vagabond teddy tahu rhodes - buywell.com · songs by vaughan williams britten quilter finzi ireland...

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SONGS BY VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ❙ BRITTEN ❙ QUILTER ❙ FINZI ❙ IRELANDSHAROLYN KIMMORLEY PIANO

VAGABOND TEDDY TAHU RHODES

32

BENJAMIN BRITTEN 1913-1976

Three Folk Song Arrangements [8’16]

@ The Salley Gardens 2’17

£ The Foggy, Foggy Dew 1’42

$ O Waly, Waly 4’17

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS 1872-1958

Songs of Travel [22’24]

% The Vagabond 2’57

^ Let Beauty Awake 1’40

& The Roadside Fire 2’15

* Youth and Love 3’38

( In Dreams 2’33

) The Infinite Shining Heavens 2’23

¡ Whither Must I Wander? 3’24

™ Bright Is the Ring of Words 1’41

# I Have Trod the Upward and the Downward Slope 1’53

Total Playing Time 61’22

TEDDY TAHU RHODES baritone

Sharolyn Kimmorley piano

JOHN IRELAND 1879-1962

Three Masefield Ballads [7’50]

1 Sea Fever 2’30

2 The Bells of San Marie 2’24

3 The Vagabond 2’56

ROGER QUILTER 1877-1953

Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6 [6’49]

4 Come Away, Death 3’01

5 O Mistress Mine 1’27

6 Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind 2’21

GERALD FINZI 1901-1956

Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18 [15’47]

7 Come Away, Death 3’35

8 Who Is Sylvia? 1’26

9 Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun 6’25

0 O Mistress Mine 1’51

! It Was a Lover and His Lass 2’30

Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above,

And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with stars to see, Bread I dip in the river –

There’s the life for a man like me, There’s the life for ever.

Let the blow fall soon or late, Let what will be o’er me; Give the face of earth around,

And the road before me. Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, Nor a friend to know me;

All I seek, the heaven above, And the road below me.

4 5

“O what a fall is there, my countrymen!”wrote A.H. Bullen in 1887, describing Englishsong-writing as “a lost art” and bewailing the“poor thin wretched stuff that one hears indrawing-rooms today”. And it wasn’t justsong-writing that came in for criticism. WhileEngland has never been without its greatpoets and writers, until the emergence ofElgar at the end of the 19th century, it hadfailed to produce any internationallyrenowned composers for around 200 years,notoriously leading the Germans to call it “a land without music”.

The composers of the 20th century more than made up for this, however, and nativemusic once again became respectable. In the early decades English musicians pulledaway from the influence of Germany andbegan to consciously form (or rediscover)their own musical traditions, looking inwardfor inspiration.

Folk music, which the Industrial Revolutionhad almost extinguished, was avidly andurgently collected. Purcell and the Englishcarol were re-explored, and the vast wealth ofnative texts put to use. In tapping into theseresources, composers not only honoured thepast but also created an authentic nationalsound. Song-writing in particular became oneof the century’s strongest musical forms. It

was rich, abundant, distinguished and, withits phrases shaped by the patterns of thenative language, peculiarly English. A.H. Bullen would have been proud.

Many of these English composers had anintrospective bent, and John Ireland was noexception. Highly self-critical, he had alifelong desire to escape the present into anidealised past. Although he made significantcontributions to orchestral music (he did not compose symphonies, however, calling the British contribution to this form “poppycock”), his most strikingaccomplishments were his songs, whichdemonstrate a Romantic lyricism edged withEnglish restraint.

These three songs are set to poems of JohnMasefield. Sea Fever, from 1913, enjoyedgreat popularity for many years, althoughIreland was concerned that many singerstook the song too fast, obscuring his unusualharmonies. The modal strains of the melodyare reminiscent of an English sea shanty. TheBells of San Marie, written five years later, isanother robust, strident song featuring menof the sea. Under their strong hands the bellsdo not merely chime, but jingle, jangle, throb,pulse, beat, clang and swell! All of thesesounds can be heard in the piano, whichplays a crucial role in bringing the text to life.

