Charles Wilfred ORR (1893-1976)
The Complete C.W. Orr Songbook - Volume 2
Five Songs from A Shropshire Lad: With rue my heart is laden, This
time of year, Oh, when I was in love with you, Is my team ploughing?, On your
midnight pallet lying (1924-6) [12:09]
Plucking the rushes (1921) [1:43]
Four Songs: Bahnhofstrasse; Requiem, The time of roses, Since thou, O fondest
and truest, (1932-57) [12:16]
Hymn before sleep (1953) [4:32]
While summer on is sleeping (1953) [2:30]
The lads in their hundreds (1936) [2:51]
The Isle of Portland (1938) [3:30]
1887 (?) [4:38]
In valleys green and still (1952) [3:57]
Three Songs from A Shropshire Lad: Into my heart an air that kills,
Westward on the high-hilled plains, Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers (1935-29)
[11:38]
Mark Stone (baritone); Simon Lepper (piano)
rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, 5-6 November 2011
STONE RECORDS 5060192780192 [59:52]
It does not seem long ago since I reviewed Volume
1 of this most desirable CD production. In fact, it was only March of
this year. I am delighted that the second volume has followed so rapidly:
often these projects get a wee bit bogged down in cash-flow matters and time-scales.
However, the present CD concludes what is an exceptionally valuable and important
programme of English song. Let us be honest: if C.W. Orr had been called ‘Henri
Duparc’ there would probably have been over a hundred discs devoted
to his music. As it is, there are only odd songs in remote corners of song
recital CDs (review
review).
The ‘Complete Songs of C.W. Orr’ will probably be the one and
only ‘complete’ survey of Orr’s vocal music in my lifetime.
Yet these songs are not only important, they are often beautiful examples
of the genre.
Twelve out of nineteen songs are settings of texts by Alfred Edward Housman.
The disc opens with the important Five Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’.
These include ‘With rue my heart is laden’, ‘This time of
year’, ‘Oh, when I was in love with you’, ‘Is my team
ploughing’ and ‘On your midnight pallet lying’. They were
composed between 1924-26 and were published a couple of years later. However,
they were not issued as a collection until 1959. It is fair to say that they
are not a ‘song-cycle’ but a set of songs that benefit from being
sung together and in the order presented.
Perhaps the finest song in this group is ‘Is my team ploughing?’
It is hard to forget the RVW and Butterworth settings of this text; however,
Orr does not try to parody these. There is always a danger that this poem
can sound a little banal - especially with the line ‘The goal stands
up, the keeper/Stands up to keep the goal’ eschewed by Vaughan Williams.
Orr has managed to create a sound-world that explores the depth of the poem
rather than the detail.
The other song that stood out for me was ‘On your midnight pallet lying’
which reflects the thoughts of a young man about to leave his lover and join
his comrades setting out for war. Its mood sums up the depressing thoughts
of the soldier.
Arthur Waley (1889-1966) was a well-known ‘Orientalist’ who taught
himself Japanese and Chinese. He published many books including a number of
volumes of poetry in translation. ‘Plucking the Rushes’ was first
published in the 1918 collection of 170 Chinese Poems. The song is
remarkable for its attractive melody and unexpected chromatic twists. The
setting is Orr’s earliest surviving song.
For his ‘Four Songs’ (1959) Orr turned his attention to a wide
variety of poets. The first is ‘Bahnhofstrasse’ by James Joyce
(1882-1941). This was the composer’s contribution to the ‘Joyce
Book’ which comprised settings by various hands of 13 poems from the
poet’s volume Pomes Pennyeach. Joyce suffered from his first
attack of glaucoma on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. The poem is a reaction
to a realisation that ‘youth was behind him, but that he had yet to
obtain the sagacity of old age.’ This, to my mind, is one of the best
of Orr’s songs: it is an ideal musical evocation of the poem’s
sentiment.
Helen Waddell (1889-1965) is justly famous for her translation of ‘Medieval
Latin Lyrics’ published in 1929 and still in print. The liner-notes
point out that the words ‘Take, him, earth for cherishing’ are
best-known in Herbert Howells’ choral setting in memory of John F. Kennedy.
However, Orr’s 1954 song is equally moving and once again reflects on
the composer’s sense of his own mortality. This is a powerful song that
is both introverted and lugubrious. The original Latin text was written by
the Christian poet Prudentius.
Thomas Hood (1799-1845) provides the words for ‘The time of roses’.
It is one of the more optimistic settings on this CD, although the words can
be interpreted as being more depressing than the music would suggest.
