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Technical Notice
| Classical Composer: | Finzi, Gerald |
|---|---|
| Lyricist: | Shakespeare, William |
| Work: | Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18 |
| Year Composed: | 1938 |
| Instrumentation: | v, pf |
| Publisher: | Boosey & Hawkes |
| Duration: | 00:13:00 |
| Period: | 20th Century |
| Work Category: | Vocal |
Work Information
Available Recording(s)
Finzi's settings of Shakespeare, Let Us Garlands Bring, were first performed by Robert Irvin and Howard Ferguson on 12 October 1942. That performance coincided with Vaughan Williams's seventieth birthday and Finzi dedicated the songs to him as his present. The dedicatee told him that Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun was one of the loveliest songs he had ever heard. After the concert Finzi and his wife took Vaughan Williams to lunch and as a second birthday present gave him the largest home-grown apple ever seen.
The songs range widely in mood beginning with the resigned funeral chime of Come Away, Come Away, Death, which is contrasted by a fresh evocation of newborn love in Who is Sylvia?. Vaughan Williams's favourite, Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun, is indeed the finest of the set. As so often in Finzi's Hardy settings, it is the images of transience (the dust to which the 'golden lads and girls' all must come), that drew from him an unforgettable response, as he translates the words into a haunting melody riven with melancholy. The lilting metre falters just once, in a superbly judged moment of drama at 'No Exorciser Harm Thee', which Finzi sets as a quasi-recitative, before a ghostly echo of the main melody closes the song. The genial O Mistress Mine, described by Finzi as a 'pleasant, light, troubadourish setting' follows, and a carefree version of It Was a Lover and His Lass rounds off the work.
Writer: Andrew Burn
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