Roger Quilter

1877-1953

Song Style
Melody o Outstanding feature of Quilters song o His melodies have a remarkable ability to communicate the essence and beauty of poetry o All of his songs reflect his penchant for simple elegance o Tuneful, singable o His melodies lend expressivity to the text by emphasizing correct syllables o His songs provide excellent material for beginning singers Harmony o Skillful and expressive - tastefully woven into the spirit of the poetry and song o Never conspicuous or over-bearing o Highly supportive role o Traditional tonality Rhythm o Traditional rhythms o No excessively distracting syncopation or figures that would detract from communicating the poetic beauty Accompaniment o Scored for piano o Medium difficulty o Communicative - takes on various moods, depending on text Poets o Elegant poetic sense o Very successful in setting work of the great poets Tennyson (Now sleeps the crimson petal) Shelley (Loves Philosophy) Shakespeare (O mistress mine, Come away, death) Stevenson (Over the land is April) Elizabethans (Weep you no more) o His best works revolve around love ironic for a man whose relationships were infused with pain and anguish o The cycle To Julia was said to be the perfect English setting of perfect English words. (Lewis Foreman, quoted by Carol Kimball in Song: A Guide to
Art Song Style and Literature)

Loves Philosophy
Composed in 1905, from Three Songs, Op. 3 Original key: F Major Dedicated to the tenor Gervase Elwes, whose voice Quilter particularly enjoyed. Elwes may have premiered the song. Melody o A lot of up and down Loves Philosophy waves of sound o Interval of a 3rd is quite The fountains mingle with the River frequent And the Rivers with the Ocean, o Apex of song is the The winds of Heaven mix for ever highest note With a sweet emotion; o Lively and expressive Nothing in the world is single; use of consonants All things by a law divine o Modified strophic form In one another's being mingle. Harmony Why not I with thine? o Piano plays many Not I with thine? arpeggiated chords throughout See the mountains kiss high Heaven o Well within the structure And the waves clasp one another; of tonality No sister flower would be forgiven o Some accidentals If it disdained its brother; o Pivotal key change in And the sunlight clasps the earth penultimate phrase And the moonbeams kiss the sea: builds momentum and What are all these kissings worth provides emphasis If thou kiss not me? Rhythm o Energetic tempo o Accompaniment primarily comprised of 16th notes o Eighth notes dominate the melody o Toward the end of the song, Quilter stretches the note values key words are held longer to intensify their meaning Accompaniment o Brilliant arpeggios at a very quick pace o Opening phrase introduces melodic line o Accompaniment often echoes/doubles melody o Animated, thereby creating a mood of breathless infatuation o The brief postlude escalates in a sparkling and emphatic finale Poetry o Percy B. Shelley o The speaker, a young love-struck man, sees all of nature mingling in couplets of affection, and asks his sweetheart why they too, should not be united. The picture here is of young love, unabashed and simple. 2

Weep you no more

From Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, Op. 12 Original key: f minor Evidence points to a premiere performance by Gervase Elwes and Roger Quilter at Bechstein Hall, in Lordon on November 17, 1908. Melody o Revolves around one Weep you no more repeated note C5 o A lot of stepwise motions Weep you no more, sad fountains; with some 3rds and other What need you flow so fast? intervals interspersed. Look how the snowy mountains o Strophic form. Two verses Heaven's sun doth gently waste! with identical music. But my sun's heavenly eyes o Relatively small range: View not your weeping, within a 9th (from F4-G5) That now lies sleeping, Harmony Softly now, softly lies sleeping o Squarely within tonality Sleeping. o Key: f minor. Begins and ends with tonic chord. Sleep is a reconciling, o Texture is fairly simple; A rest that peace begets; interesting and supportive, Doth not the sun rise smiling but nothing overly busy When fair at even he sets? Rhythm Rest you, then, rest, sad eyes! o Poco andante a slow Melt not in weeping, walking pace, lilt While she lies sleeping, o Slower rhythm underscores Softly now, softly lies sleeping the melancholy attitude Sleeping. o Both the melody and the accompaniment primarily consist of quarter notes and eighth notes o Some tied notes and dotted rhythms but nothing jarring Accompaniment o Enters with softly undulating chords that provide a mood of quiet contemplation and a tinge of sadness. o The opening motif (left hand entrance on downbeat followed by right hand response on the 2nd half of the beat) continues for the first 8 measures, and after a brief 4 measures, the figure returns. o Brief postlude repeats the same material as the opening measures and ends calmly Poetry o Anonymous

o Poet addresses someone who is sad, weeping, and weary. Drawing on various aspects of nature, he seeks to comfort the mourning one.

Representative Works
Go, Lovely Rose perhaps his finest love song. From Five English Love Lyrics. Three Songs, Op.3 o Loves Philosophy o Now sleeps the crimson petal o Fill a glass with golden wine Seven Elizabethan Lyrics. Op. 12 o Weep you no more o My Lifes Delight o Damask Roses o The Faithless Shepherdess o Brown I my love o By a Fountainside o Fair House of Joy Three Shakespeare Songs, Op. 6 o Come away, death o O mistress mine o Blow, blow, thou winter wind Five Shakespeare Songs, Op 23 o Fear no more the heat o the sun o Under the greenwood tree o It was a lover and his lass o Take, O take those lips away o Hey, ho, the wind and the rain To Julia, Op. 8 o Prelude (piano only) o The Bracelet o The Maiden Blush o To Daisies o The Night Piece o Julias Hair o Interlude (piano only) o Cherry Ripe

Biography

Born in Hove, England on November 1, 1877 From a wealthy family - his father was a stockbroker.

Attended Eton Studied at Hoch conservatory with Iwan Knorr in Frankfurt o Quilter is one of the Frankfurt Group a group of five composers, all of which studied at Hoch with Knorr (though not simultaneously). Norman ONeill Balfour Gardiner, Cyril Scott Percy Grainger Roger Quilter Connection with Gervase Elwes o Elwes popularized Quilters works, particularly through the cycle Julia and Seven Elizabethan Lyrics. o Quilter wrote many songs with his voice in mind o Dedication: I could have never written in quite the same way if I had not known Gervase. (Lewis Foreman, quoted by Carol Kimball in Song: A
Guide to Art Song Style and Literature)

o Their collaboration strongly impacted Quilters compositions Wrote the opera Julia in 1936 not a huge success Composed music for the childrens play Where the Rainbow ends (1911) Also wrote some chamber music Set up a Musicians Benevolence Fund in honor of Elwes Died in London on September 21, 1953

Bibliography Dibble, Jeremy. "Frankfurt Group." In The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e2671 (accessed March 24, 2011). Kennedy, Michael and Jeremy Dibble . "Quilter, Roger (Cuthbert)." In The Oxford Companion to Music, edited by Alison Latham. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e5452 (accessed March 24, 2011). Kimball, Carol. Song : A Guide to Art Song Style and Literature. Rev. ed. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2006. "Quilter, Roger." In The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd ed. rev., edited by Michael Kennedy. Oxford Music Online, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t237/e8260 (accessed March 24, 2011). Walters, Richard. Standard Vocal Literature : Soprano. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2004.