Or let autumn fall on me

Where afield I linger,

Silencing the bird on tree,

Biting the blue finger.

White as meal the frosty field –

Warm the fireside haven –

Not to autumn will I yield,

Not to winter even!

6

In the introspective, melancholic TheVagabond, written in 1922, the protagonist isnot a strong seaman but a lonely traveller onthe “dusty road” of life. The melody fits thenuances of the vagabond’s speech neatly,while the restrained simplicity of theaccompaniment reflects his philosophy of life.

Roger Quilter often remarked that he likedpoetry better than music, so it is little wonderthat he was first and foremost a song-writer.In fact, very little else was expected of himonce the great tenor Gervase Elweschampioned his songs and assured theircontinued popularity. Quilter wrote within theliving and very popular tradition of thedrawing-room ballad, bringing to it a newdepth, yet rarely venturing outside itsboundaries. He believed in writing songs forthe singer’s enjoyment, or “keeping themusical line”, which prompted Scott Goddardto call him “the foremost living Englishexample of the singer’s composer”.

The first two of Quilter’s Three ShakespeareSongs, opus 6, written in 1905, hail fromTwelfth Night. Come Away, Death describesthe melancholy yearning for escape from thepain of a broken heart. The sensitive pianowriting and chromaticism of the melodyhighlight the poignancy of the words. O Mistress Mine, in contrast, tells of theyouthful joy of the early stages of love. The

seemingly carefree mood is broken by theflattened seventh at the end of the secondverse, and the warning that youth will “not endure”.

In Blow, Blow,Thou Winter Wind, from As YouLike It, we are told that love, in any case, is“mere folly”. The mood swings betweenmelancholy, defiance, despair and a possiblyironic jollity. The tonal changes from major tominor, facilitated by open fifths in the piano,express the singer’s bitterness of, and thenresignation to, the human condition.

Gerald Finzi also turned to Shakespeare forinspiration. His opus 18, Let Us GarlandsBring, written between 1929 and 1940,consists of five Shakespeare songs, two ofwhich also featured in Quilter’s song-cycle.

Finzi devoted his life to the pursuit of beautyin music and poetry. Having lost his fatherand three elder brothers at a young age, hewas acutely aware of his own mortality.Proving that his lyricism extended beyondmusic, he once wrote: “The artist is like thecoral insect, building his reef out of thetransitory world around him and making asolid structure to last long after his ownfragile and uncertain life.” Finzi hoped hisworks would find listeners in futuregenerations, for “to shake hands with a goodfriend over the centuries is a pleasant thing,and the affection which an individual may

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retain after his departure is perhaps the onlything which guarantees an ultimate life to his works.”

Finzi’s setting of Come Away, Death is slowerand darker than Quilter’s, featuring morepainful intervals and sonorous piano writing.Tellingly, both composers, who each avoidedword-painting and favoured syllabic wordsettings, felt compelled to use expressivemelisma on the second-last word of the text:“weep”. Who is Sylvia? is a light-hearted songin praise of Valentine’s beloved from The TwoGentlemen of Verona. The accolades to Sylviaare so extreme as to make the song almost aparody of itself, reflected in Finzi’s lyricalsetting with its florid piano writing.

Vaughan Williams considered Fear No Morethe Heat o’ the Sun, from Cymbeline, one ofthe loveliest songs ever written, and it seemsthat Finzi was indeed in his element settingtexts about death. Proceeding at the pace of a funeral march, the seemingly relentlessminim-crotchet piano pattern finally givesway to the singer’s Mass-like chanting in thelast verse. After this, the light pianointroduction of O Mistress Mine comesalmost as a relief. Finzi makes the most of thedarker elements of the song, however, withincreasingly piercing harmonies and slow,minor phrases at the end of each verse. Thepiano counterpoint seems to play the role of

the ‘mistress’, roaming and tripping aroundthe singer to escape his romantic intentions.The suite ends with all the promise ofspringtime love, in It Was a Lover and HisLass from As You Like It. Continuing thesyncopated rhythms of ‘O Mistress Mine’, thesong provides final flourishes for both pianistand singer.

