Before Dawn, Op 46 (Dim-berried is the mistletoe) | April 1922 |
Mixed chorus, string orchestra and organ (or piano)
Words by Walter de la Mare
MS: B–P Archive, Box 1: vocal score, ink, dated, printer’s copy, 10 pages and title page
Duration: 10′
Boosey & Co 1922 vocal score [BL: F585ii30], string parts [BL: h3210h175]
Songs of Enchantment, Op 53 | April – July 1925 |
Soprano solo, chorus of mixed voices and small orchestra:
Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, strings (3 3 2 2 1)
Words by Walter de la Mare
- Arabia (Far are the shades of Arabia)
- Sleepyhead (As I lay awake in the white moonlight)
- The Prince of Sleep (I met at eve the prince of sleep) RCM 4857: MS, score.
RCM 4857: MS, score.
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: ink, full score Op 53, dated April – July 1925, 16 pages and title page; vocal score Op 55, dated April – June 1925, printer’s copy, 27 pages and title page
Curwen 1925 vocal score [BL: F585kk30]
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Op 64 (O what can ail thee, knight at arms) | September – October 1928 |
Chorus of mixed voices and orchestra
Words by John Keats
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bi: ink, dated, printer’s copy, vocal score 25 pages and title page
Curwen 1929 vocal score [BL: E1592jj3], string parts [BL: g1797d8] (‘parts available on hire’)
(Re–Orchestrated by W. Llewellyn in 1999)
Dedicated to E. C. Bairstow
First performance 27 November 1929 at Leeds Town Hall (Leeds Symphony Orchestra)
The Birth of Christ, Op 66 | September – November 1929 |
Cantata for soprano (Mary), tenor (Narrator) and baritone (Angel) soli, chorus and orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, harp, celeste, strings
Text from the Authorised Version
RCM 4847: MS, full score,
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Ci: ink, dated, printer’s copy, vocal score 69 pages and title page
Curwen 1930 vocal score [BL: F1269pp2], ) string parts [BL: g1797d9]
First performance September 1930 at Three Choirs Festival, Hereford (Elsie Suddaby, Steuart Wilson and Keith Falkner)
The Highwayman, Op 72 (The wind was a torrent of darkness) | March – April 1932 |
Chorus (SATB) and full orchestra or small orchestra: woodwind, 1 trumpet, 2 horns, strings, piano, or strings, piano, drums
Words by Alfred Noyes
MS: B–P Archive, Box 4: ink, vocal score, ink, printer’s copy, 60 pages and title page Bag Bi: MS, vocal score, dated, 44 pages and title page, ‘first draft’
Duration: 25′
Boosey & Hawkes 1932 vocal score [BL: E1592pp3] (‘all parts available on hire’) Dedicated to George Dyson
First performance 2 March 1933 at Winchester College Music School (Winchester City Festival Choir & String Orchestra)
May in the Greenwood (In somer when the shawes be sheyre) | January 1932 |
For SA or TB or ST/AB chorus and string orchestra
Words Anonymous 15th century
RCM 4858: MS, dated
See Part Songs – with piano p. 35, No 2 of ‘Three Festival Choruses
Songs of Childhood op 76 | 1933 |
SATB strings and piano
Words by Walter de la Mare
- Down–adown–derry (Down a down derry)
- Reverie (When slim Sophia mounts her horse)
- Captain Lean (Out of the East a hurricane)
- The Sleeping Beauty (The scent of bramble fills the air)
See Solo Songs p. 4
MS: B–P Archive, Box 8: full score, ink, 21 pages and title page
See Part Songs – with piano, page 36
Unpublished
The Ballad of Gil Morrice, Op 78 (Gil Morrice was a great earl’s son) | February – March – April 1934 |
Mixed chorus and orchestra; 2 flutes (piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 1 trumpet, 1 trombone, cymbals, triangle, harp (or piano), strings or strings and piano
Words adapted into modern English by Mordaunt Currie
MS: B–P Archive, Box 8: full score, bound, ink, 54 pages, title page and instrument list, dated May 1934, ‘Op 77’; MS, full score of version for strings and piano, dated June 1934, 28 pages and title page, ‘Op 77’
Box 1: MS, vocal score, ink, dated, printer’s copy, 35 pages and title page
Duration: 30′
Winthrop Rogers 1934 vocal score [BL: F1267m4] Dedicated to Sir Hugh P. Allen
The Starlighters (When I was out in the evening light) | January 1936 |
Unison voices and string orchestra
Words by Ann Gibbs
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: score, dated, title page, set of copyist’s parts
See Unison Songs p. 41
Unpublished
Deborah and Barak, Op 88 | August – September – October 1936 |
Cantata for contralto and baritone soli, mixed chorus and orchestra
Words by Mordaunt Currie (adapted from the book of Judges)
MS: B–P Archive, Box 2: vocal score, 46 pages and title page
Duration: 23′
Winthrop Rogers 1937 vocal score [BL: F1269ww4] (‘parts available on hire’)
First performance (?)12 November 1937 by Huddersfield Choral Society (Malcolm Sargent)
Odysseus, Op 90 | December 1937 – November 1938 |
