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PHILIPS Four Sonnets of John Clare for Baritone and Piano

EP 73506

JULIAN PHILIPS

Four Sonnets of John Clare for Baritone and Piano (2002, rev. 2015)

EDITION PETERS L E I P Z I G · L O N D O N · NEW YORK

PROGRAMME NOTE 1. Fame 2. The Death of Beauty 3. Memory 4. The Shepherd’s Tree Four Sonnets of John Clare was completed in April 2002 and commissioned by Wigmore Hall, with funds made available by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. The set was written specially for Sir Thomas Allen and Graham Johnson, who gave its premiere on the 16th July 2002 at the Wigmore Hall. The work is dedicated to William Lyne. All four sonnets reflect on different aspects of Clare’s human experience: the transience of worldy renown, the loss of inspiration, a fear of neglect in death and a love of the numinous in nature. The music seeks to match Clare’s poetic gestures with clarity and economy. In Fame, once Clare’s initial question is posed, a cumulative harmonic sequence builds to the sonnet’s almost bitter conclusion, while in The Death of Beauty a fleeting musical texture matches Clare’s elusive vision of a world without inspiration. Memory is the most substantial song of the set and the most human, its music breaking out from sinewy chromatic lines for its tender close. The Shepherd’s Tree returns us to the fleeing world of the earlier songs, moving from muscular phrases to lyrical fragments as Clare fixes on the haunting transience of nature’s music – a fitting close for the whole set. Four Sonnets of John Clare was revised in April 2015 in creative preparation for a new John Clare cycle, Love Songs for Mary Joyce (2016), again commissioned by Wigmore Hall for tenor James Gilchrist

dedicated to William Lyne, MBE

Four Sonnets of John Clare I. Fame What’s future fame? a melody loud playing In crowds where one is wanting, whose esteeming Would love to hear it best; a sun displaying A solitary glory, whose bright beaming, Smiling on withered ﬂowers and leaves decaying, Lingers behind its world; a crown vain gleaming Around a shade whose substance death hath banished; A living dream o’er which hope once was dreaming; A busy echo on each lip delaying; When he that woke it into life is vanished; A picture that from all hearts praise is stealing; A statue towering over glory’s game, That cannot feel, while he that was all feeling Is past, and gone, and nothing but a name.

John Clare (1793–1864)

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Edition Peters 73506

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Julian Philips (2002, rev. 2015)

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II. The Death of Beauty Now thou art gone, the fairy rose is ﬂed, That erst gay Fancy’s garden did adorn. Thine was the dew on which her folly fed, The sun by which she glittered in the morn. Now thou are gone, her pride is withered; In dress of common weeds she doth array, And vanity neglects her in its play. Thou wert the very index of her praise, Her borrowed bloom was kindled from thy rays: Like dancing insects that the sun allures, She little heeded it was gained from thee. Vain joys! what are they now their sun’s away? What but poor shadows that blank night obscures, As the grave hides what would dishonoured be?

John Clare (1793–1864)

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III. Memory I would not that my being all should die And pass away with every common lot; I would not that my humble dust should lie In quite a strange and unfrequented spot, By all unheeded and by all forgot, With nothing save the heedless winds to sigh, And nothing but the dewy morn to weep About my grave, far hid from the world’s eye: I fain would have some friend to wander nigh, And ﬁnd a path to where my ashes sleep Not the cold heart that merely passes by To read who lies beneath, but such as keep Past memories warm with deeds of other years, And pay to Friendship some few friendly tears.

John Clare (1793–1864)

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Julian Philips (2002, rev. 2015)

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IV. The Shepherd’s Tree Huge elm, with rifted trunk all notched and scarred, Like to a warrior’s destiny, I love To stretch me, often on thy shadowed sward, And hear the laugh of summer leaves above; Or on thy buttressed roots to sit, and lean In careless attitude, and there reﬂect On times and deeds and darings that have been -Old castaways, now swallowed in neglect, While thou art towering in thy strength of heart, Stirring the soul to vain imaginings In which life’s sordid being hath no part. The wind of that eternal ditty sings Humming of future things, that burn the mind To leave some fragment of itself behind.

John Clare (1793–1864)

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Julian Philips (2002, rev. 2015)

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Julian Philips

Julian Philips (b. 1969) studied music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and his compositions have been performed at major festivals and venues including the Proms, the Tanglewood Music Festival, Welsh National Opera and Glyndebourne. A significant composer of operatic music, Philips’ work includes Followers, The Yellow Sofa, and Knight Crew (libretto by Nicky Singer) commissioned by Glyndebourne (2010). Welsh National Opera commissioned two chamber operas, Dolffin and Wild Cat. Other works include two ballets for English National Ballet, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Snow Queen. Julian Philips is Honorary Fellow of, and was made Head of Composition at, the Guildhall School of Music in 2004. He has also taught at Cambridge. Julian Philips (*1969) studierte Musik am Emmanuel College in Cambridge. Seine Kompositionen sind bei führenden Festivals und in renommierten Häusern erklungen, darunter die BBC Proms, das Tanglewood Music Festival, Welsh National Opera und das Opernfestival im englischen Glyndebourne. Philips ist ein bedeutender Opernkomponist, und seinen Schaffen umfasst die Bühnenwerke Followers, The Yellow Sofa sowie Knight Crew (2010), ein Auftragswerk für Glyndebourne auf ein Libretto von Nicky Singer. Zwei Kammeropern, Dolffin und Wild Cat, entstanden im Auftrag der Welsh National Opera. Zu weiteren Werken gehören zwei Ballette für das English National Ballet, nämlich Les Liaisons Dangereuses und The Snow Queen. Julian Philips ist „Honorary Fellow“ der Guildhall School of Music, wo er 2004 zum Leiter der Kompositionsabteilung ernannt wurde. Außerdem lehrte er in Cambridge.

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