Benjamin Britten did not share Finzi’s goal ofachieving an “ultimate life” for his works, butwas more concerned with “pleasing peopletoday and letting the future look after itself.”Britten had a strong desire to be useful to hiscommunity, which in part accounted for hislarge and diverse body of work. One of hisgreatest achievements was the revival ofEnglish opera, and he had a particular affinitywith writing for voices. His folk tune settingswere started when he was suffering from asense of rootlessness during his three yearsin America at the start of World War II. Back inEngland, they were used in his recitals withPeter Pears for the war effort, making Britten’smusic known to a wide audience.

Britten self-consciously detached himselffrom the idealised, “pastoral” folk songsettings of Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp,which he considered amateurish. Rather, heused the tunes as a foundation on which tocreate his own style of art-music. The settingsare never sentimental, yet can still be

In the first verse of Youth and Love, thestillness of the vocal line over the hoveringaccompaniment demonstrates the traveller’ssolitude. The song expands in the secondverse, however, as “pleasures assail him”and he boyishly shows off to the girls alongthe way, before leaving them behind. InDreams is the most chromatic andmelancholic song in the cycle, as the travellerremembers with a pang one of those lostloves whom he left “with a smile” to maskhis pain.

The Infinite Shining Heavens is a meditativesong full of wonder for the starry night sky,portrayed by the piano’s shimmeringaccompaniment. The modulation on the word“dead” highlights the sorrow of the singer,yet his ultimate sense of peace is expressedin the final major arpeggio. In Whither must Iwander? the traveller, older now, expressessome bitterness at his itinerant life. Written in1894, the song demonstrates VaughanWilliams’ inherent intimacy with folk music(even before he started collecting it) in itsquasi-modal cadences, giving it a definiteEnglish sound. Bright Is the Ring of Wordstakes us back to a broad, manly style, with itsplain and direct opening phrases. Thesebecome progressively more pensive andreflective, as the poem’s message of thelasting nature of art unfolds.

The concluding song of the cycle, I Have Trodthe Upward and the Downward Slope, wasdiscovered in 1960, two years after thecomposer’s death. The traveller accepts thelife he has led, and is now at peace. After hehas “closed the door”, the solo piano providesan epilogue, finally repeating the samestriding bass from the opening song, as if tosay that, while individual travellers may pass,the road is everlasting.

Camilla Gregg

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intensely emotional. The spare and simpleaccompaniments demonstrate Britten’s abilityto say much using limited means, and reflecthis own feeling for folk songs: “Like much ofthe English countryside they creep into theaffections rather than take them by storm.”

The Salley Gardens, from the first volume ofsongs published in 1943, is a traditional Irishmelody with words by Yeats. The singer’sregret is highlighted by the unexpectedmodulation on the word “foolish” and therepeated descending sighs in the left hand.The Foggy, Foggy Dew, from the thirdvolume, published four years later, was afavourite encore, due in part to itseuphemistically scandalous subject matter.The low-pitched, jaunty piano part emphasisesthe cheeky humour of the song. O Waly,Waly,from the same volume, is a Somerset folksong. The piano portrays the constant, rockingrhythm of the sea, in contrast to theinconstancy of the singer’s beloved, while thepiercing harmonies reflect his pain.

Probably the composer most synonymouswith English folk song, Ralph VaughanWilliams had an enormous impact on therevival of English music. Another musician ofthe people, he was happy writing simple,occasional pieces as well as symphonies,operas and large-scale choral works.Believing that an “international” style of

music would be bland and lifeless, VaughanWilliams was a self-consciously Englishcomposer, turning to Purcell, the Tudor period,hymns and folk songs for inspiration, whileweaving in a certain French impressionism.He often talked of ‘cribbing’ from othersources, and in his obituary notice HerbertHowells called him “a great original [who]liked to be thought a simple kleptomaniac”.

The Songs of Travel, set to poems by RobertLouis Stevenson, are among his earliestworks to enter the repertory. Althoughpublished rather haphazardly in two sets, in1905 and 1907, the cross-quotationsthroughout provide an overall unity. Thetraveller is introduced in The Vagabond, avigorous, masculine song of the outdoors, inwhich the relentless, striding crotchet bassechoes the tramping of feet. Let BeautyAwake has a more lyrical and introvertedstyle, as the accompaniment ripples beneatha soaring vocal line, in praise of the beauty ofdawn and dusk.