Symphony in 4 movements for soprano and baritone soli, mixed chorus and orchestra:
2 flutes (piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, side drum, triangle, cymbals, piano, strings
Words by Mordaunt Currie
- Escape from Calypso
- Circe
- Cyclops
- The Return
MS: B–P Archive, Box 5: vocal score, ink, printer’s copy, 136 pages and title page, and text transcript
Duration: 60′
Boosey & Hawkes 1939 vocal score [BL: F1267u3]
Dedicated to My Wife (Honor)
First performance 3 April 1946 at Newcastle City Hall (Newcastle & Gateshead Choral Union)
Forest Idyll, Op 91 | August – October 1939 |
Cantata for SSA, strings and piano
Words by Mordaunt Currie
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bi: MSS, ink, dated, full score 29 pages and title page, vocal score 31 pages and title page
Duration: about 15′
Unpublished
Before Daybreak, Op 100 (Listen to us, who threatens our purpose?) | July – August 1941 |
Contralto solo, women’s choir, string quartet, strings and piano
Words by Gordon Bottomley
MS: B–P Archive, Box 1: ink, dated, printer’s copy, 46 pages, title page, and notes on performance, ‘Op. 101’ MS, pencil, dated, condensed score (voices and string quartet) 37 pages and title page, Bag Bi
Duration: 27′–28′
Boosey & Hawkes 1941 vocal score [BL: E1592tt6]
Dedicated to H.M.The Queen (in honour of Britain’s women in wartime)
First performance May 1942 at Westmorland Music Festival, Kendal
A Song of Youth (Beating heart of England, mainspring of our race) | March 1942 |
Unison voices and salon orchestra: flute, oboe, clarinet, timpani, piano, violins 1-3, cello, bass
Words by Mordaunt Currie
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: ink, dated, full score 8 pages, copyist’s MS parts and pencil piano version
(with letter from BBC)
Unpublished
Dedicated to The National Association of Boys Clubs
See Unison Songs, p. 41, ‘Heart of Britain’.
The New Jerusalem, Op 119 (Hierusalem, my happy home) | 17 January 1948 |
Female chorus, strings and piano
Words anonymous, from F.P.B, ca. 1580, based on St Augustine
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Ci: ink, dated, full score, 18 pages and parts
Duration: 11′
Boosey & Hawkes 1948 vocal score [BL: F217n9]
First performance 1948 at Mothers Union Centenary
See Part Songs – with piano p. 37
Pastoral Suite, Op 123 | November/December 1948 – January 1949 |
Baritone solo, chorus and orchestra
- Prelude
- Clock–a–Clay (In the cowslip pips I lie), Words by John Clare, 1857, SSAA
- Molly Green O’Maldon (Sweet Molly Green of Maldon Town), Words by L. Cranmer Byng, Baritone solo
- Waken, Lords and Ladies Gay (Waken lords and ladies gay), Words by Joseph Strutt, 1808, SATB
- Essex (I go through the fields of blue water), Words by Arthur Shirley Cripps, 1906, Baritone solo and SATB
MS: B–P Archive, Box 6: vocal score, ink, dated, printer’s copy, 41 pages and title page
Duration: 21’
Boosey & Co 1949 vocal score, with tonic sol–fa [BL: F1267x5]
‘This work, specially written for the Colchester Festival of 1951, makes use of poems written in and about Essex and the music is an expression of the composer’s love for his native county.’
First performance 5 July 1951 at Colchester Festival (Hervey Alan)
In A Dream’s Beguiling, Op 130 | 1949 – 50 |
Suite of songs for mezzo–soprano solo (or semi–chorus), women’s choir (SSA), string orchestra and piano
Words by Walter de la Mare
- The Night Swans (‘Tis silence on the enchanted lake) (printed title page has ‘The Night Song’, in error)
- The Horn (Hark! Is that a horn I hear)
- King David (Kind David was a sorrowful man)
- Melmillo (Three and thirty birds there stood)
- The Changeling (‘Ahoy! And ahoy!’)
- Off The Ground (Three jolly farmers once bet a pound)
MS: B–P Archive, Box 8: full score, ink, 53 pages and title page; Box 4: MS, vocal score, ink, printer’s copy, 59 pages and title page, text transcript,
Duration: 25′
Boosey & Co 1951 vocal score [BL: E1592zz2]
A Saviour Born, Op 133 | December 1952 |
Christmas cantata for mezzo–soprano solo, SSA chorus, string orchestra and piano or 2 pianos or organ
Words by Benedict Ellis
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Cii: ink, dated, vocal score 36 pages and title page
Duration: 24′
OUP 1953 vocal score [BL: F1195d7), Goodmusic 2004 vocal score, full score and instrumental parts for all versions available on hire
See Stage and Screen, p. 45, ‘The Promised One’
O praise God in his holiness (A Psalm for Coronation Year), Psalm 150 | 1953 |
Two, three or four part chorus SA or TB or SAB or SATB, with full orchestra or medium orchestra or strings and piano
OUP 1953 vocal score (‘orchestral material available on hire’ for all three versions)
‘Specially written for the 1953 Festival of the Federation of Essex Women’s Institutes in honour of the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.’
