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

  1. Arabia (Far are the shades of Arabia)
  2. Sleepyhead (As I lay awake in the white moonlight)
  3. 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

  1. Down–adown–derry (Down a down derry)
  2. Reverie (When slim Sophia mounts her horse)
  3. Captain Lean (Out of the East a hurricane)
  4. 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

  1. Escape from Calypso
  2. Circe
  3. Cyclops
  4. 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

  1. Prelude
  2. Clock–a–Clay (In the cowslip pips I lie), Words by John Clare, 1857, SSAA
  3. Molly Green O’Maldon (Sweet Molly Green of Maldon Town), Words by L. Cranmer Byng, Baritone solo
  4. Waken, Lords and Ladies Gay (Waken lords and ladies gay), Words by Joseph Strutt, 1808, SATB
  5. 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

  1. The Night Swans (‘Tis silence on the enchanted lake) (printed title page has ‘The Night Song’, in error)
  2. The Horn (Hark! Is that a horn I hear)
  3. King David (Kind David was a sorrowful man)
  4. Melmillo (Three and thirty birds there stood)
  5. The Changeling (‘Ahoy! And ahoy!’)
  6. 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

  1. The Golden Hind (Which of the Kings of this land before Her Majesty), SATB
  2. 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
  3. The Battles of Britain (1588-1940) (Who wants the Rose must have the Thorn), TB & SATB
  4. 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

  1. High Summer
  2. In Autumn
  3. Fell Winter
  4. 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
  1. The Gentle Maiden (Irish, Harold Boulton); baritone solo
  2. Men of Harlech (Welsh traditional); TTBB chorus
  3. Charlie is my darling (Scottish traditional); junior choirs
  4. Loch Lomond (Scottish traditional), SSA chorus
  5. 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

  1. The Gentle Maiden (Irish, Harold Boulton); baritone solo
  2. Charlie is my darling (Scottish traditional); junior choirs
  3. Men of Harlech (Welsh traditional); adult male choirs
  4. The oak and the ash (English traditional); adult female choirs
  5. 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

  1. Men of Harlech (Wales), (Hark, I hear the foe advancing); SATB chorus
  2. The Gentle Maiden (Ireland, Harold Boulton), (There’s one that is pure as an angel); baritone solo or small semi–chorus
  3. Charlie is my darling (Scotland), (Charlie is my darling, my darling, my darling); SATB chorus
  4. The oak and the ash (England), (A north country maid up to London once strayed); SSA chorus
  5. 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