In The Roadside Fire the traveller woos hislover with promises of the pleasures of asettled life, where the songs of the roadwould be but a private memory. The coaxingof the first two verses leads into adeclamatory tone, in which “the fine song forsinging” is indeed sung with gusto, and theroad “stretches” and winds.

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Let the blow fall soon or late,

Let what will be o’er me;

Give the face of earth around,

And the road before me.

Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,

Nor a friend to know me;

All I seek, the heaven above,

And the road below me.

11

1 Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tideIs a wild call and a clear call, that may not be denied;And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where the wind’s like a whetted knife;And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

John Masefield from Salt-Water Ballads

2 The Bells of San Marie

It’s pleasant in Holy MaryBy San Marie lagoon,The bells they chime and jingleFrom dawn to afternoon.They rhyme and chime and mingle,They pulse and boom and beat,And the laughing bells are gentleAnd the mournful bells are sweet.

Oh, who are the men that ring them,The bells of San Marie,Oh, who but sonsie seamenCome in from over sea,And merrily in the belfriesThey rock and sway and hale,And send the bells a-jangle,And down the lusty ale.

It’s pleasant in Holy MaryTo hear the beaten bellsCome booming into music,Which throbs, and clangs, and swells,From sunset till the daybreak,From dawn to afternoon.In port of Holy MaryOn San Marie Lagoon.

John Masefield from Ballads and Poems(‘St Mary’s Bell’)

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I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming? O stay and hear; your true love’s coming,

That can sing both high and low: Trip no further, pretty sweeting;

Journeys end in lovers’ meeting, Every wise man’s son doth know.

3 The Vagabond

Dunno a heap about the what an’ why,Can’t say’s I ever knowed.Heaven to me’s a fair blue stretch of sky,Earth’s jest a dusty road.

Dunno the names o’ things, nor what they are,Can’t say’s I ever will.Dunno about God – he’s jest the noddin’ starAtop the windy hill.

Dunno about Life – it’s jest a tramp aloneFrom wakin’-time to doss.Dunno about Death – it’s jest a quiet stoneAll over-grey wi’ moss.

An’ why I live, an’ why the old world spins,Are things I never knowed;My mark’s the gypsy fires, the lonely inns,An’ jest the dusty road.

John Masefield from Salt-Water Ballads

4 7 Come Away, Death

Come away, come away, death,And in sad cypress let me be laid;Fly away, fly away, breath;I am slain by a fair cruel maid.My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,O prepare it;My part of death, no one so trueDid share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet,On my black coffin let there be strown;Not a friend, not a friend greetMy poor corpse where my bones shall be thrown:A thousand thousand sighs to save,Lay me, O, whereSad true lover never find my graveTo weep there.

William Shakespeare from Twelfth Night,Act II, scene iv

5 0 O Mistress Mine

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?O stay and hear; your true love’s coming,That can sing both high and low:Trip no further, pretty sweeting;Journeys end in lovers’ meeting,Every wise man’s son doth know.

What is love? ‘tis not hereafter;Present mirth hath present laughter;What’s to come is still unsure:In delay there lies no plenty;Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty,Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

William Shakespeare from Twelfth Night, Act II, scene iii

1312

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun, Nor the furious winter’s rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages;

Golden lads and girls all must, As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

6 Blow, Blow,Thou Winter Wind

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,Thou art no so unkindAs man’s ingratitude;Thy tooth is not so keen,Because thou art not seen,Although thy breath be rude.Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:Then, heigh-ho, the holly!This life is most jolly.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,That dost not bite so nighAs benefits forgot:Though thou the waters warp,Thy sting is not so sharpAs friend remember’d not.Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:Then, heigh-ho, the holly!This life is most jolly.

William Shakespeare from As You Like It, Act II, scene vii

8 Who Is Sylvia?

Who is Sylvia? what is she,That all our swains commend her?Holy, fair, and wise is she;The heavens such grace did lend her,That she might admired be.

