Charmed
Songs that are nice, songs that are nasty, songs that are just plain weird. But they all will charm you in one way or another.
Here we have Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies, Christopher Robin’s Song – his childish poems the lyrics to songs by Milne’s friend Harold Fraser-Simson, some floral gifts by Ann Carr-Boyd and a concoction of spells in songs based on three Walter de la Mare poems by Diana Blom.
Intertwining the song-sets are sonatas by Johann Christian Bach – tuneful, joyful and charming.
The warmly engaging voice of songstress Danielle Grant is just what’s needed for songs that will Charm you.
Songs that are nice, songs that are nasty, songs that are just plain weird. But they all will charm you in one way or another.
Here we have Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies, Christopher Robin’s Song – his childish poems the lyrics to songs by Milne’s friend Harold Fraser-Simson, some floral gifts by Ann Carr-Boyd and a concoction of spells in songs based on three Walter de la Mare poems by Diana Blom.
Intertwining the song-sets are sonatas by Johann Christian Bach – tuneful, joyful and charming.
The warmly engaging voice of songstress Danielle Grant is just what’s needed for songs that will Charm you.
Danielle Grant – soprano
Diana Weston – harpsichord and piano
Where & When
Sunday November 3 at Mosman Art Gallery, 1 Art Gallery Way @ 3pm.
Saturday November 23 at The Rose Room, 51F Sunninghill Ave, Burradoo @ 2.30pm
Program
We will charm you today, that is to say, delight you or weave a spell around you – which might be nice or might not be – and generally enchant you with some fascinating songs from the last century. And from the time when pianos first started to make their mark – some tuneful sonatas from the pen of the London Bach.
Ann Carr-Boyd’s two songs composed in 1997 and set to words by her friend Corinne Laird are typical of her lush and rich style from this period. Her love of colour and visual art is evident in Brown Pansies – a musical picture with its descriptive words ‘rich’, ‘brown’, ‘velvet’, ’softness’, ‘dark’, ‘blacken’d’, ‘yellow’. Ann asks you to look carefully at a simple flower – and see beauty. ‘Parchment Rose’ though, looks for the story behind the flower – this time a dried rose – perhaps discovered by accident within the pages of a second-hand book. What is its significance, its history, its memory.
What does Britten’s enigmatic title A Charm of Lullabies imply? It’s a collective term for five songs to infants, with texts from five different poets – A Cradle Song (William Blake 1757-1827), The Highland Balou (Robert Burns 1759-96), Sephestia’s Lullaby (Robert Greene 1558-92), A Charm (Thomas Randolph 1605-35), The Nurse’s Song (John Philip c. 1559).
The first, A Cradle Song, has a regular rocking motion to lull the infant into sleepiness, but soon an undercurrent of unease pervades. The child will wake and then ‘the dreadful lightnings break’. ‘Highland Balou’ whispers (in repeated majestic chords) that great deeds are expected from this small babe. Sephestia’s Lullaby also alludes to the dual nature of a child – one moment needing consolation (‘weep not, my wanton’), the next all smiles and capriciousness (‘mother’s wag’, ‘father’s joy’). ‘A Charm’ calls upon all horrible things to afflict this troublesome child, in a boiling, stirring cauldron of frustration. If only he will sleep (which perhaps he has on the last chord)! But the last song ‘The Nurse’s Song’ forgives baby everything – in a sweet naked melody, soon followed by a repeated irregular rocking (is it a rocking chair?). The nurse wishes every good thing for this child and will ‘tend thee as duly as may be’.
Britten’s songs reflect the intensity of feeling, the ambivalence, and the charm, that infants create in pretty much anyone who cares for them.
Diana Blom’s three songs use poems by another Englishman – Walter de la Mare. De la Mare is known best for his writings for children and his interest in psychological thrillers and medieval folk-tales of fairies, witches and spirits. We find in ‘The Witch’ that ‘Charms and Spells and Sorceries’ have been spilled, and that the dead have emerged from their graves to assume the shapes of creatures of the night. The plodding weariness of the witch is felt in the song, and that things are seriously amiss in the resounding discords. And what of the witch? Does she sleep? is she ostracised, to live amongst the dead? Or is she too now one of the dead. Either way, her charms have done her no good. ‘The Horseman’ is a classic apparition of death. ‘The Bees’ Song’ buzzes with playful zzzzz’s as the bee searches for a sweet gift for a princess.
In stark contrast to Britten and Blom’s ‘charms’ are Harold Fraser-Simson’s songs set to poems from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Found in a second-hand book-shop in suburban Sydney, the songs (now completely unknown and one could say, dated) are part of a collection of six books, a total of 67 songs. While everyone is familiar with Christopher Robin and his friend Pooh-bear, the songs reflect tastes and habits of the 1920’s, when people entertained themselves by singing and playing around the piano, an enjoyment that has long fallen out of fashion. This aside, Fraser-Simson’s accompaniments to Milne’s charming lyrics are perfectly in keeping with his (Milne’s) portrayal of the three-year-old Christopher Robin – simple, light-hearted and sincere, they are at the same time charming and endearing. From Christopher Robin we learn about the joys (and usefulness) of friendship (‘Us Two’, ‘The Friend’), of spring-time (‘Oh, the Butterflies are flying…’), the advantages of being in the middle (Half-way down the Stairs), and hear his night-time prayer (‘Vespers’).