Articles:English Folk Song Society

From Wind Repertory Project

The English Folk Song Society and its Legacy in the Wind Music of Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Percy Grainger
by Kyle Treadwell

Introduction

Folk-song played a large part in the early band literature of the twentieth century. Three composers from England tapped into the large pool of English folk songs being collected at the time to write some of the most enduring music for the wind band. Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Percy Aldridge Grainger all utilized folk-songs extensively in their seminal works for the wind band. This paper will give an overview of the folk-song movement and examine the use of folk-song in Second Suite in F by Holst, English Folk Song Suite by Vaughan Williams and Lincolnshire Posy by Grainger.


Background

The latter part of the nineteenth century and the first few years of the twentieth century saw a surge of interest in the collecting and publishing of folk songs from rural England. Vic Gammon suggests that three factors contributed to the rise of the folk song movement in England:

First, the tradition of collecting and classifying that informed much Victorian amateur and professional scholarship including musical antiquarianism and folk-lore. Secondly, a crisis in the musical profession in the late Victorian period which related to the status that foreign, particularly German music and musicians, held in England. Thirdly, a middle-class crisis of confidence in the achievement of industrial capitalist society.... The folk song movement was an extension of the tradition of antiquarian interest in popular song into the song repertories of members of the rural working class. This work was mainly done by trained musicians and musical amateurs who could see it having a positive effect on the state of English music by providing a national idiom with which the composer could work. But the work was also seen as socially beneficial, in that folk music could be given back to the population at large. (1)

The songs were collected from the working class peoples of rural England, mostly in Sussex and Surrey. Often, not much is known about the singer, but in a few cases we know much about them (2). The songs themselves were often suggestive and modal, leading some publishers to bowdlerize the text and a few to rewrite the melody to fit the prevailing major-minor aesthetics of the day (3). "The collectors who worked in Sussex and Surrey were, in general, a well-educated, well-heeled set of middle-class people with a shared, sometimes amateur but more often professional, interest in music. Some were in the position of not having to work for their living" (4). They were also insistent that both the music and text be noted down, where earlier collectors may have only collected the text (5). The Folk Song Society (later the English Folk Dance and Song Society) was founded in June of 1898. Its publication, Journal of the Folk Song Society, became an avenue for publication of these collected songs (6). It was in these pages that Percy Grainger first published three of the songs that he would eventually use for Lincolnshire Posy (7).


Gustav Holst

A member of the Society, but not a collector, Gustav Holst was born September 21, 1874, to a musical family. He began studying piano and composition at an early age, but eventually studied the trombone due to a nerve condition that caused pain in his hand when playing. He earned a living playing the trombone professionally before his career as a composer was able to sustain him. He also taught music at several schools, most notably St. Paul’s Girls School (8) in Hammersmith and Morley College (9). Holst was involved in the English Folk Song Society with Ralph Vaughan Williams and used folk-songs as the basis for many of his compositions, such as: A Somerset Rhapsody, Six Choral Folk Songs, Three Folk Tunes, A Moorside Suite and the Second Suite in F (10). He died on May 25, 1934.

Holst used “English country tunes” as the basis for his Second Suite for Military Band (11). Each of the four movements is based on one or more folk tunes. Holst also used many of these same tunes in choral settings.

The first movement, “March,” uses three folk tunes, “Glorishears,” “Swansea Town,” and “Claudy Banks” (12). The movement begins with “Glorishears,” a Morris Dance, then uses “Swansea Town,” then “Claudy Banks.” Holst then uses a da capo to repeat “Glorishears” (13). Holst used “Swansea Town” again in his Six Choral Folk Songs, and Bushes and Briars (14).

The second movement, “Song Without Words, ‘I’ll Love My Love’,” is based on the Cornish folk song of the same title (15). Holst also created a choral setting of this tune. The third movement, “Song of the Blacksmith,” is based on the Hampshire folk song of the same name. It is interesting to note that the text of this song uses onomatopoeia:

Kang kang kang ki ki kang
Kang kang ki ki kang kang

For the blacksmith courted me,
nine months and better.
And first he won my heart,
till he wrote to me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand,
for he strikes so mighty and clever,
He makes the sparks to fly
all round his middle. (16)

Holst calls for an anvil to create the “kang” sounds from the text (17). Holst also set this song for mixed voices and male chorus in 1917 (18).

The fourth movement, “Fantasia on the “Dargason,” is based on two mediaeval songs, “Dargason,” and “Green Sleaves” (19). Holst begins with the “Dargason” melody, stating it 25 times, and treats “Green Sleaves” contrapuntally with both tunes sounding at the same time (20).