Is she kind as she is fair?For beauty lives with kindness.Love doth to her eyes repair,To help him of his blindness;And, being helped, inhabits there.

Then to Sylvia let us sing,That Sylvia is excelling;She excels each mortal thingUpon the dull earth dwelling;To her let us garlands bring.

William Shakespeare from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV, scene ii

9 Fear No More the Heat o’ the Sun

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,Nor the furious winter’s rages;Thou thy worldly task hast done,Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages;Golden lads and girls all must,As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o’ the great;Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke:Care no more to clothe and eat;To thee the reed is as the oak:The sceptre, learning, physic, mustAll follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning-flash,Nor the all-dreaded thunder-stone;Fear not slander, censure rash;Thou hast finished joy and moan:

Down by the Salley gardens My love and I did meet,

She passed the Salley gardens With little snow-white feet.

All lovers young, all lovers mustConsign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!Nor no witchcraft charm thee!Ghost unlaid forbear thee!Nothing ill come near thee!Quiet consummation have;And renownèd be thy grave!

William Shakespeare from Cymbeline, Act IV, scene ii

! It Was a Lover and His Lass

It was a lover and his lass,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey noninoThat o’er the green cornfields did passIn spring time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:Sweet lovers love the spring.

Between the acres of the rye,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,These pretty country folks would lie,In spring time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:Sweet lovers love the spring.

This carol they began that hour,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,How that life was but a flowerIn spring time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:Sweet lovers love the spring.

And therefore take the present time,With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,For love is crownèd with the primeIn spring time, the only pretty ring time,When birds do sing, hey ding a ding a ding:Sweet lovers love the spring.

William Shakespeare from As You Like It, Act V, scene iii

@ The Salley Gardens

Down by the Salley gardensMy love and I did meet,She passed the Salley gardensWith little snow-white feet.She bid me take love easyAs the leaves grow on the tree,But I, being young and foolishWith her did not agree.

In a field by the riverMy love and I did stand,And on my leaning shoulderShe laid her snow-white hand;She bid me take life easyAs the grass grows on the weirs,But I was young and foolish,And now am full of tears.

William Butler Yeats

1514

The water is wide I cannot get o’er, And neither have I wings to fly.

Give me a boat that will carry two, And both shall row, my love and I.

£ The Foggy, Foggy Dew

When I was a bachelor, I lived all alone,And worked at the weaver’s tradeAnd the only, only thing that I ever did wrong,Was to woo a fair young maid.I wooed her in the wintertime,And in the summer too And the only, only thing I did that was wrong,Was to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew.

One night she came to my bedsideWhen I lay fast asleep.She laid her head upon my bed,And she began to weep.She sighed, she cried, she damn’ near died,She said: What shall I do?So I hauled her into bed and I covered up her head,Just to keep her from the foggy, foggy dew.

Oh I am a bachelor and I live with my son,And we work at the weaver’s trade.And every single time that I look into his eyes,He reminds me of the fair young maid.He reminds me of the wintertimeAnd of the summer too,And of the many, many times that I held her in my arms,Just to keep her from the foggy, foggy, dew.

Anonymous

$ O Waly, Waly

The water is wide I cannot get o’er,And neither have I wings to fly.Give me a boat that will carry two,And both shall row, my love and I.

O, down in the meadows the other day,A-gath’ring flowers both fine and gay,A-gath’ring flowers both red and blue,I little thought what love can do.

I leaned my back up against some oakThinking that he was a trusty tree;But first he bended, and then he broke;And so did my false love to me.

A ship there is, and she sails the sea,She’s loaded deep as deep can be,But not so deep as the love I’m in:I know not if I sink or swim.

O, love is handsome and love is fine,And love’s a jewel while it is new;But when it is old, it groweth cold,And fades away like morning dew.

Anonymous% The Vagabond

Give to me the life I love,Let the lave go by me,Give the jolly heaven above,And the byway nigh me.Bed in the bush with stars to see,

Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,

Beauty awake from rest! Let Beauty awake For Beauty’s sake

Bread I dip in the river – There’s the life for a man like me,There’s the life for ever.

