1. A reference to Lear’s epilepsy.
1. ‘The composer shows, almost too clearly, his close acquaintanceship with the modern Scandinavian school. He explains however that he was anxious to illustrate with appropriate local colour an incident which took place at the première of one of Ibsen’s dramas. The young lady suffered physically from a front place which she secured in the gallery queue. She proved however by her courageous mental superiority under adverse circumstances, that she had no sympathy with the pessimism of the great playwright of her country; taking rather as her motto the view of Alfred de Musset, “Il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée”.’
1. ‘This plagiarism is almost too obvious; “it ceases to be plagiarism and becomes quotation”. A very little investigation revealed the fact that this work is really a composition by the famous Max van Beetelssohn.’
1. ‘When Gospodin Drofnatzki forwarded to us the manuscript of this song, we felt sure that we traced in it the style and method of a much greater composer than he. As Dr. F. Chrysander had joined the majority, we submitted it to a council of experts, under the Presidency of the Rt. Hon. A. J. B—r, M.P. who pronounced it to be undoubtedly a lost song by Handel. A minority report was, however, issued by two members of the Council, Professor Ebenezer Prout and Mr. Sedley Taylor, who, while fully admitting that it was in the accepted style of the great Master, would only allow that it was copied from his manuscript, a fact which did not prove that Handel had not himself copied it from another’s. As a proof of this possibility they pointed out the curious fact, that the passage “have all built their nests” was a plagiarism of a very unusual and outrageous kind; the actual notes of “Home, sweet Home” having been bodily transferred to this aria, before Sir Henry Bishop had even been able to write them down. This however, they admit, is an additional proof that Handel, and not Drofnatzki, was at any rate the copyist of the song.’
1. ‘The Gospodin has with unwonted honesty informed us of his indebtedness to another composer for this work. But even in this admission he appears to be disingenuous; for he calls our attention to the striking suitability of the sudden change of harmony on the word “smile”. This stroke of genius we have ascertained to be the work of the late Monsieur de Paris, the famous Professor of the Motor-Guillotine in the Conservatoire. We fear however that these two distinguished artists are, after all, but partners in iniquity, for even with our slight knowledge of the musical Classics, we seem to trace passages from Beethoven’s Symphonies and Fidelio, both in the thematic material and in the method of construction and instrumentation. We are not sure therefore if Monsieur de Paris would not have been better employed in following his own craft, and applying the closure to the musical existence of our gifted contributor.’
1. ‘This song, as far as we are able to judge, is (curiously enough) the composer’s own. He says that the inspiration to write it came from a desire to celebrate the beauties of Ryde as finely as he had illustrated the dangers of cows in the preceding song. We have not altered the eccentric spelling of the title, for although we honestly believe the Gospodin to be incapable of an intentional jest, the connection of the title with the domestic pets of the young lady seemed to supply a local colour which was lacking in the musical treatment. It also suggests that the heroine of the story was not a permanent inhabitant of Ryde, but only visited it for change of air; her residence being in High Street, Kensington. The composer no doubt intended to immortalize by his admirable and piquant setting the well-known firm of John Sebastian Barker & Cº, where she was employed.’
1. ‘The Gospodin states that this Eulogy of Tyre was intended to be the important part of a Cycle, but that he has scrapped the rest of the “Hellenic Idyll” in order to give a specimen of his powers in the Greek style. His covering letter seems to suggest that he has quite enough side on as it is: but we may be thankful that he has dressed up his ideas in Greek modes of attyre.’
1. ‘Vivid local colour (of an obviously Schumannesque character) is imparted to this number by the organ voluntary, which begins and ends the work, and which is only interrupted by the sound of garment tearing which proceeds from the denizen of a church pew, who was divided between his charity to his relations and his devotion to organ-music.’
