About this piece:
Frederick Delius 1862 - 1934.One version of the poem for this piece:
Moved by his friend Percy Grainer's choral and instrumental setting of a folksong 'Brigg Fair', which he had collected in Lincolnshire, Delius wrote his own 'English Rhapsody' based on the tune in 1907.
On this 1958 recording, the best exponent and champion of Delius' music Sir Thomas Beecham conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The theme is of lovers mirrored in nature after meeting at the fair. The young man rises early in the morning with a yearning for passion and to meet someone special, he goes to Brigg Fair - 'for love I was inclined'!
But not all in life and love runs smoothly or harmoniously as in the folksong.
In this video the innocence of childhood reveals little more than a romantic fantasy. Though the old farmer with his pipe, dressed in a smock and resting on a gate, reflects back on the joys and sorrows of life. A couple walk closely out of the scene emerging from the dark wood at the conclusion symbolizing the continuum of love and life.
Enjoy this fine and sensitive performance of a Delius classic by the Master himself. Try to follow a study of human life and love against the back drop of our lovely, verdant countryside at the peak of Summer. '
It was on the fifth of August-er' the weather fine and fair,
Unto Brigg Fair I did repair, for love I was inclined.
I rose up with the lark in the morning, with my heart so full of glee,
Of thinking there to meet my dear, long time I'd wished to see.
I took hold of her lily-white hand, O and merrily was her heart:
"And now we're met together, I hope we ne'er shall part".
For it's meeting is a pleasure, and parting is a grief,
But an unconstant lover is worse than any thief.
The green leaves they shall wither and the branches they shall die
If ever I prove false to her, to the girl that loves me.
Thank you for posting this poignant evocation of "England's green and pleasant land."
ReplyDeleteWhoever mounted the pictures did a masterful job.
Just lovely!
I chose this particular YouTube version of Brigg Fair precisely because of the images.
DeleteYes. The soothing sweetness tinged with aching melancholy and the lovely bucolic images perfectly complement each other.
DeleteI'm SO glad you are featuring late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century ENGLISH classical music, which I've long thought underrated and too infrequently performed.
Somehow I was reminded of this operatic aria:
ReplyDeleteAlways through the changing
____ of sun and shadow time and space
I will walk beside my love
____ in a green and quiet place
Always though the mist of years
____ no distress hall alter me
I will stay beside my dear
___ clothed in Love’s bright heraldry …
… Always Through the Changing - John La Touche,
librettist for The Ballad of Baby Doe, - music by Douglas Moore
A beautiful piece... I opened it up to full screen on my computer....made for a lovely experience. Thanks...
ReplyDeleteMee too!
DeleteThank you for dusting off this wonderful piece. Reminds me of my own boyhood so long ago!
ReplyDeleteNearly all of Delius's music seems tinged with nostalgia. It always seems musing, reflective, bittersweet and dreamlike. It's charm lies in its uncanny abiity to evoke an atmosphere of peace and deep appreciation for all that is good about life. In ither words it brings back and RECREATES the essence of what has been lost, but still longed for.
DeleteDelius created beautiful WAKING DREAMS, bless him!
Franco,
DeleteThe term WAKING DREAMS fits perfectly.
OUR OLD FRIEND, FREETHINKE, SOMETIMES WROTE VERSE ALONG THESE LINES
ReplyDelete____________ STILLNESS ____________
No sound beyond the dropping of the leaves
Or shushing in the treetops of the stirring
In the air and periodic whirring
Soft of wings and bundling of sheaves ––
Every now and then a bird may call
Looking for or longing for his mate;
Escaping still the hunter’s dinner plate.
Scythes swish steadily as grain grown tall
Submits to delicate compelling force.
Workers silently bent to their task
Over whom hot sunshine spills its rays
Reap swiftly knowing pain could come, of course.
Later, in the afterglow they’ll bask
Dreaming foolishly of better days.
... FreeThinke
Thank you, Trekkie. I believe Beauty begets more Beauty and uplifts us, just as its opposite tends to multiply and poison atmospheres as well.
ReplyDeleteGod bless, and have a lovely day.