Three Dorset Songs

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams (arr. Douglas Stotter)

General Info

Year: 1902-1903 / 2003
Duration: c. 6:40
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Voice and piano
Publisher: Daehn Publications, through C.L. Barnhouse
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $76.00 | Score Only (print) - $8.00

Movements

1. Blackamwore by the Stour
2. The Winter's Willow – 3:20
3. Boy Johnny

Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III, including:

Bass Drum
Bells
Crash Cymbals
Snare Drum

Errata

In parts:

Alto Saxophone I, final note in the suite: Should be D.

Program Notes

Blackamwore by the Stour (also known as Blackamwore Maidens), The Winter's Willow, and Boy Johnny, for voice and piano, were composed between 1902 and 1903. All saw first publication in The Vocalist magazine during that time and were widely performed. Blackamwore by the Stour was published in May 1902 and received its premiere at the Hooten Roberts Musical Union on September 4, 1902. Boy Johnny, written for the 1902 Commemoration Week observances at Oxford, was published in September 1902. The Winter's Willow was the last of these songs. I was published in November 1903.

Blackamwore by the Stour and The Winter's Willow both use text from William Barnes (1801-1886), who was successively clerk, teacher and clergyman, and a close friend of author Thomas Hardy. Vaughan Williams's musical settings to Barnes' poems, sometimes in dialect, are gloriously fresh in their invention. The text of Boy Johnny comes from the work of Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). A devout Anglican, her poetic themes turned from unrequited love to the renunciation of earthly love. Each of the songs has a folk-like quality. Indeed, The Times of London describe Blackamwore as the "cleverest imitation of a genuine folk song."

Three Dorset Songs was premiered by the Indiana University Symphonic Band, Douglas Stotter, conductor, on November 19, 2002.

- Program Note from score

Media

Audio: Reference recording. Ensemble and conductor unknown
Audio CD: Cypress Falls High School Symphonic Band (John Morrison, conductor) - 2004

State Ratings

Louisiana: III
Maryland: III
Michigan: Senior High C
South Carolina: III

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of Texas, Arlington, Symphonic Band (Douglas Stotter, conductor) - 2 October 2022
Quabbin Regional High School (Barre, Mass.) Alumni Band - 2019
Cypress Falls High School (Houston, Tx.) Symphonic Band (John Morrison, conductor) – 16 December 2004 (2004 Midwest Clinic)
Indiana University (Bloomington) Symphonic Band (Douglas Stotter, conductor) - 19 November 2002 *Premiere Performance*

Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music

Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)

All Wind Works

Concerto for Bass Tuba (arr. Wick and Chambers) (1954/1992)
Concerto Grosso (arr. Grechesky) (1924)
Concerto in F minor for Tuba and Winds (arr. Hare) (1954/1992)
England's Pleasant Land (arr. Noble) (1938/2017)
English Folk Song Suite. See: Folk Song Suite
English Folk Song Suite (arr. Villanueva) (1924/)
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (arr. Bocook) (1910/2006)
Fantasia on Greensleeves (arr. Wagner) (1934/2011)
Five English Folk Songs (arr. Feldman) (1913/2009)
Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" (arr. Gregson) (1939/2004)
Flourish for Glorious John (or. Boyd) (1957/1998)
Flourish for Wind Band (1939)
Folk Song Suite (1924/2008)
Folk Songs from Somerset (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Golden Vanity, The (arr. Wagner) (1933/2009)
I Vow to Thee, My Country (as setter; ed. Grechesky) (1921/1988)
Lark Ascending, The (tr. Silvester) (1914/1925/2003)
Linden Lea (arr. Wagner) (1902/2013)
Linden Lea (arr. Stout) (1902/1984)
The Lowlands of Scotland (arr. Daehn) (1912/2006)
March Past of the Kitchen Utensils (arr. Erwin) (1909/2010)
My Bonny Boy (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Norfolk Rhapsody (tr. Robert O'Brien) (1905)
Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2 in D minor (tr. O'Toole) (1906/2014?)
Overture to "The Wasps" (tr. Frank Hudson) (1909)
Prelude, 49th Parallel (arr. van der Beek) (1960/2018)
Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Noble) (1941/2014)
Prelude: 49th Parallel (arr. Winkler) (1941/1960)
Prelude from "49th Parallel" (tr. Osmon) (1941/1960/1987/2002)
Prelude on Three Welsh Hymn Tunes (arr. Curnow) (1954/1982)
Prelude: The New Commonwealth (arr. Grauer) (1940/2006)
A Ralph Vaughan Williams Portrait (arr. Wagner) (2018)
Rhosymedre (tr. Beeler) (1920/1972)
Rhosymedre (tr. Johnston) (1920/2011)
Rhosymedre (tr. Baldwin) (1920/)
The Running Set (arr. Daehn) (1933/2007)
Running Set, The (tr. Silvester) (1933)
Scherzo alla Marcia (1956)
Sea Songs (1925)
Sea Songs (arr. Longfield) (1925/2006)
Seventeen Come Sunday (Flex instrumentation) (arr. Huckeby) (1924/2020)
Sine Nomine (arr. Cacavas) (1906/1998)
Sine Nomine (arr. Houseknecht) (1906/1960)
Sine Nomine (arr. Reed) (1906/1976)
Songs of Travel (arr. Patterson) (1901-4)
Three Dorset Songs (arr. Stotter) (1902-1903/2003)
Three Studies in English Folk Song (arr. Harbinson) (1927/1999/2003)
Toccata Marziale (1924)
Toccata Marziale (ed. Battisti) (1924/2005)
Variations for Wind Band (trans. Hunsberger) (1957/1988/1997)
Vaughan Williams Christmas, A (arr. Wagner) (1999)
Wassail (arr. Smith)

Resources

Perusal score
Vaughan Williams, R.; Stotter, D. (2003). Three Dorset Songs [score]. Daehn Publications: New Glarus, Wisc.