Ralph Vaughan Williams

Holst shared a close and well documented friendship with perhaps the most famous English composer of the day, Ralph Vaughan Williams. The two exchanged many letters over the years and they were both members of the English Folk Song Society. Vaughan Williams was also one of the founders of the Nationalism movement in English music at the turn of the twentieth century (21). One need not look very hard to see these influences in his music as Vaughan Williams used folk-songs in many of his pieces including: Fantasia on Greensleeves, Linden Lea, Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes, and English Folk Song Suite. As editor of the English Hymnal in 1904, Vaughan Williams included folk tunes. He wrote, “…why should we not enter [folk-songs] into our inheritance in the church as well as the concert room? So you will find a lot of folk-songs in The English Hymnal.…” (22)

English Folk Song Suite was composed in 1923 for the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall (23). It was Vaughan Williams’ first large composition for wind band (24). Frank Battisti recounts a story told to him by Frederick Fennell. “…according to his wife…, Vaughan Williams had been particularly happy to undertake the Suite as he enjoyed working in a new medium” (25). Keeping the close friendship between Holst and Vaughan Williams in mind, one can assume that English Folk Song Suite was probably influenced by Holst’s Second Suite. Here, Vaughan Williams used folk songs from Norfolk and Somerset (26). The Suite originally consisted of four movements: I. “March - Seventeen Come Sunday”, II. “Sea Songs”, III. “Intermezzo – My Bonny Boy” and IV. “March – Folk Songs from Somerset.” “Sea Songs” was removed by the publisher, Boosey and Hawkes, and published separately in a march-sized format (27). The Suite was set for orchestra by Gordon Jacob.

The first movement, “March – Seventeen Come Sunday,” is based on three folk songs: “Seventeen Come Sunday,” “Pretty Caroline” and “Diverus and Lazarus” (28). Similar to the first movement of Holst’s Second Suite, this movement presents the tunes in order (29). However, Vaughan Williams uses a quasi-rondo form by presenting them in this way: “Seventeen Come Sunday,” “Pretty Caroline,” “Diverus and Lazarus,” “Pretty Caroline” and “Seventeen Come Sunday”.

The original second movement, Sea Songs is very similar to the first movement as uses the following folk songs: “Princess Royal,” “Admiral Benbow” and “Portsmouth.” Willis Rapp created the chart in Figure 1 to highlight the similarities:


EFS1.jpg
Figure 1: Comparison of “Sea Songs” and “March – Seventeen Come Sunday” (30)


The third movement, “Intermezzo – My Bonny Boy,” is based on two folk songs: “My Bonny Boy” and “Green Bushes” (31). Vaughan Williams uses an A-B-A form to treat the songs, treating “Green Bushes” as a scherzo (32). Upon the return to “My Bonny Boy,” Vaughan Williams varies the harmonic setting. The final movement, “March – Folk Songs from Somerset,” is based on four folk songs: “Blow Away the Morning Dew,” “High Germany,” “The Trees They Do Grow High” and “John Barleycorn” (33). This movement is very similar to the first two. Notice the similarities in Figure 2 in the addendum to the chart in Figure 1.


EFS2.jpg
Figure 2: Comparison of “Sea Songs,” March – Seventeen Come Sunday” and “March – Folk Songs from Somerset” (34)



It should be noted that Vaughan Williams altered rhythms and melodic modalities from the original folk songs that he used as source material for this composition (35).


Percy Aldridge Grainger

Another prominent member of the Folk Song Society was Percy Aldridge Grainger, who was born in Australia in 1882. After a childhood spent studying music and piano, he settled in England in 1901, working as a concert pianist (36). Grainger began collecting English folk songs in 1905, using the Edison wax cylinder phonograph (37). He used many of the 300 songs he collected on 216 wax cylinders as source material for many of his compositions including: Molly on the Shore, The Sussex Mummer’s Christmas Carol, Shepherd’s Hey, Irish Tune from County Derry and Lincolnshire Posy.

On January 26, 1937, Edwin Franko Goldman sent Percy Grainger a letter stating:

The American Bandmasters Association are going to have their next Convention at Milwaukee on March 5-6-7. The Convention will end with a Monster Concert on the 7th. We are very desirous of having some new band numbers if possible. This is going to be a very big event and if you have anything on hand or can have something ready we would love to have the first performance of one of your works (38).

Simple math reveals that this gave Grainger 37 days, minus transit time for the letter and rehearsal time with the performing band to compose the two pieces he did for the “Monster Concert”: a new arrangement of his piece Lads of Wamphray and Lincolnshire Posy (39). What may be even more astounding is that Grainger considered Lincolnshire Posy his best work for band (40).