Robert Bridges (1844-1930) is a poet who is largely ignored today, in spite
of the fact he was Poet Laureate. ‘Since thou, O fondest and truest’
was Orr’s final song. I must admit that it is hard work to listen to:
I would love to be able to appreciate and enjoy this work being the composer’s
last ‘word’ on song-composition; however, I find it too miserable
and dirge-like.
Two other settings from Helen Waddell translations are included on this CD.
The first is the withdrawn ‘Hymn before Sleep’, also translated
from Prudentius. ‘While summer on is sleeping', taken from the Benediktbeuern
Manuscript, is the easiest on the mind in this present collection. The text
is drawn from the same source as Carl Orff’s well-known Carmina burana.
It is a simple, if passionate, love song that does not end in tragedy or too
much despair.
It is difficult to get George Butterworth’s setting of ‘The lads
in their hundreds’ out of one’s head when reading Housman’s
text. It is a problem that Orr faced when he wrote this song some twenty-five
years later. The liner-notes point out that Butterworth’s is a strophic
setting whereas Orr has applied melodic development. I prefer the earlier
number.
‘The Isle of Portland’ is a ‘sea-scape’ for singer
and piano. The accompanist plays a rocking barcarolle that suggests the ‘star-filled
seas are smooth tonight’. However, the song does become more animated
as the singer reflects on the fact that ‘Far from his folk a dead lad
lies.’ It has to be recalled that prisoners were sent to Portland to
quarry stone as penal labour. It was a dangerous occupation.
I am baffled by the inclusion of a song called ‘1887’. OK, it
is a confection. C.W. Orr’s only offering for the orchestra is the short
but near-perfect Cotswold Hill Tune (review
review).
This was originally composed for string orchestra in 1937. In this present
CD it has been ‘arranged’ as a song compassing the words of A.E.
Housman’s poem From ‘Clee to heaven the beacon burns’. It
is a great poem - there is no doubt about that. The poet contrasts the celebrations
for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, with thoughts about the
fallen in a variety of ‘colonial wars’. There is nothing fundamentally
wrong with this ‘song’ it just appears to my mind to have been
forced into the mould of the little tone poem. I guess that it only appears
as a makeweight to bring the CD duration up to nearly the hour mark. It should
be promptly forgotten.
‘In valleys green and still’ was the last of C.W. Orr’s
Housman settings. In many ways, I feel that it is one of his best. Like much
of the poet’s output, this poem meditates on the theme of soldiers going
to war. It is an involved number that sounds just a little bit awkward for
the voice. The piano part is quite minimalist, creating an unfocused mood.
The final three tracks on this CD are settings of Housman’s poems. These
‘Three Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’’ were published
as a group in 1940. However, they were written over a period of some five
years. The first, ‘Into my heart and air that kills’ was composed
in 1935. It makes an interesting song-form being a set of variations on the
melodic phrase from the first line. It is a deeply moving setting that expresses
the mood of anyone ‘away from the place they love’.
The liner-notes explain that Orr’s setting of ‘Westward on the
high-hilled plains’ reflects the composer’s yearning for his ‘old
life’. The poem itself is construed as an elderly man looking at someone
much younger and reflecting on the dichotomy between ‘plus ça
change’ and the continuity of existence between generations (vide ‘On
Wenlock Edge’). It is not a setting that immediately appeals, but repeated
hearing reveals the song’s character and ultimate strength. The piano
part is powerful and essential to the song’s success. The final song
in this group ‘Oh see how thick the goldcup flowers’ was composed
in 1939. It is another example of Housman meditating of the transience of
time and the need to ‘seize the moment’.
With the exception of ‘1887’ (noted above), I relished this CD.
As I noted in my review of Volume I it is great to hear a number songs by
Orr that have eluded me for many years. The two soloists give a sterling performance
of all (most) of these numbers that is both sympathetic and enthusiastic.
It is obvious to any listener that Mark Stone and Simon Lepper both have a
deep understanding of the words and music of these songs.
As with the previous volume, the liner-notes are helpful and are required
reading before approaching the music. The format of each song having its own
little mini-programme note has been maintained. The text of the song is included.
Part II of the essay Charles Wilfred Orr: The Unsung Hero of English Song
is presented as a preface to the notes.
I guess that I would have enjoyed a little bit of variety in these songs -
a mezzo-soprano perhaps. However, this is an album to sample - not to through-listen.
Much of the music is melancholic and could become a touch depressing if listened
to end-to-end. These songs need to be approached no more than three or four
at a time. However, there is much here to listen to, to think about and ultimately
to enjoy.
John France
Much here to listen to, to think about and ultimately to enjoy.