In this fiftieth anniversary year of the death of Haydn
Wood (1882-1959) I am pleased to welcome these two CDs devoted
to
his songs, a repertoire which, though once highly popular,
has been sorely neglected in recent years.
As each team was working unbeknown to the other, it is not
the result of collusion but a happy accident that these two
discs
have only five songs in common. The two offer a combined total
of thirty-eight different songs and four piano solos, several
of the items appearing on record for the first time. This,
along with the fact that one of the principal singers is a
bass-baritone
and the other a tenor means that the two products are complementary
rather than competitive.
The songs on the Canadian CD span the forty years from 1910
to 1950. Those on the UK CD are gleaned from the shorter period
of 1914 to 1946. As the accompanying notes testify, all the
personnel
involved have sound musical credentials, and both CDs afford
music-making that is enthusiastic and inspired, evidently a
labour of love. While the young Shae Apland here makes his
recording
debut, Peter Dempsey has recently released CDs devoted to the
songs of Eric Coates and Albert Ketèlbey - similarly
packaged and available at the same price. The Canadian CD has
had an unusually
long gestation: though not released until 2009, it was conceived
in 2004 and recorded over several sessions, the last of which
was in May 2006. It has probably benefited from this leisurely
pace of production. There is no sense of discontinuity and
the programme constitutes a diverse and attractive recital.
The recording
of the voice is close, but not unpleasantly so. The sound on
the British CD is more open.
The performing styles on the two discs are distinct but equally
legitimate. Shae Apland adopts slightly brisker and stricter tempi than
Peter Dempsey, though the former never sounds rushed nor the
latter laboured. I suspect that Shae Apland is relatively new
to this repertoire and might never have heard of Haydn Wood
had he not been known to Marjorie Cullerne, Wood’s great niece
and a co-producer of the CD along with Haydn Wood historian,
Gilles Gouset. Peter Dempsey, on the other hand, has been performing
this kind of music since his youth in the 1970s. He owns a large
collection of old recordings and his thorough knowledge of the
singing style of the music’s period informs his own performing
practice.
In conformity with its title, his CD confines itself to the romantic
but includes as a bonus four piano miniatures. The Canadian one
includes songs of a much wider stylistic and emotional range,
including songs of adventure, the sea and war. Two of them (The
Little Ships - Dunkirk 1940 and A Soldier’s Prayer
in the Desert) were obviously inspired by contemporary events
and must have proved deeply poignant at the time. I find them
moving even now. At least one song, The End of the World,
is highly dramatic, its awesome gravity well suited to the
darker tones of Shae Apland’s deeper voice. Somebody’s
in Love With You (1921) is clearly influenced by American
popular music of the time and therefore constitutes a departure
from Wood’s characteristically English style.
The phenomenally successful Roses of Picardy (1916)
has clocked up more than 700 recordings and appears again on
both
these discs: on the Canadian one in the premier recording of
the composer’s duet arrangement. Each disc includes a
song derived from Roses of Picardy. Peter Dempsey sings Little
Yvette (1920), written, I might say, to the same template,
and a personal favourite of his. Shae Apland sings A Rose
Still Blooms in Picardy (1941), a kind of sequel written
during World War II and dedicated to those fighting in the
French Resistance.
Haydn Wood was undoubtedly blessed with a great talent for fluent
and sensitive song-writing, matching his music to the words with
consummate craftsmanship. As the lyrics of the final song on
the Canadian disc proclaim: “Mine are the words and
yours the melody. No song is sweet unless these two agree.” The
Canadian booklet rightly observes: “The moods conjure up
veiled romance, virility, strife, prayer, and love of country.
The overriding themes … are enjoyment of nature and love
of people, with a deep concern for the human condition.” I
found myself particularly moved by Your Prayers Are Asked,
written in the year of my birth, 1948. These once popular songs
encapsulate humane and civilized values, and for many years
they exerted a benign influence on the millions of ordinary
people
who heard and enjoyed them. It disturbs me profoundly that
within my lifetime they have been displaced by a popular culture
some
of which is at best gross, and at worst degenerate and brutalising.
Since Haydn Wood’s songs are otherwise not well represented
in the catalogue, these new CDs are most welcome. Both contain
a wealth of fine singing. They are attractively packaged with
informative notes. Neither includes the texts of the songs; but
as both singers enunciate the words with admirable clarity, this
is not a serious omission. It is unfortunate that both CDs lie
under the handicap of restricted distribution, being available
only from their producers. I hope that prospective buyers will
not be deterred by this or by the relatively high price of the
Canadian one. My own copy, including postage, cost me a little
over £17, which I do not begrudge. In an age when so much
recorded music is available at super bargain prices this might
seem a lot; but it is not excessive, given the trouble and expense
that have evidently been bestowed on the disc’s production.
J. Martin Stafford
Postal contact details
Breezy Ballad: Marjorie Cullerne,
714 Nanoose Avenue, Parksville BC, V9P 1E9 Canada; $29.70 to
addresses outside North America; $25.90 to Canada; $28.20
to the USA. (All prices include postage and are in Canadian dollars.)
Wonderful world: Peter Dempsey, 44 Victoria Road,
Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, B50 4AR. £9.95 including
postage.
Shae Apland (bass-baritone),
Sharon Wishart (piano), Marissa Famiglietti (soprano)* and Marjorie
Cullerne (violin)#. 