Grainger set six folk songs for band in Lincolnshire Posy, each in one movement: “Lisbon,” “Horkstow Grange,” “Rufford Park Poachers,” “The Brisk Young Sailor,” “Lord Melbourne,” and “The Lost Lady Found” (41). While there has been much criticism of the early folk song collectors and their motives (42), it is difficult to accuse Grainger of ulterior motives in light of a letter to his wife Ella. Grainger writes of the folk singers who sang for him, ”It is touching to think that those humble men I have known and loved (Taylor, Gouldthorpe, Wray, Anne Nielsen Post, Kristensen, etc.) will (thru my settings) become known & remembered personalities. That is the thing I value most in my art – the power to draw attention to the overlooked” (43). In the 1940 condensed score to Lincolnshire Posy Grainger writes extensive notes about the folk songs used, the method of collecting, and detailed information about most of the singers, calling them “kings and queens of song!” (44). It is obvious that Grainger thought very highly of these folk singers.

In contrast to Holst and Vaughan Williams, Grainger attempted to preserve the folk song as it was sung by the singer (45). It is also interesting to note that while Holst and Grainger created folk-song medleys in their works, Grainger only used one folk song per movement, with the exception of “Lisbon,” where he briefly quotes “The Duke of Marlborough.” Robert Garafolo writes:

An important revelation…is that each movement in Lincolnshire Posy is organized in song or strophic form. In strophic form the melody is repeated with each stanza of test. Grainger was fascinated by the subtle variations of pitch, rhythm, and style that the folk singers made with each stanza of their songs. He strove to capture these performance nuances in his folk song settings. Thus, each movement in Lincolnshire Posy is organized in strophic variation form. In the case of “Rufford Park Poachers,” Grainger strove to capture all variants of Joseph Taylor’s wonderful singing of this folk song (46).

Notice the ornamental nature of the melody of the first verse to “Rufford Park Poachers” in Figure 3, as well as the vacillation between 2/4 and 5/8 time signatures. Apparently this was to take into account the singer’s pacing and phrasing.

EFS3.jpg
Figure 3: Author’s engraving of Percy Grainger’s notation of “Rufford Park Poachers mm. 1-9” (47)



Compare this with the melody to the fourth movement of Lincolnshire Posy in Figure 4. Notice the vacillating time signatures between 4/8, 5/8, and 3/4 as well as the dotted-eighth and sixteenth note rhythms as ornamentation. While Grainger extends the first note of the melody, basic rhythmic pattern is essentially the same as he noted it down in 1908.

EFS4.jpg
Figure 4: – Piccolo part to “Rufford Park Poachers” mm.1-19 from Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Grainger. © Copyright 1987 by Ludwig Music Publishing Co., Inc.)



Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger all used folk songs for many of their compositions. All of them were involved in collecting folk songs for the English Folk Song Society in the early part of the twentieth century. The contribution of these pieces to the wind band repertoire is great. These three pieces by mature composers featuring folk music are cornerstones of the band repertoire.

One needs only to consider that seventy to one hundred years after their composition, wind bands are still playing these pieces and these three pieces show up on conducting symposium and workshop repertoire lists frequently (48). These three cornerstone works for the wind band stand as a lasting legacy to the work of these three composers, but also the work of the English Folk-Song Society in preserving the cultural heritage of England, and re-creating it into a heritage for the wind band and musicians everywhere.


