SUFFOLK’S SONGS

Music by Vaughan Williams, Butterworth, Shaw, Carwithen, Holst, Britten, Williamson, and Moeran.

Robert Gildon, baritone

Nathan Williamson, pianist and composer

Robert Jellicoe, poet and narrator

This vocal recital, Suffolk’s Songs, celebrates the wealth of art song, folk song, poetry and music inspired by the landscapes and culture of Suffolk.

Whilst the work and partnership of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears – and their assistant Imogen Holst, a masterful composer in her own right – is the most obvious example of this wonderful legacy, other connections abound. Ralph Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth collected numerous folksongs from Suffolk fishermen and other working people. These have in turn influenced Nathan Williamson in his own settings of poems by the writer and historian Robert Jellicoe, based on tales of Southwold fishermen from bygone years.

Doreen Carwithen, ground-breaking film composer and significant contributor to the song repertoire, lived in Blythburgh from the 1950s. Songs by Martin Shaw will also be part of the programme. Shaw was a resident of Southwold, remembered nowadays for his famous hymns and choral arrangements, such as Hills of the North, Rejoice. He composed very powerful songs, setting Edgar Allan Poe and W. B. Yeats, which are long overdue a revival.

The artists guide through this carefully chosen programme by way of introductions, background, and readings.