Let the blow fall soon or late,Let what will be o’er me;Give the face of earth around,And the road before me.Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,Nor a friend to know me;All I seek, the heaven above,And the road below me.

Or let autumn fall on meWhere afield I linger,Silencing the bird on a tree,Biting the blue finger.White as meal the frosty field – Warm the fireside haven – Not to autumn will I yield,Not to winter even!

Let the blow fall soon or late,Let what will be o’er me;Give the face of earth around,And the road before me.Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,Nor a friend to know me;All I ask, the heaven above,And the road below me.

Robert Louis Stevenson from Songs of Travel

^ Let Beauty Awake

Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,Beauty awake from rest!Let Beauty awakeFor Beauty’s sakeIn the hour when the birds awake in the brakeAnd the stars are bright in the west!

Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,Awake in the crimson eve!In the day’s dusk endWhen the shades ascend,Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend,To render again and receive!


& The Roadside Fire

I will make you brooches and toys for your delightOf bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.I will make a palace fit for you and meOf green days in forests, and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom;And you shall wash your linen and keep your body whiteIn rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

1716

The infinite shining heavens Rose, and I saw in the night

Uncountable angel stars Showering sorrow and light.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!That only I remember, that only you admire,Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.


* Youth and Love

To the heart of youth the world is a highwayside.Passing for ever, he fares; and on either hand,Deep in the gardens golden pavilions hide,Nestle in orchard bloom, and far on the level landCall him with lighted lamp in the eventide.

Thick as stars at night when the moon is down,Pleasures assail him. He to his nobler fateFares; and but waves a hand as he passes on,Cries but a wayside word to her at the garden gate,Sings but a boyish stave and his face is gone.


( In Dreams

In dreams unhappy, I behold you standAs heretofore:The unremember’d tokens in your handAvail no more.

No more the morning glow, no more the grace,Enshrines, endears.Cold beats the light of time upon your faceAnd shows your tears.

He came and went. Perchance you wept awhileAnd then forgot.Ah me! but he that left you with a smileForgets you not.


) The Infinite Shining Heavens

The infinite shining heavensRose, and I saw in the nightUncountable angel starsShowering sorrow and light.

I saw them distant as heaven,Dumb and shining and dead,And the idle stars of the nightWere dearer to me than bread.

Night after night in my sorrowThe stars looked over the sea,Till lo! I looked in the duskAnd a star had come down to me.


¡ Whither Must I Wander?

Home no more home to me, whither mustI wander?Hunger my driver, I go where I must.Cold blows the winter wind over hill and heather:Thick drives the rain and my roof is in the dust.Loved of wise men was the shade of my roof-tree,The true word of welcome was spoken in the door –

Bright is the ring of words When the right man rings them,

Fair the fall of songs When the singer sings them. Still they are carolled and said –

On wings they are carried – After the singer is dead And the maker buried.

Dear days of old with the faces in the firelight,Kind folks of old, you come again no more.

Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces,Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child.Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland;Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild.Now when day dawns on the brow of the moorland,Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold.Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed,The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.

Spring shall come, come again, calling up the moor-fowl,Spring shall bring the sun and rain, bring the bees and flowers;Red shall the heather bloom over hill and valley,Soft flow the stream through the even-flowing hours.Fair the day shine as it shone on my childhood – Fair shine the day on the house with open door;Birds come and cry there and twitter in the chimney – But I go for ever and come again no more.


™ Bright Is the Ring of Words

Bright is the ring of wordsWhen the right man rings them,Fair the fall of songsWhen the singer sings them.Still they are carolled and said – On wings they are carried – After the singer is deadAnd the maker buried.

Low as the singer liesIn the field of heather,Songs of his fashion bringThe swains together.And when the west is redAnd the sunset embers,The lover lingers and singsAnd the maid remembers.


# I Have Trod the Upward and the

Downward Slope

I have trod the upward and the downward slope;I have endured and done in days before;I have longed for all, and bid farewell to hope;And I have lived and loved, and closed the door.


