"The problem of freedom in America is that of
maintaining a competition of ideas, and you do
not achieve that by silencing one brand of idea."
AUTHOR: Max Lerner
MEANING OF THE QUOTE:
"An artist must be open to all ideas and styles
of music to achieve career success in a country
where people have the freedom to choose
any music they like."
COMPOSER:
LINDEN LEA
A DORSET SONG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu1vk79Z_Y4
"An artist must be open to all ideas and styles
of music to achieve career success in a country
where people have the freedom to choose
any music they like."
COMPOSER:
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
A DORSET SONG
INFORMATION FROM:
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/linden-lea-song-for-voice-
orchestra-in-linden-lea-a-dorset-song-mc0002371849
orchestra-in-linden-lea-a-dorset-song-mc0002371849
http://walfamily.net/Handmaidens/Handmaidens_of_the_Shepherd/
Blog/Entries/2011/6/24_Folk_Song__Linden_Lea.html
Blog/Entries/2011/6/24_Folk_Song__Linden_Lea.html
Linden Lea is the most popular of Vaughan Williams'
songs, and probably the one piece of music that made
him the most money over the course of his life. He
wrote it in 1901 (it was his first work to be published
and he was just about 30 years-old) while he was
working on his Doctor of Music degree at Cambridge,
 |
| Cambridge |
to a pastoral poetic text (in Dorsetshire dialect)
by the English writer, ordained minister,
philologist, and highly esteemed
poet (and Dorset resident),
 |
| William Barnes (1800-1886) |
who wrote over 800 poems, many also in the
Dorset dialect for which he is best known.
 |
| Bertha Ridley Bell: Poole Harbour, Dorset |
Friendly with the writers Thomas Hardy,
his poetry is characterized by
"a singular sweetness and tenderness of feeling …"
and
"… exquisite feeling for local scenery."
 |
| George Vicat Cole: Landscape |
LINDEN LEA
A DORSET SONG
John McCormack, Vocals (1941)
The lyrics talk of a man's desire for what is
most important to him in life. He is no longer
consumed with work or what people may say
about him; his focus remains on what is pure.
 |
Those lyrics presented at left are the "Common English" version; the original (at right),
"My Orcha’d in Lindèn Lea," were written by Barnes in the Dorset dialect.
There are a couple of differences worth noting between the original poem and this translation:
In Verse 2, the fourth line in the translation reads, "Up upon the timber-tops"
whereas in the poem the line is, "Up upon the timber's tops."
In Verse 3, again the fourth line in the translation reads, "Though no man may heed my frowns"
but in the poem the line is, "Though noo man do heed my frowns."
These changes may have been made to improve the flow of the words when sung,
as one can easily comprehend the meaning of either version.
|
 |
| Charles Ginner: Chideock, Dorset |
LINDEN LEA
A DORSET SONG
Janet Baker, Vocals
LINDEN LEA
Poem Animation
Full Text
by William Barnes
Above is a virtual movie of the English Dialect poet
William Barnes from the county of Dorset reading one
of his best known poems "Linden Lea" first published
The image used in this virtual movie is of William
Barnes as a young clergy man. "My Orcha'd in
Linden Lea" (to give this poem its full title) features
a content laborer wandering through a secluded
orchard. The poem likewise demonstrates Barnes'
eclectic technical virtuosity and demonstrates the
use of Welsh cynghanedd, a sound pattern of
consonants, later adopted by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
 |
| George Vicat Cole: Watching the Flock |
The text, My Orcha’d in Lindèn Lea, also
from Barnes' Hwomely Rhymes: a Second
Collection of Poems in the Dorset Dialect,
is a defiantly wholesome celebration of
the simple life: of the English countryside,
 |
| Alfred Egerton Cooper: Dorset Landscape |
LINDEN LEA
A DORSET SONG
Roderick Williams, Baritone
A DORSET SONG
Roderick Williams, Baritone
Iain Burnside, Piano
and the freedom that such a life engenders. It
paints a picture of the gentle open-air, with birds,
the water, and trees each making their own music
in contrast to the noise of "dark-roomed towns."
In his career Vaughan Williams set four of
Barnes' poems to music one of which (besides
Linden Lea) was a song called "In the Spring."
IN THE SPRING
Benjamin Luxon, Vocals
David Willis, Piano
Early on in his career Vaughan Williams had
become involved with a new journal on songs
and singing called The Vocalist; appropriately,
its first edition, which appeared in April 1902,
featured an article written by him called "A
School of English Music" along with the sheet
music for Linden Lea. Later, along with his
friend and fellow composer Gustav Holst,
 |
| Left-Right: Holst and Vaughan Williams |
 |
| Left-Right: Holst and Vaughan Williams |
Vaughan Williams was to become a leader
of the English music revival spending a
good part of his time collecting folk songs.
 |
| A Young Vaughan Williams |
Among his friends at Cambridge were
the brothers Nicholas and Ivor Gatty,
 |
| A blurry photo with slim Vaughan Williams on the viola, Nicholas Gatty the violinist, and most probably on cello, Adeline Vaughan Williams, and on horn, Rene Gatty. |
both musicians, who came from the quiet
Yorkshire village of Hooton Roberts.
Vaughan Williams often visited the Gatty
brothers there and it was there that Linden
Lea received its first performance on
September 4, 1902. Within a few years the
song had become enormously well known,
so much so that Vaughan Williams could
refer in a 1925 letter to
"such sins of my youth as Linden Lea, which
becomes every year more horribly popular."
Over a dozen arrangements exist of the song,
which begins with the poet reminiscing about
the sights and sounds of Linden Lea,
particularly the apple tree
 |
| Sir Walter Westley Russell: Under the Apple Trees |
LINDEN LEA
A DORSET SONG
New College Oxford, Choir
A DORSET SONG
New College Oxford, Choir
which
"do lean down low."
(The alliteration "do lean down low in Linden Lea"
is typical of Barnes' style. His noun-combinations
elsewhere such as "heart-heaven" and "mind-
sight" foreshadow the style of Hopkins.) The
mood becomes temporarily agitated as the poet
reflects on the money making possibilities in
"dark-room'd towns."
But, in contemplation of the return trip home,
the song ends softly and reflectively.
 |
| George Vicat Cole: Harvest Rest |
Linden Lea is written in the key of G major,
and uses a "Common English" translation of
Barnes' original Dorset dialect for the lyrics.
