Day 75: Half Way!

HaydnCD75Today marks the half-way point in my exploration of the music of Joseph Haydn.

Tempus fugit, eh?

The songs on Haydn CD 75 are a continuation of the ones on CD 74: Scottish Songs for William Napier. Only difference is today’s CD is titled Scottish Songs for William Napier II.

The story of what Haydn did for Mr. Napier is quite extraordinary. I wrote about it yesterday. Take a look when you get a chance.

There are 33 tracks on today’s CD. But the total running time is only about 63 minutes. I’m not math whiz. But when I cipher that ratio is comes out to less than 2 minutes per song.

Screen Shot 2013-12-14 at 7.37.47 AMTrack 1 (“Duncan Davison”), for example. At just over one minute, it’s a wee song. But a fun, bouncy way to start the CD.

“They call him Duncan Davison,” sings tenor Jamie MacDougall in a Scottish brogue so heavy you’d swear he was wearing the traditional belted plaid during his performance.

Track 2 (“Be kind to the young thing”) is another MacDougall performance, thought not as jaunty or fun.

Track 3 (“Had awa frae me, Donald”), performed by soprano Lorna Anderson, is one of the best tracks on this or any previous Scottish Songs For [fill in the blank] CD. Her voice is lilting, and poignant, and wistful all at once. So very, very pretty. This could be Anderson’s finest moment in these Scottish song CDs. Favorite!

I’m going to see what these lyrics are, what they mean. “Had awa frae me” means nothing to me at t his point, although I have an idea. To learn more, I once again turned to the great web site The Lied, Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive created by Emily Ezust:


O had awa, had awa,
Had awa frae me, Donald;
Your heart is made o’er big for ane,
It is not meet for me, Donald.
Some fickle mistress you may find,
Will change as aft as thee, Donald;
To ilka swain she will prove kind,
And nae less kind to thee, Donald.

First when you courted, I must own,
I frankly favour’d you, Donald:
Apparent worth, and fair renown,
Made me believe you true, Donald.
Ilk virtue then seem’d to adorn
The man esteem’d by me, Donald,
But, now the mask is fallen, I scorn
To ware a thought on thee, Donald.

And now, for ever had awa,
Had awa frae me, Donald;
Gae seek a heart that’s like thy ain,
And come nae mair to me, Donald.
For I’ll reserve mysell for ane,
For ane that’s liker me, Donald:
If sic a ane I canna find,
I’ll ne’er love man, nor thee, Donald.

GLOSSARY
Had awa = stay away
Ilka = every
Ware = spend

Submitted by Ferdinando Albeggiani

Authorship
Anonymous/Unidentified Artist, title unknown

That’s a really fine song. Surely, I will listen to it often.

Track 4 (“Green grow the rashes”) is another MacDougall performance, again with more rolling Rs in 2:06 than one is likely to hear in his/her entire life.

Track 5 (“Young Damon”), a performance by soprano Anderson, is delightful. But nowhere near as remarkable as “Had awa frae me, Donald.”

Track 6 (“Duncan Gray”) and Track 7 (“I dream’d I lay”) are both performed by tenor MacDougall. But neither caused me to sit up and take notice.

Track 8 (“Robin, quo she”), performed by soprano Anderson, is another scene stealer. I don’t know where Anderson has been keeping her voice all this time. But this is another remarkable song in which her voice soars, hitting notes that are most definitely in my sweet spot. Favorite!

Track 10 (“Whistle o’er the lave o’t”), sung by MacDougall, is a ton of fun, a fast-tempo tune that – at a mere :45 – seems over before it’s barely begun.

Track 12 (“Tibby Fowler”), a MacDougall performance, is fun to listen to. The words are bitten off, harsh, briskly sung. I don’t know what they mean. But it’s a song that sounds like Rod Serling could have sung it.

Track 13 (“Widow, are ye waking?”) is a duet, the first on the CD, between Anderson and MacDougall. It’s usually quite enjoyable to hear them sing together. But this song isn’t offering them a chance to really test their mettle. It’s kind of lackluster.

Track 14 (“The banks of Spey”) is a very slow song, sung by Anderson. Maybe I’m getting used to her voice. Because I like this one. Kudos go to musicians Harald Kosik, Verena Stourzh, and Hannes Gradwohl. Their performances elevate this song to a higher level than it otherwise might not have occupied.

I guess this is a good time to introduce everyone. I’ve been doing it all along. But these performers deserve lots of recognition for recording these songs at such a high level of professionalism and quality.

CD 75 features the same singers and musicians as on the previous folk-song selections:

Lorna Anderson and tenor Jamie MacDougall, both of whom actually are Scottish. They have fine voices.

Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, which consists of:

Harald Kosik piano
Verena Stourzh violin
Hannes Gradwohl cello

Also, as with the previous CDs of Scottish and Welsh Songs for George Thomson, William Whyte, and William Napier, these were recorded where they were likely first performed, or even composed: Haydn Hall, Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt.

The recording is perfect. The musicianship is magical. The entire performance is superb. Typical Brilliant Classics excellence. (Seriously, you really ought to buy box sets from Brilliant Classics. They are first-rate in every way. Here. I’ll make it easy for you. Just click on this link and it’ll take you to the listing on Amazon. Buy the Haydn Edition that I’ve been listening to for 71 days now. You’ll thank me for it later.)

Track 17 (“John of Badenyon”) is another brash, jaunty tune performed by MacDougall. The lyrics (from The Lied, The Art Song, and Choral Texts Archive site) begin this way:

When first I came to be a man,
Of twenty years or so,
I thought myself a handsome youth,
And fain the world would know;

A fun song about a vain man who discovers (at song’s end):

And now, ye youngsters, ev’ry where,
Who want to make a show,
Take heed in time, nor vainly hope
For happiness below;
What you may fancy pleasure here,
Is but an empty name;
For girls, and friends, and books, and so,
You’ll find them all the same.

Lesson learned. (Note to self: John of Badenyon discovered they’re “all the same.”)

Track 26 (“Sleepy bodie”) is another fun song from Anderson. Her voice reminds me of a Disney movie from the Sleeping Beauty era. The lyrics are really sweet, and begin this way:

Altho’ I be but a country lass,
Yet a lofty mind I bear, O,
And think myself as good as those
That rich apparel wear, O.
Altho’ my gown be hame-spun gray,
My skin it is as soft, O,
As them that satin weeds do wear,
And carry their heads aloft, O.

I love the word “lass.” Combine that with “bonny” and I’m yearning for the Highlands.

On this CD, soprano Lorna Anderson rules. This is my favorite selection of her songs.

Here’s what I listened to this morning:

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