Teddy Tahu Rhodes

New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodesstudied with Mary Adams Taylor, winning atthe age of 20 the Dame Sister Mary LeoScholarship as New Zealand’s mostpromising singer. In 1991, he won the MobilSong Quest, and continued his studies withRudolf Piernay at the Guildhall School ofMusic and Drama in London, andsubsequently with David Harper. Whilst in theUK, he was a finalist in the Kathleen FerrierAward, and performed in recital as part of theYoung Songmakers’ Almanac Concert Seriesdirected by Graham Johnson. During thisperiod, he also performed for the Salt LakeCity International Concert Series with IainBurnside, and in recital in Japan with pianistMaurice Till. He had the honour ofrepresenting New Zealand in the 1999 BBCCardiff Singer of the World competition.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes initially established hiscareer with New Zealand’s major opera,concert and choral organisations, where hisengagements have included Marcello in LaBohème and Silvio in Pagliacci for OperaNew Zealand, Marcello and Sharpless inMadama Butterfly for Canterbury Opera,Mephistopheles in a concert version of Faustfor Christchurch City Choir, Tippett’s A Childof Our Time with the New Zealand SymphonyOrchestra and Escamillo in an arenaproduction of Carmen in Auckland. He has

also performed in concert with the City ofDunedin Choir and the ChristchurchSymphony Orchestra.

In 1998, he made his Australian debut in aseries of highly regarded performances withOpera Australia as Dandini in La Cenerentola,and as soloist in Messiah for the MelbourneSymphony Orchestra and SydneyPhilharmonia Choirs. In 2000, he made hisacclaimed American debut with San FranciscoOpera as Joe in the world premiere of JakeHeggie’s Dead Man Walking, an opera basedon the film of the same name, and alsoperformed in that company’s Opera in the Parkconcert under the baton of Donald Runnicles.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes now appears with anincreasing range of prestigious companiesaround the world. He performs regularly withOpera Australia, where his roles have includedthe Count in The Marriage of Figaro, Demetriusin A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Guglielmo inCosì fan tutte, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore,Escamillo, Silvio, and Harlequin in Ariadne aufNaxos. He has returned to the US to singBelcore with Philadelphia Opera and Stanley inAndré Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire forAustin Opera, and to New Zealand where hesang Guglielmo with Canterbury Opera.

An active concert performer, Teddy TahuRhodes has appeared with the Sydney,Queensland, Melbourne and Tasmanian

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Give to me the life I love,

Let the lave go by me,

Give the jolly heaven above,

And the byway nigh me.

Bed in the bush with stars to see,

Bread I dip in the river –

There’s the life for a man like me,

There’s the life for ever.

Sharolyn Kimmorley

After studying at the Sydney Conservatoriumof Music, Sharolyn Kimmorley joined theMusic Staff of The Australian Opera (nowOpera Australia) in 1975 and has assisted inthe preparation of a vast range of works withmany distinguished singers and conductors.In 1985 she became Principal Repetiteur forThe Australian Opera and in 1987 wasappointed Head of Music Staff. From 1994 to1999 she was the company’s ArtisticAdministrator, following which she was OperaAustralia’s Director of Music Administrationuntil June 2003. Since January 2000 she hasbeen Chair of Opera Studies at the SydneyConservatorium of Music.

Sharolyn Kimmorley is also regarded as oneof Australia’s finest coaches and accompanists.She has recorded for the ABC, taken part inchamber music concerts, and accompaniedsome of the world’s most distinguishedrecitalists including Håkan Hagegård, NeilRosenshein, Stephen Bennett, Michael Lewis,Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Sir Thomas Allen,Désirée Rancatore, Elizabeth Campbell, Keith Lewis, Inessa Galante, Kathleen Battleand Jonathan Lemalu.

She regularly accompanies the major singingcompetitions and in 1983 was invited by TitoGobbi to be the accompanist for the ConcorsoInternazionale per Cantanti at Bassano del

Grappa and coach for the Studio dell’operaItaliana at Asolo. In 2001 she was a jurymember for the first China (Guangdong)International Singing Competition. In 2002 shewas a guest teacher at The Australian OperaStudio in Perth and in 2003 was a guest teacherat the Auckland Opera Studio. SharolynKimmorley was the recipient of the 2003 OperaFoundation Australia Bayreuth Scholarship.

