In which I sing

I've posted a second song over at MetaFilter Music: Edward Elgar's "Where Corals Lie." (My first, Schubert's "Death and the Maiden", is here.)

As I've said before, I really enjoyed working on Elgar's Sea Pictures. Elgar in general has a reputation for stodginess, but those five songs, I think, work well together. Individually, they have their faults-- "Sabbath Morning At Sea" is claptrap, "In Haven" is so simple as to skirt the fringe of boredom, "Where Corals Lie" is twee and "The Swimmer" is pure Victorian bombast. (But what bombast! Where else could you get away with text like:

"One gleam, like a bloodshot swordblade, swims on
The skyline, staining the green gulf crimson--
A death-stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun
That strikes through his stormy winding sheet"?)

It's up to the singer to amend those faults, to find the honesty in the text, to sing it so that the listeners hear that honesty rather than the songs' limitations.

Plus, the first piece in the cycle, "Sea Slumber-Song," is amazing. Sadly, my recording of that has a small mistake in it, so isn't fit for public consumption-- but I hope to remedy this in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy! And if an old £20 note with Elgar on it should happen to pass through your hands, give him a smile from me.

In which I sing

I've posted a second song over at MetaFilter Music: Edward Elgar's "Where Corals Lie." (My first, Schubert's "Death and the Maiden", is here.)

As I've said before, I really enjoyed working on Elgar's Sea Pictures. Elgar in general has a reputation for stodginess, but those five songs, I think, work well together. Individually, they have their faults-- "Sabbath Morning At Sea" is claptrap, "In Haven" is so simple as to skirt the fringe of boredom, "Where Corals Lie" is twee and "The Swimmer" is pure Victorian bombast. (But what bombast! Where else could you get away with text like:

"One gleam, like a bloodshot swordblade, swims on
The skyline, staining the green gulf crimson--
A death-stroke fiercely dealt by a dim sun
That strikes through his stormy winding sheet"?)

It's up to the singer to amend those faults, to find the honesty in the text, to sing it so that the listeners hear that honesty rather than the songs' limitations.

Plus, the first piece in the cycle, "Sea Slumber-Song," is amazing. Sadly, my recording of that has a small mistake in it, so isn't fit for public consumption-- but I hope to remedy this in the future. Meanwhile, enjoy! And if an old £20 note with Elgar on it should happen to pass through your hands, give him a smile from me.