gervase elwes, tenor vaughan williams"the roadside fire" *text

gervase elwes, tenor
stevenson; vaughan williams"the roadside fire"
(from 'songs of travel')
1916
© Copyright

operbathosa video
© Copyright

Text:
I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night,
I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of 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 white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

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.

Continued:
Culp sang the Gerontius angel role at the London Music Festival on 22 May 1911 with Elwes, with Herbert Brown and the Norwich Festival Chorus, and Wood states that this was the occasion upon which Elwes finally established his reputation as the greatest exponent of the name part.[22] Five days later Wood and Elwes closed the 1911 Festival with a performance of the St Matthew Passion with Agnes Nicholls, Edna Thornton, Herbert Brown, Herbert Heyner and Robert Radford.[23] In May 1916 he gave six performances of Gerontius on consecutive days, with Clara Butt as the Angel, Charles Mott (Angel of the Agony) and Herbert Brown (Priest), the Leeds Choral Union and London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Elgar himself, in aid of the Red Cross.[24] His last performance of the work was in Northampton in October 1920, with Robert Radford and Norah Dawnay, shortly before leaving for his American tour.[25]

[edit] Elwes and Lieder
He was the foremost English-born performer of the Brahms lieder in the first decades of the 20th century. In January 1907 he made a tour in Germany which included Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Frankfort and Cologne, giving recitals with Fanny Davies (a celebrated pupil of Clara Schumann's). He sang mixed programmes, but his performance of German lieder, and especially of Brahms (in German) was greatly admired. (He was then singing 'Komm bald,' 'Am Sonntag Morgen,' 'Salamander,' 'Ein Wanderer,' 'Wir wandelten', 'Auf dem Kirchhof', 'Magyarisch,' 'Die Kränze,' Ständchen' and 'Botschaft.')[26] He sang the Brahms Liebeslieder in Brussels in 1908 with Marie Brema, and in London gave a recital with Paderewski.[27] In January 1913 at the Queen's Hall, under Henry Wood, he sang Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde in company with the contralto Doris Woodall: Wood thought it 'excessively modern but very beautiful'.[28] Brahms remained central to Elwes's repertoire to the end, and he also performed lieder of Edvard Grieg, Antonín Dvořák and George Henschel. Early in his career he found an ideal accompanist in Frederick B. Kiddle, and they remained associated until his death.

In January 1912 in a recital for Henry Wood at Queen's Hall he introduced the settings of poems of Paul Verlaine by Poldowski (Lady Dean Paul, born Régine Wieniawski, the daughter of Henryk Wieniawski). These songs then had a great vogue in Paris and this performance made a deep impression.[29]

[edit] Elwes and English art-song
But it was as singer of English art-song, and the friend of many leading English composers, that he left his most permanent legacy. He was the dedicatee and first performer of (and the first person to record) Ralph Vaughan Williams cycle On Wenlock Edge and many of the finest songs of Roger Quilter (including the cycle To Julia), both of whom wrote with his voice in mind.[30] In 1912 he gave the first performance of Thomas Dunhill's song-cycle The wind among the reeds for the Philharmonic Society.[31] He had the wholehearted admiration of every generation from Charles Villiers Stanford to Frank Bridge, and their successors still acknowledge the authority of his influence. He was also a wonderful inspiration to leading British singers of his time, as their many private and published memorials of him testify.[32]

[edit] His death
Elwes died aged 55, at the height of his powers, in a horrific accident at Back Bay railway station in Boston, Massachusetts, in the midst of a high-profile recital tour of the United States. Elwes and his wife had alighted on the platform when the singer attempted to return to the conductor an overcoat which had fallen off the train. He leaned over too far and was hit by the train, falling between the train and the platform. He died of his injuries a few hours later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gervase_Elwes

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[Greenflames510]

@lannyboy334

Good luck buddy! ITs nice to a see another fellow musician. What key is your version in? mine is Bb major. Im a full time vocal student once tenor now baritone.

[lannyboy334]

I am singing this song for contest, there are a lot of key changes, its actually pretty difficult

[Herur22]

What a delightful song. Thank you, Paul.