1. ‘We are requested by the composer to state that the passage marked “animandosi” in the last line of the poem should be sung as if the occupant of the boat suddenly realised, to his great relief, that after all he was in the boat, and in addition was able to enjoy his imaginary trip without fear of either shipwreck or sea-sickness. As a result, this song turned out to be a very distinct score (off his gibing interlocutors.) He refrained from characterising the interrupters by introducing two Tubas in fifths […] as he considered that such a passage be too Tu(ba)tonic to insert in the atmosphere of an Italian sky.’
1. ‘The composer informs us that the form of this song is modelled upon one which was recently deciphered from some papyri by Professor Flinders Petrie, while he was excavating the tomb of Brahmeses II. The title however betrayed its true origin, and confirmed us in our suspicions that the Gospodin is as wily if not as dubious as the hero of the poem. The excellent secret service of this country discovered that the composition was purloined in the eighties from Carlgasse Nº 4 in Vienna (now pulled down), out of a basket which was usually placed under the writing table in the inner study. The matter has now been placed in the hands of Messrs Simrock, the publishers, and the Austrian Polizei.’
1. ‘A little careful reasoning soon enabled us to identify the real author of this touching Arioso. The owner of the nose (obviously a long one, though not too long) was a remarkable man. The musical style was that of a remarkable man; that remarkable man had a long nose; ergo the remarkable man must be John Sebastian Bach. Bach’s residence in Leipzig, the Thomas School, was but a stone’s throw from the quarter known as the Brühl, which was mainly peopled by Jews. The song is evidently a musical expression of strong protest, addressed to some friend who had offended Sebastian’s strong Anti-Semite views by suggesting that his nose was of the length and type so familiar in the adjoining street.’
1. ‘The composer (by which term we presume the Gospodin means literally the putter-together) of this scena requests us to announce that the Full Score and Orchestral Parts can be had from him for outward application only. From the opening phrase we conjecture that he first intended it as a setting of the well-known poem beginning, ‘There was a young lady of Rimini whose conduct was niminy-piminy’, but the subsequent treatment obviously suggests the pathetic vocal efforts of some of the compatriot prima-donnas, with whom he had professional dealings during his career. Whether original or not, we cannot but admire the final gasps of the over-strained and over-worked singer, as she sinks from the high C (optional) to the floor.’
1. ‘This olla-podrida fairly puzzled us, but after infinite trouble we arrived at a possible solution of the composer’s intentions. He evidently wished to immortalize himself, and in so doing he drew largely, if unconsciously, upon the tone-poems of others. It is interesting to see that he at moments recognised the fact, and attempted to obliterate his plagiarisms by the use of the gong. His free use of the Bavarian language betrays somewhat the source of his ideas. His apotheosis of the murdered Tamtam-player suggests also a Teutonic or Teudominant Walhalla, for which he had some difficulty in finding the key.’
1. ‘The Owl and the Pussy-cat’ was Vera Stravinsky’s first love in English verse, and the first poem that she memorized. She was equally fond of Francis Steegmuller’s French version, which Stravinsky encountered before Lear’s original.
2. ‘Runcible’ is one of Lear’s nonsense words which appears as an adjective in several poems: ‘Runcible cat with crimson whiskers!’ (‘The Pobble who has no toes’); ‘What a runcible goose you are!’ and ‘On this ancient runcible wall’ (‘Mr. and Mrs. Discobbolos. Second Part’); ‘He weareth a runcible hat’ (‘Self-portrait of the Laureate of Nonsense’). One of Lear’s drawings depicts t
he Dolomphious Duck holding a runcible spoon in her mouth: a piece of cutlery with a long handle and a ladle-like bowl.
1. It was Charlotte Brontë who titled the poem ‘Love and friendship’ when she printed it in 1850.
1. Britten set six of Brontë’s eighteen stanzas. His setting was broadcast by the BBC on 29 September 1937 by Sophie Wyss, Peter Pears and the BBC Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Trevor Harvey. This was the first music that Britten wrote for Pears, and he confided to his diary on 10 September 1937: ‘Before Peter leaves in the morning he runs thro’ my Emily Brontë song that he’s going to sing – & he makes it sound charming. He is a good singer & a first rate musician.’
