*SHAKESPEARE SONGS (for tenor and string quartet) op.378 (July 1987)

Published by: Highbridge Music Ltd
Commissioned by: Chester Festival
Note on Lyrics: Text: William Shakespeare
Duration: 25 mins
First Performance: Martyn Hill/Medici Quartet/ Chester Festival. July 21st 1987
Full score for sale
Study score for sale
Instrumental parts for sale
A piano score is available in a lower key see op.414

Movements

• 1: THE COUNTRY
  Under the greenwood tree
  
• 2: THE WIND
  Blow,blow thou winter wind
  
• 3: THE SEA
  Full fathom five
  
• 4: SPRING
  It was a lover and his lass
  
• 5: WINTER
  When icicles hand by the wall
  
• 6: WEDDING HYMN
  Hymn to Hymen
  
• 7: LAMENT
  Come away, death
  
• 8: CLOWN'S SONG
  When that I was but a little tiny boy
  
• 9: DIRGE FOR FIDELE
  Fear no more the heat o' the sun
  

Notes

Some of the songs started life on the stage in simple versions composed for the RSC's 1985 production of 'As you like it'. Howard re-worked them into concert pieces for voice and string quartet. Key E major.

Performances

31st May 2013	Tenor and string ensemble, The Friday Morning Music Club of Washington DC (founded 1886) Director John Turner McLean
17th April 2012 - 18th April 2012	Talisker Players Muse of Fire,
4th December 2009	Michael Calmes & String Quartet led by Lynn Chang, Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, December 4, 2009, Christ Church, Cambridge, MA
27th November 2006	University of Nebraska, Kearney, NE USA
31st October 2005 - 1st November 2005	Martyn Hill, English Serenata, St Lawrence's Parish Church, Mickleton, Gloucestershire First recording for Meridian by Richard Hughes,produced by Susanne Stanzeleit
19th November 2003	Patricia Rozario, Schubert Ensemble, Wigmore Hall
6th April 1989	Ian Partridge, Coull Quartet, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
3rd March 1988	Martyn Hill, Coull Quartet, Recording for BBC Radio 3, Birmingham
21st July 1987	Martyn Hill / Medici Quartet, Chester Festival

Reviews

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Howard Blake (1938- ): Shakespeare Songs, opus 378, for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, (1987)

British composer, pianist, and conductor Howard Blake has produced a substantial body of choral and orchestral music, although he is best known for his film music, including the scores for The Duellists, The Snowman, A Month in the Country, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Several of his Shakespeare Songs began life in simple settings for use in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 1985 production of As You Like It. The first published version was for tenor and string quartet; this performance has been adapted for mezzo-soprano.

The songs combine a gentle lyricism with restrained syncopations and metrical variety to point the text, and Blake employs dissonance with similarly effective economy to create atmosphere, as in the interaction of the voice with the violins in the sparser sections of "Lament". The overall tonal palette is reminiscent of some of Benjamin Britten's works in the same genre. Blake has described his own philosophy of composition:

I believe … that the composer's function is to try to balance and reconcile the conflicting elements of society within his music, and that by doing so in an accessible and comprehensible language he may then hope to have the vision to uplift and inspire society at large. I believe that the composer can only achieve this function by working with humility as a craftsman responding to the requirements of the day.

Programme notes by Andrea Budgey and Laura Jones., Talisker Players, 17/4/2012

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Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb-international, 9/9/2009

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HOWARD BLAKE (b.1938): Flute Quintet, Op. 493, Trio for Flute, Cello and Harp, Op. 559, Pennillion for Flute and Harp, Op. 448, Farewell My Gentle Harp for Tenor and Harp, Op. 517, Shakespeare Songs for Tenor and String Quartet, Op. 378.

Catalogue Number: 02I074

Label: Meridian

Reference: CDE 84553

Format: CD

Price: $17.98

Description: Any of these pieces would be perfect background music for a film, TV show or play set in the lush green, pastoral English countryside which is so much a part of Anglophile minds that it will exist forever, even after everything is paved over. But it’s not film music or incidental music - except for the Shakespeare songs, which are adapted from songs written for performance during stage performances of plays - it’s finely crafted, tuneful and utterly enjoyable professionalism which will appeal to all lovers of English chamber music. Texts included. Martyn Hill (tenor), English Serenata.

RECORDS iNTERNATIONAL, 2/2/2007

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'Of the various works especially commissioned by the Chester Summer Music Festival this year's Shakespeare song cycle would musically and artistically speaking seem to be the best....Blake has achieved true sensitivity, originality and innate musicianship with all the technical skills of modern song-writing to breathe fresh life into familiar stanzas. The songs are crafted with much perception. Devices such as suddenly-soaring intervals to give emphasis, sense of movement with changing time-signatures, and the manner in which lines are phrased to make literate as well as refined musical sense are some of the ways that help underline the significance of the texts...the composer acknowledged the prolonged ovation that was given the first performance.'

Chester Standard, 31/7/1987

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'...a big success in the Festival..a work which received a stamping ovation...Blake's appreciation and comprehension of the poems was expressed precisely, passionately and descriptively...music utterly fitting to each mood, modern in sound, classical in impact.'

Chester Chronicle, 24/7/1987

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'...the odd faint passing hint of Britten in some of the textures, and the more obvious debt of Stravinskian neo-classicism in the recurring motif of trills in the string accompaniments, the Shakespeare Songs hark back to Peter Warlock in their blend of rhythmic regularity spiced with the occasional irregularity and almost embarassingly direct tunefulness...the audience was duly enthusiastic.'

Paul Dewhirst, Daily Telegraph, 23/7/1987

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Rarely does one witness so warm and prolonged a reception for the premiere of a new composition as greeted Howard Blake's Shakespeare Songs...the English folk song tradition permeates every nook and cranny. Britten (in his Serenade style) seems to have been a particularly strong influence but the writing is at once highly skilled and conceptually fresh

Chester Post, 22/7/1987

Related Works

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