References

1. Vic Gammon. "Folk Song Collecting in Sussex and Surrey, 1843-1914,” History Workshop 10 (1980): 80.
2. Ibid. 63.
3. Ibid. 7.
4. Vic Gammon. "Folk Song Collecting in Sussex and Surrey, 1843-1914,” History Workshop 10 (1980):): 63.
5. Ibid. 72.
6. Ralph Vaughan Williams. "The English Folk Dance and Song Society,” Ethnomusicology vol. 2, no. 3 (1958): 108.
7. Percy Grainger, "Songs Collected by Percy Grainger,” Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. 3, no. 12 (1908): 170-242.
8. The St Paul’s Girl’s School does not use a dotted “St.” in its name. See the St. Paul’s Girl’s School website: www.SPGS.org.
9. Grove Music Online, s.v. “Holst, Gustav,” http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed June 30, 2010).
10. Ibid.
11. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005). 11.
12. Ibid.
13. Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F for Military Band, Colin Mathews, ed. (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1984), 1-17.
14. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005), 12.
15. Robert Garafolo, “Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst”. Music Educators Journal vol. 72, no. 4 (1985): 30 .
16. Willis M. Rapp, The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005), 105.
17. Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F for Military Band, Colin Mathews, ed. (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1984), 23-28.
18. Ibid. 13.
19. Robert Garafolo, “Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst”. Music Educators Journal vol. 72, no. 4 (1985): 30.
20. Gustav Holst, Second Suite in F for Military Band, Colin Mathews, ed. (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1984), 29-50.
21. Robert Grechesky. “English Folk Song Suite,” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, vol. 1, 2nd ed., comp. and ed. by Richard Miles. (Chicago: GIA, 2010), 467.
22. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst. Heirs and Rebels. Ed by Ursula Vaughan Williams and Imogen Holst. (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, Inc., 1974), 38-39.
23. Frank L. Battisti. The Winds of Change (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2002), 19.
24. Robert Grechesky. “English Folk Song Suite,” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, vol. 1, 2nd ed., comp. and ed. by Richard Miles. (Chicago: GIA, 2010), 468.
25. Frank L. Battisti. The Winds of Change (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2002), 19
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ralph Vaughan Williams. English Folk Song Suite ( New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1924, ed. 2008), 3-15.
29. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005), 30-33.
30. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005), 34.
31. Robert Grechesky. “English Folk Song Suite,” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, Vol. 1, second edition. ed. by Richard Miles. (Chicago: GIA, 2010), 473.
32. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville, MD: Meredith Music, 2005), 34.
33. Ralph Vaughan Williams. English Folk Song Suite ( New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1924, ed. 2008), 26-36.
34. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville: Meredith Music Publications, 2005). 34. The third column has been added by the author.
35. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville: Meredith Music, 2005). 30-43.
36. Grove Music Online, s.v. “Grainger, Percy,” http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com (accessed July 1, 2010).
37. Willis M. Rapp. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. (Galesville: Meredith Music, 2005), 57.
38. Edwin Franko Goldman, letter to Percy Grainger, January 26, 1937 in Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger by Robert J. Garafalo. (Silver Spring, MD: Whirlwind Music, 2008), 1.
39. Robert J.Garafolo, Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger, (Silver Spring, MD: Whirlwind Music, 2008), 2.
40. Ibid., 1.
41. Percy Grainger, Lincolnshire Posy, ed. Frederick Fennell (Cleveland: Ludwig Music, 1987), 1.
42. Dave Harker, “May Cecil Sharp be Praised?,” History Workshop 14 (1982): 44-62 .
43. Percy Grainger, letter to Ella Grainger, February 9, 1937 in Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger by Robert J. Garafalo, (Silver Spring, MD: Whirlwind Music, 2008), 9.
44. Percy Grainger, Lincolnshire Posy. (New York: Schirmer, 1940), 1-4.
45. Robert J. Garafolo. Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger, (Silver Spring, MD: Whirlwind Music, 2008), 27.
46. Robert J. Garafolo. Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger, (Silver Spring, MD: Whirlwind Music, 2008), 27.
47. Percy Grainger, “Songs Collected by Percy Grainger”, Journal of the Folk-Song Society vol. 3, no 12 (1908), 186.
48. Shattinger Music, “Conducting Symposiums.” Shattinger Music, http://www.shattingermusic.com/Departments/Instrumental/Cond_Symposiums/Cond_Symposiums.aspx (accessed July 3, 2010).


Bibliography

  • Battisti, Frank L. The Winds of Change, Galesville, MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2002.
  • Gammon, Vic. "Folk Song Collecting in Sussex and Surrey", 1843-1914. History Workshop 10 (1980): 61-69
  • Garafolo, Robert J. Folk Songs and Dances in “Lincolnshire Posy by Percy Aldridge Grainger, Silver Spring: Whirlwind Music Publications, 2008.
  • Garafolo, Robert. “Standard Works for Band: Gustav Holst”. Music Educators Journal 72, no. 4 (1985): 30-45
  • Grainger, Percy. "Collecting with the Phonograph", Journal of the Folk-Song Society 3, no 12 (1908): 147-242
  • Grainger, Percy. Lincolnshire Posy. Edited by Frederick Fennell. Cleveland: Ludwig Music Publishing Co., Inc., 1987.
  • Miles, Richard, editor. Teaching Music through Performance in Band, Vol. 1, 2nd edition. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2010.
  • Harker, Dave, “May Cecil Sharp be Praised?,” History Workshop 14 (1982): 44-62.
  • Holst, Gustav. I’ll Love My Love. London: J. Curwen & Sons, Ltd., 1917.
  • Holst, Gustav. Second Suite in F for Military Band. Edited by Colin Mathews. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1984.
  • Rapp, Willis M.. The Wind Band Masterworks of Holst, Vaughan Williams, and Grainger. Galesville, MD: Meredith Music Publications, 2005.
  • Vaughan Williams, Ralph. "The English Folk Dance and Song Society". Ethnomusicology 2, no. 3 (1958): 108-112
  • Vaughan Williams, Ralph. English Folk Song Suite. New York: Boosey and Hawkes, 1924, edited 2008.
  • Vaughan Williams, Ralph and Gustav Holst. Heirs and Rebels. Edited by Ursula Vaughan Williams and Imogen Holst. New York: Cooper Square, 1974.