1. The absence of punctuation heightens the powerful momentum of the poem.
1. The title of a popular book and even more popular BBC television series by James Herriot.
2. In a spirit of political correctness, the Inner London Education Authority banned the third verse in 1982.
1. Written when Alexander was twenty, this hymn was said to have been inspired by a large grass-covered mound just outside Londonderry, which reminded her of the hill in the Holy Land beyond Jerusalem’s gates, ‘where the dear LORD was crucified’.
1. The poem probably dates from August or September 1850, the year in which Tennyson’s In Memoriam was published. During the summer of that year, the father of Arnold’s future wife, Frances Lucy Wightman, had refused to accept the couple’s engagement, and they were only able to renew their correspondence at the end of the year.
1. Bridge’s song for medium voice, viola and piano sets only three verses from Arnold’s ‘Parting’, a long poem of ninety lines from his Switzerland sequence which deals with the breakdown of his relationship with ‘Marguerite’.
1. Written in August 1850, ‘The river’ was abbreviated by Arnold in 1852, and this extract is from the later version. It forms part of a sequence of five poems, Faded Leaves, that was inspired by a crisis in Arnold’s relationship with Frances Lucy Wightman, whose father, Justice Wightman, feeling that Arnold could not support a wife, forbade any meeting between the lovers. Arnold first met her in late 1849 and married her on 10 June 1851. A letter from A. H. Clough to Tom Arnold, dated 23 July 1850, refers to the affair: ‘Matt comes to Switzerland in a month, after your sister’s wedding. He is himself deep in a flirtation with Miss Wightman, the d[aughter] of the Judge. It is thought it will come to something, for he has actually been to Church to meet her’ (Correspondence of A. H. Clough). Wightman finally agreed to the liaison a week after Lord Lansdowne, for whom Arnold worked as secretary, appointed him an inspector of schools.
1. Bridge sets only the thirty-fourth and last stanza of Arnold’s long philosophical poem, which was much admired by Swinburne. The ‘her’ in line 5 refers not to a person but an artistic ideal.
1. The poem is a companion piece to ‘East London’.
1. Soon after completing ‘Dover beach’, Barber gave an impromptu private performance of the work (in which he sang and also played the piano) at Bryn Mawr College, near Philadelphia. Vaughan Williams, who was in the audience, congratulated the young composer, saying: ‘I myself once set “Dover beach”, but you really got it!’ Barber never forgot the compliment, and later recalled: ‘Enthusiasm for my music was rather uncommon at that time. Coming from a composer of the stature of Vaughan Williams, I found it especially gratifying.’ Vaughan Williams’s setting has not survived. Barber sang ‘Dover beach’ in a recording with the Curtis String Quartet on New World Records.
2. Cf. Sophocles, Antigone, 583–91, where the curse on a house is compared to a storm lashing the shore with breakers.
3. Cf. Thucydides’ description of the Battle of Epipolae (413 BC) in History of the Peloponnesian War, vii, ch. 44: ‘The Athenians were getting into a state of […] great confusion and perplexity […] in a battle by night […] how could anyone know anything clearly? […] And so finally, when once they had been thrown into confusion, coming into collision with their own comrades in many different parts of the army […] they not only became panic-stricken but came to blows with one another […]’
1. First published by Coventry Patmore in a children’s anthology, the poem was written in 1849.
2. Colmcille, better known as Saint Columba, was a Gaelic missionary monk in County Donegal. ‘Columbkill’ here refers to a geographical feature.
3. Slieve League (Irish: Sliabh Liag), located on the coast of County Donegal, is Ireland’s highest sea cliff. The Rosses (Na Rosa) is a geographic region in the west of County Donegal.
1. Acts xxviii. 1 records that Paul and his fellow prisoners, having been shipwrecked in the Mediterranean, were able to swim to the island of Melita, the old name for Malta.
1. banner or ensign, often with several streamers.
