert Bridges’ poem Since We Loved has the distinction of being Finzi’s last before his death.
Gurney’s studies were interrupted by World War I, when he enlisted as a private soldier in the Gloucestershire Regiment in February 1915. At the front, he began writing poetry seriously, sending his efforts to his friend, the musicologist and critic Marion Scott, who worked with Gurney as his editor and business manager. He was in the midst of writing the poems for what would become his first book, Severn and Somme, when he was wounded in the shoulder in April 1917. He recovered and returned to battle, still working on his book and composing music, including the song “In Flanders”.
i The Colour, ii If it’s ever spring again, iii Tolerance
It has been observed that Milford’s writing shows strongly the influence of Vaughan Williams, as might be expected. His use of diatonic melodies, often harmonised with gentle discords, and with false relations occurring occasionally, led Eric Blom (1942) to crystallise these musical traits (also shown by other English composers of the period) as “musical Englishry”. Vaughan Williams once wrote to Adrian Boult, “If I wanted to show the intelligent foreigner something worth doing which could only possibly come out of England, I think I would show him something of the work of Milford…”.
In 1911 and 1912, Butterworth wrote eleven settings of Housman’s poems from A Shropshire Lad. This is one of them
i The Infinite Shining Heavens, ii Whither must I wander?, iii Bright is the ring of words, iv I have trod the upward and the downward slope
Songs of Travel is a song cycle of nine songs originally written for baritone voice composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, with poems drawn from the Robert Louis Stevenson collection Songs of Travel and Other Verses.
Thomas Frederick Dunhill was a prolific English composer in many genres, though he is best known today for his light music and educational piano works. The Wind Among the Reeds is a 1904 Yeats cycle which includes Dunhill’s best known song, ‘The Cloths of Heaven’.
Oliver Morrell & Will Sims (Vocal/Piano Duo)
Oliver Morrell is a versatile young musician with a diverse portfolio of performing and teaching. Since September 2022, he has been Organ Scholar at St Albans Cathedral. He is responsible for a significant share of the service playing and assists with the training of the choristers. He also conducts the Abbey Singers and accompanies the St Albans Bach Choir. Before moving to St Albans, he was Organ Scholar at Durham Cathedral for the duration of his undergraduate studies. He then went on to Croydon Minster as Acting Sub-Organist. There, he accompanied the full schedule of choral services each week. He also worked as a Graduate Music Assistant at Whitgift School, where his responsibilities included classroom teaching.
Oliver regularly offers recitals as a singer and organist (recently performing at cathedrals in Durham, Edinburgh, Lincoln, and Newcastle). He has also played orchestral organ in performances of Dvořák’s Requiem and Britten’s Saint Nicolas. He graduated in 2021 with first-class honours from Durham University, and has been awarded performance diplomas from the Royal College of Organists and the London College of Music.
Will Sims has been Director of Chapel Music at Robinson College, Cambridge since September 2022, where he conducts the Choir for their weekly service schedule and regular concert, touring, and recording calendar, and supervises undergraduates in the Faculty of Music. In this role, he has conducted the Choir’s first commercial recording, To the End of the Age (Prima Facie; 2024), toured to Europe (including broadcasting a concert live from the Duomo di Milano), and given ten world premiere performances. He is a prize-winning Choral Director of the Royal College of Organists.
Will is an experienced singer and has sung in the Cathedral Choirs of Ely, Edinburgh, Lincoln, Peterborough; he has recorded for Delphian Records and broadcast across BBC Television and Radio. He is an accomplished collaborative pianist: he has given recitals of English Song around the UK, premiered song cycles by Julia Plaut and Elliott Park, and will accompany his first recordings in 2025 with Prima Facie. His compositions have been performed in Cathedrals around the UK, broadcast live internationally, and premiered in the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music.
Piano
28 November 2024
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