See Church Music p. 22
The High Adventure, Op 136 | April 1936 |
Cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, piano, strings
Words by Benedict Ellis
- The Golden Hind (Which of the Kings of this land before Her Majesty), SATB
- Pastoral (England, her very name is home and anchorage), SSA
OUP 1954 vocal score (strings and piano, optional timpani) [BL: F217n37] See Part Songs – with piano p. 38 - The Battles of Britain (1588-1940) (Who wants the Rose must have the Thorn), TB & SATB
- Finale (Chorale) (How good to be alive), SATB See Part Songs – with piano p. 39 ‘This Great Hour’
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bi: ink, dated, 81 pages, printed text, title pages
Duration: about 33′
OUP 1955 vocal score and chorus parts [BL: F1267kk3], Goodmusic 2004 vocal score, full score and parts available on hire
First performance 6 May 1956 at Albert Hall for National Festival of Schools Music
Behold the Man | 1954 |
Cantata for Passiontide, for tenor and baritone soloists, SATB chorus and orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings or strings and organ (or piano).
Words compiled by Benedict Ellis
Duration: about 55′
OUP 1955 vocal score [BL: E541nn2], and chorus parts [BL: E541nn3], Goodmusic 2004 vocal score, full score and parts for both versions available on hire
First performance (?)3 April 1955 at St. George’s, Hanover Square See Church Music p. 22
The Fairy Thorn – A Ballad, Op 148 (Get up, our Anna dear, from the weary spinning-wheel) | September-October 1956 |
Female voices, string orchestra and piano
Words by Sir Samuel Ferguson, based on an old Scots legend
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bi: ink, dated, full score 18 pages and title page, voice parts 20 pages and title page (2 copies)
Duration: 11′
Unpublished
The Turning Year | *1958 |
Cantata for mixed voices and orchestra: flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, trombone, Percussion (2 players), strings, piano or strings and piano or piano
Words by Benedict Ellis
- High Summer
- In Autumn
- Fell Winter
- Spring Song
MS ROB
Duration: about 25′
OUP 1958 vocal score [BL: F1267zz2]; Goodmusic 2004 vocal score, full score and parts for both versions available on hire
Dedicated to the Secondary Schools of the City of Carlisle
First performance 14 May 1958 for Carlisle Schools Music Association
See Part Songs – with Piano, p. 39
Suite Of Songs from the British Isles | 1959 |
- The Gentle Maiden (Irish, Harold Boulton); baritone solo
- Men of Harlech (Welsh traditional); TTBB chorus
- Charlie is my darling (Scottish traditional); junior choirs
- Loch Lomond (Scottish traditional), SSA chorus
- King Arthur (English traditional); baritone solo, junior and mixed choirs with orchestra
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: pencil, 46 pages; titles from text
See below and Part Songs – with piano – arrangements p. 39
Unpublished
Suite Of Songs from the British Isles | February 1959 |
Baritone solo, junior choirs, mixed chorus, orchestra: 2 flutes (piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, strings or strings and piano
- The Gentle Maiden (Irish, Harold Boulton); baritone solo
- Charlie is my darling (Scottish traditional); junior choirs
- Men of Harlech (Welsh traditional); adult male choirs
- The oak and the ash (English traditional); adult female choirs
- King Arthur (English traditional); baritone solo, junior and adult choirs
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: ink, dated, printer’s copy, vocal score, 31 pages and title page
Duration: 11′–12′
Dedicated to Stanford Robinson
First performance 20 June 1959 at BBC Light Music Festival (Owen Brannigan)
OUP 1960, Goodmusic 2004, material for full orchestra or strings and piano available on hire
See above, below and Part Songs – with piano – arrangements p. 39
Suite Of Songs from the British Isles | 1959 |
Baritone solo or semi-chorus, chorus, orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, strings; or strings and piano
- Men of Harlech (Wales), (Hark, I hear the foe advancing); SATB chorus
- The Gentle Maiden (Ireland, Harold Boulton), (There’s one that is pure as an angel); baritone solo or small semi–chorus
- Charlie is my darling (Scotland), (Charlie is my darling, my darling, my darling); SATB chorus
- The oak and the ash (England), (A north country maid up to London once strayed); SSA chorus
- King Arthur (England), (King Arthur ruled this land); baritone solo or semi–chorus, SATB chorus
MS: B–P Archive, Bag Bii: MS, ink, condensed orchestral score 31 pages and title page
OUP 1960 vocal score [BL: F1771qq12]; Goodmusic 2004 vocal score, full score and parts available on hire
See above and Part Songs – with piano – arrangements p. 39