Recent engagements include a recital withDennis O’Neill and Kirsti Harms in the YarraValley, recitals with Teddy Tahu Rhodes andAmelia Farrugia for Opera Australia at the ArtGallery of New South Wales, and a furtherrecital with Teddy Tahu Rhodes for ABCClassic FM.

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Symphony Orchestras, the Melbourne Chorale,Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, the ChristchurchCity Choir and the Spray Farm SummerFestival in Australia for International ConcertAttractions. In 2002 he undertook a nationaltour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Engagements in 2003 included Demetriusand an acclaimed role debut as Don Giovanniwith Opera Australia, the role of The Pilot inthe world premiere of Rachel Portman’s TheLittle Prince for Houston Grand Opera, andJoe in the Australian premiere of Dead ManWalking for State Opera of South Australia.He also sang in recital for the Art Gallery ofNSW, and performed Die schöne Müllerin forABC Classic FM in a live national broadcastbefore travelling back to the US for his debutwith Dallas Opera as Marcello.

In 2004, Teddy Tahu Rhodes sang the role ofBendrix in the world premiere of JakeHeggie’s The End of the Affair for HoustonGrand Opera, Stanley in A Streetcar NamedDesire in his debut with Washington Opera,Don Giovanni for Cincinnati Opera, andreturned to Dallas Opera for Escamillo. In concert, he gave the world premiereperformances of Barry Conyngham’s Fix withthe Sydney Symphony, returned to SydneyPhilharmonia for performances of Messiah,and appeared with the Australian ChamberOrchestra at the Huntington Festival.

He returned to Australia in 2005 to singLeandro in Opera Australia’s new productionof The Love for Three Oranges under RichardHickox as well as further performances ofEscamillo and Don Giovanni, and appearedwith the West Australian and SydneySymphony Orchestras, and at the BundaleerFestival. Future engagements include his roledebut as Papageno for Welsh National Opera,the Count and Lescaut in Manon Lescaut withHouston Grand Opera, Escamillo withHamburg Staatsoper and the Théâtre duChâtelet and Fauré’s Requiem with the LondonPhilharmonic under Emmanuel Krivine.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ discography for ABCClassics includes Fauré’s Requiem and LaNaissance de Vénus, Messiah (also on DVD)Mozart Arias, and The Voice, which wasawarded an Australian Record IndustryAssociation award for ‘Best Classical Album’.He also appears on the soundtrack to MusicalRenegades with the Australian ChamberOrchestra, and features in the film of TheLittle Prince, directed by Francesca Zambello,for the BBC and Sony Classical.

Teddy Tahu Rhodes won the inaugural DomPerignon Opera Australia Award in 2001, andthe 2004 Helpmann Award for ‘Best MalePerformer in an Opera’ for his performancesof Joe in Dead Man Walking for State Operaof South Australia.

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Executive Producers Robert Patterson, Lyle ChanRecording Producer Stephen SnellemanRecording Engineer Allan MacleanAssociate Producer and Editor Thomas GrubbRecordings Manager Virginia ReadEditorial and Production Manager Hilary ShrubbCover and Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty LtdPhotography Peter Brew-Bevan(photograph of Sharolyn Kimmorley courtesy ofJenifer Eddy Artists’ Management)Stylist Virginia HeythuysenGrooming Stephanie TetuClothing Jacket, jeans and belt from EmporioArmani; jewellery from Robby Ingham

ABC Classics thanks Peter Brew-Bevan, RuzenkaPavlik, Jane Somerville, Peter Maddigan, StevenGodbee, Natalie Shea, Amy Reedy, Who Weekly.

Recorded 20 August 2002 at the Eugene GoossensHall of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’sUltimo Centre, Sydney.

P 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation © 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed inAustralia by Universal Music Group, under exclusive licence.Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved.Any copying, renting, lending, diffusion, public performance orbroadcast of this record without the authority of the copyrightowner is prohibited.

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