At the heart of our repertoire this evening is an arrangement by Paul Drayton of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending for voices and solo violin. This intriguing arrangement of this beloved orchestral piece re-affirms its inspiration by George Meredith’s poem of the same name by setting the text to Vaughan Williams’ music as sung by the various voice parts.

 

Other nations are represented by Ae Fond Kiss, arranged by Hugh Robertson and The Gallant Weaver by James MacMillan, both settings of poems by Robert Burns, and Swansea Town, a traditional air arranged by Gustav Holst. Geantraí (which can be translated as “joy music” or “happy song”) represents one of the three noble strains of Irish music: the piece of this name by Michael McGlynn creates a rhythmic song using various texts of children’s verses from the Irish tradition.

 

Venturing slightly further afield, Gjermund Larsen’s arrangement of Gropen is a similarly joyous Norwegian folk song. And in a melding of shared human experience, Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Ancient Prairie sets a ninth-century Chinese poem by Bai Juyi as part of his 2015 work Whispers on the Prairie Wind commissioned by the Utah Symphony, and is equally evocative of the American west as it is the Chinese countryside.

 

We look forward to seeing you at St Saviour’s Pimlico on Thursday 26 March for an evening of beautiful and joyful folk music.