Английская Википедия:Five Flower Songs
Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Italic title Шаблон:EngvarB Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Infobox musical composition Benjamin Britten's Five Flower Songs, Op. 47, is a set of five part songs to poems in English by four authors which mention flowers, composed for four voices (SATB) in 1950 as a gift for the 25th wedding anniversary of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. It was first performed in the open air at the couple's estate Dartington Hall, with Imogen Holst conducting a student choir. The set has been frequently recorded by English and foreign chamber choirs and ensembles, including Polyphony, Cambridge Singers and the RIAS Kammerchor.
History
Britten composed the music as a contribution to commemorate the 25th wedding anniversary of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, who were both botanists, philanthropists, and fond of flowers.[1][2][3]Шаблон:Rp Leonard Elmhirst was an agronomist who developed depressed rural regions such as in India and Devon county. Dorothy Elmhirst was a wealthy American, supporting education and women's rights. They had gardens at their estate, Dartington Hall.[1]
Britten wrote the part songs in the tradition of Edward Elgar, Parry and Charles Villiers Stanford.[4] He scored the works for a four-part unaccompanied choir.[2] He took into account that a student choir would perform the premiere on 23 July 1950 in the open air. The first performance was conducted at Dartington Hall by Imogen Holst.[1][3]Шаблон:Rp[5] It was published by Boosey & Hawkes.[4]
Texts and music
The music is based on five poems by four different authors, all related to flowers:[2][6]
- To Daffodils, by Robert Herrick
- The Succession of the Four Sweet Months, by Herrick
- Marsh Flowers, by George Crabbe
- The Evening Primrose, by John Clare
- The Ballad of Green Broom, anon.
The music is in five movements, which Britten designed to be in that order, with mood-changes in mind.[2] It has been named a song cycle.[6] The duration is given as around 11 minutes.[4]
To Daffodils is marked Allegro impetuoso.[2] The text by Robert Herrick is a metaphor of life passing.[4][1] In The Succession of the Four Sweet Months, also by Herrick, each month is assigned a voice part to begin a fugal setting.[1] Marsh Flowers is a setting of a poem by George Crabbe who had also written the poems on which Britten's opera Peter Grimes was based.[1] Britten created "a slightly menacing atmosphere",[2] giving individual identity to flowers described as "slimy", "faded" or with "sickly scent".[1] Evening Primrose, on a poem by John Clare, serves as the set's slow movement,[2] depicting a nightscape,[1] with the music turning to slumber.[7] The anonymous The Ballad of Green Broom has been described as "a tour-de-force of humour",[2] with a gradual accelerando, as an exciting closing movement.[2] The tempo at the beginning is Cominciando esitando ("Beginning hesitantly"), the tenors begin as a ballad singer, while the other voices imitate guitar sounds, introducing a young lazy flower-cutter. The voices take turns telling the story, with increasing tempo, up to a final wedding to a rich woman, marked Vivace, with the first "guitar" chords as joyous and sonorous wedding bells.[1]
Recordings
Five Flower Songs was recorded by the Elizabethan Singers conducted by Louis Halsey in 1965.[8] It became part of the composer's complete recordings.[9] Paul Spicer conducted the Finzi Singers in a 1997 recording of Five Flower Songs as vol. 3 of the series Britten / The Choral Edition for the Chandos label.[10][11] The cycle was recorded in 2000 by Polyphony, conducted by Stephen Layton, together with other choral music by Britten.[12][13] The Cambridge Singers, conducted by John Rutter, recorded the songs as the conclusion of a collection There is sweet music of English part songs, by Stanford, Frederick Delius, Elgar, Gustav Holst and Percy Grainger, among others.[14] The RIAS Kammerchor, conducted by Justin Doyle, recorded the cycle, along with other Britten works.[15][16][7]
References
External links
- Five Flower Songs Britten Thematic Catalogue
- Шаблон:IRCAM work
- Listening to Britten – Five Flower Songs, Op. 47, Goodmorningbritten website 4 November 2013
- Stirling, Christian Damon: A Study of Britten's Unaccompanied Choral Cycles (dissertation) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 2015
- Barker, David; Barnett, Rob: Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) / Works D to K musicweb-international.com
Шаблон:Benjamin Britten Шаблон:Authority control
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