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TRADITIONAL FOLK SONGS

Cecil Sharpe Cecil Sharpe gathered hundreds of folk

collections songs from rural England (many from
Somerset) and published these – for voice
and piano; many used in schools.

The Seeds of Love The Seeds of Love is the first Somerset folk
song that Cecil Sharpe heard.

The Water is Wide (Oh The Water is Wide has been covered by
Waly Waly) numerous artists; listen to the simple
pentatonic melody

ROMANTIC GERMAN LIED

Schubert Schubert is famous for German Lied - solo voice with piano
(German) his lieder (songs) and accompaniment.
clearly influenced other Erlkonig - Schubert’s first published piece,
composers. written at the age of 18. The poem depicts
a father racing through town on horseback
Erlkonig (1815) with his sick son in his arms. The son sees
images of a supernatural (the Erlking).
There are four characters in this song
(narrator, father, son and Erlking) and
Schubert represents these through the
music, changing the tonality, the vocal
range and the accompaniment style.

Schubert Die Forelle (The Trout) German Lied - solo voice with piano
(1817) accompaniment. The poem tells the story
of a trout being caught by a fisherman.
Schubert wrote five versions of this song
and also based his Trout Quintet on it.
The song is strophic – the first two verses
have the same structure but change for the
final verse to give the impression of the
trout being caught.

Schubert Piano Quintet in A major, Quintet for piano, violin, viola, cello and
D. 667, “Trout” double bass (unusual combination –
(1819) usually would be piano + string quartet i.e.
2 violins, viola and cello).
The 4th movement is a set of variations on
Schubert’s earlier song. Notice how the
piano part is integrated into the texture, on
equal terms with the strings.

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Schubert Die schone Mullerin (The A song-cycle; considered one of Schubert’s

Maid in the Mill) most important works – for soprano or
tenor solo and piano. There are 20 songs
(1823) in the cycle and the whole cycle takes 60-
70 minutes to perform. A travelling miller
falls in love with the miller’s daughter but
she is beyond his reach; in the end he
drowns himself in the brook. Half the
songs are in simple strophic form and the
mood moves from cheerful optimism at the
start to despair and tragedy at the end.

Fanny Ferne, op 9 (1823) Fanny Mendelssohn was a contemporary of

Mendelssohn Clara Schumann and wrote over 400
(German) Morgenstandchen compositions including many songs, some
(1846) of which were originally published under
her brother’s name (Felix Mendelssohn).

German Lied for solo voice with piano

accompaniment.

20th CENTURY

Vaughan Linden Lea Vaughan-Williams’s first publication at the

Williams (1901) age of 29; made his name and money!
(English) Strophic and pentatonic

Ravel Jeux d’eau (Water A piece for solo piano, written when Ravel
(French) Games) was a student of Gabriel Faure. Inspired by
(1901) the sounds of water, it is a good example of
early impressionist music.
Vaughan On Wenlock Edge A song cycle for tenor and piano quintet
Williams (1909)

SET WORK
Debussy The Sunken/Submerged A prelude for solo piano and a good
(French) Cathedral example of impressionism.
(1910) Notice the parallel chords and open 5ths to
create the idea of church bells (compare
with ‘Bredon Hill’). Mainly pentatonic
George A Shropshire Lad Butterworth wrote 11 settings of
Butterworth (1911-1912) Housman’s poems, including settings of ‘Is
(English) My Team Ploughing?’ and ‘Bredon Hill’.
Compare the settings of these poems to
those by Vaughan Williams.