1. This is the final sonnet from Rossetti’s The House of Life. According to Alice Boyd, Rossetti told her that the poem referred to ‘the longing for accomplishment of individual desires after death’. Ireland’s song quotes from several of his earlier works, including ‘The trellis’, the Piano Sonatina and the Cello Sonata.
1. calm sea. This bird of ancient fable was thought to breed during the winter solstice on a nest in the sea, having magically stilled the winds and waves.
2. fur from the black and white squirrel.
1. The melody was composed by Darke while he was a student at the Royal College of Music. There is also a beautiful setting by Gustav Holst, composed for the 1906 edition of The English Hymnal. Cf. Luke ii. 1–20.
1. All the titles of Mother and Child were supplied by Ireland.
1. The poem, along with four others, were added by Rossetti to the 1893 edition of Sing-Song.
1. Quilter’s touching setting of ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ is a late song and serves as his own epitaph. Among many other settings of this famous poem, the most beguiling is by Erich Korngold, the first of his Vier Lieder des Abschieds, Op. 14, in a translation by Alfred Kerr, the poet of Richard Strauss’s Krämerspiegel.
1. Rossetti’s poem, which has no title, comes from her Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872), subtitled ‘Rhymes dedicated without permission to the baby who suggested them’.
1. There have been many interpretations of ‘Jabberwocky’, and some critics have taken it to be a burlesque of Spenser’s penchant for word-coinages. Many claim the poem to be nonsense, but some of the neologisms, such as ‘chortle’ and ‘burble’, have found a permanent place in the English language. Carroll’s advice to the reader was: ‘Take care of the sounds, and the sense will take care of itself.’ The poem occurs in Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Sir John Tenniel’s drawing of the Jabberwock, which was originally planned as the frontispiece, was considered so terrifying by Carroll that it was printed opposite the ballad. Tenniel’s drawing of the White Knight eventually served as frontispiece.
1. ‘Reiver’ is a Scottish word for a robber. A ‘neck-verse’ is ‘A Latin verse (usually the beginning of the fifty-first psalm) formerly set before one claiming benefit of clergy, by reading which he might save his neck’ (OED).
2. To flyte or flite is to dispute, to wrangle, to chide.
1. The second in a sequence of seven ‘Cradle songs’ by Swinburne, subtitled ‘To a tune of Blake’s’.
1. The MS has ‘Vamping down to Budmouth town’.
2. Cf. Luke xii. 20: ‘But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” ’
1. Literally ‘one who plays the fife’; here: ‘singing birds’.
2. temple (from Latin fanum).
1. Recalls Hardy’s first visit to Emma Gifford at St Juliot.
2. hollow-eyed.
3. did not touch.
1. the sea beyond the hills.
1. abyss.
1. Refers perhaps to Mrs Henniker, who in 1895 was on holiday in Germany.
2. Max Gate, Hardy’s home outside Dorchester.
1. The poem expresses the vibrant impres
sion Emma Gifford, with her zest for life, made on Hardy, banishing all his gloom.
2. misery and curse.
3. See Matthew iii. 12: ‘His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
1. Refers to words spoken by Emma Gifford for which Hardy, in retrospect, felt she was not responsible.
1. The poem was written in the winter of 1912–13 after Emma’s death (‘And one – has shut her eyes/For evermore’). A passage from The Life of Thomas Hardy (p. 358) helps to reveal the identity of the other two picnickers: ‘On June 1 [1912] at Max Gate they had a pleasant week-end visit from Henry Newbolt and W. B. Yeats, who had been deputed by the Royal Society of Literature to present Hardy with the Society’s gold medal on his seventy-second birthday. These two eminent men of letters were the only people entertained at Max Gate for the occasion; but everything was done as methodically as if there had been a large audience. Hardy says: “Newbolt wasted on the nearly empty room the best speech he ever made in his life, and Yeats wasted a very good one: mine in returning thanks was as usual a bad one, and the audience was quite properly limited.” ’
The Penguin Book of English Song Page 82