Authors of texts of extant vocal works

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Icons: Currently available recordings   Deleted recordings   Unauthorised recordings


Bust of Aeschylus

Aeschylus [or Æschylus] (c525BC–c456BC)

[Ancient Greek dramatist, the ‘father of tragedy’ (Wikipedia)]

Agamemnon [music drama; 1 act] abridged and adapted by the composer from Blackie’s Everyman translation; in English [soli, SATB chor, orch] (1957†) – 39½´

[1 work]


Engraving from ‘William Allingham, A Diary’, 1908, Macmillan

William Allingham (1824–89)

[Irish man of letters and a poet (Wikipedia)]

Goodbye to summer [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)

[1 work]


Lady Helena Francesca Bantock; photo Alexander Bassano 1930

Helen Bantock [Lady Helena Francesca Bantock] (1868–1961)

[poet; wife of composer Sir Granville Bantock]

Soul star [song] (orig Philip Marston - lost) [SATB] (1906†)

[1 work]


Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803–1849)

[English poet, dramatist and physician (Wikipedia)]

The phantom wooer [song] [SATB] (1918†)

[1 work]


Matilda Betham-Edwards

Matilda Betham-Edwards (1836–1919)

[English novelist, travel writer and francophile (Wikipedia)]

A child’s prayer [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)

[1 work]


William Blake in an 1807 portrait by Thomas Phillips

William Blake (1757–1827)

[English poet, painter, and printmaker (Wikipedia)]

The birds [song] [alto or bar, pno] (1919†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1997 – The Complete Piano Music – Athene Minerva
The blossom in C major [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records
The chimney sweeper in G major - E flat [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) – 3´ 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
The defiled sanctuary [song] from posthumous Miscellaneous Poems and Fragments [medium voice, piano] (1918-19†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1997 – The Complete Piano Music – Athene Minerva 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
The dream [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
The echoing green [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
The fly in C major [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) – 1´ 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records
Infant joy [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
The lamb [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
The land of dreams [song] from posthumous Miscellaneous Poems and Fragments [voice, piano] (1919†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1997 – The Complete Piano Music – Athene Minerva 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Laughing song [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
The little black boy in A minor - A major [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) – 4´ 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records
The little boy found [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SA, piano] (1914†)
The little boy lost [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SA, piano] (1914†)
Pastoral: the shepherd [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [SSA, piano] (1914†)
Piping down the valleys wild in C major [song] from Songs of Innocence and Experience [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) – 2´ 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Spring – sound the flute [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)
Spring – sound the flute [song] [SSA, piano] (1914†)

[18 works]


Fred G. Bowles

[a minor poet active in the period of the First World War (Malcolm MacDonald)]

Since love is dead [song] [voice, piano] (c.1922-23†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[1 work]


Havergal Brian c1945

Havergal Brian (1876–1972)

Three illuminations [pno, optional spkr] (1916†) – 5´ 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1997 – The Complete Piano Music – Athene Minerva 1997 – The Complete Piano Music – Athene Minerva 1981 – The Complete Piano Music – Cameo Classics
The Tigers [burlesque opera; prologue, 3 acts] [soli, chor, orch] (1917-29†) – 180´ 1983 – _The Tigers_ – Testament

[2 works]


Portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Pieter van Dyke, 1795

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

[English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher (Wikipedia)]

If I had but two little wings [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)

[1 work]


Gerald Cumberland [pseudonym of Charles Frederick Kenyon] (1879-1926)

[journalist, author, and poet; contemporary of Havergal Brian]

Day and night Op.13b [song] [tenor, piano] (1906†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records
Fairies’ song [song] (orig. Philip Marston - lost) [SSAA] (1908†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
If I could speak Op.13b [song] [tenor, piano] (1906†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records
The moon [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)
The river [song] [SA, piano] (1914†)
Soliloquy upon a dead child [song] [sop or ten, pno] (1906†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records
Summer has come, little children in D major [song] [SA, piano] (1914†) – 2´
The vision of Cleopatra Op.15 [cantata (Tragic poem)] [SMAT soli, chors, orch] (1907†) original full score lost; re-orchestrated in contemporary Brian style by John Pickard 2014 – 40´ 2017 – The Vision of Cleopatra – Dutton Vocalion
When I lie ill Op.13b [song] [tenor, piano] (1906†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records

[9 works]


Samuel Daniel; frontispiece engraving for The Civile Ware (1609) by Thomas Cockson

Samuel Daniel (1562–1619)

[English poet and historian (Wikipedia)]

Care-charmer sleep [song] [voice, piano] (1919†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Sorrow song Op.6 [song] [alto or bar, pno] (?1904-06†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[2 works]


John Donne, after a miniature by Isaac Oliver, c1616

John Donne (1572–1631)

[English poet, satirist, lawyer and priest (Wikipedia)]

The message Op.6 [song] [alto or bar, pno] (?1904-06†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[1 work]


Lord Alfred Douglas in 1903; photo George Charles Beresford

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945)

[English author, poet and translator (Wikipedia)]

Symphony 5 »Wine Of Summer« [1 movement] [bar, orch] (1937†) – 21´ 2014 – Symphonies 5 _Wine of Summer_, 19 & 27 – Dutton Vocalion 1976 – Aries

[1 work]


Michael Drayton, 1599

Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

[English Elizabethan poet (Wikipedia)]

The fairy palace [song] [SSA, piano] (1915†)

[1 work]


Ralph Waldo Emerson, c1857

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

[American essayist, lecturer, and poet (Wikipedia)]

The mountain and the squirrel [song] Fable [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) for children – 2´ 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records

[1 work]


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at age 69, portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1828

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

[German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath (Wikipedia)]

Faust [prologue, 4 acts] (part 1), abridged by the composer; set in German; no English translation [soli, orch] (1955-56†) – 150´

[1 work]


Hafiz of Shiraz (c1325–c1389)

[Persian lyric poet (Wikipedia)]

Little sleeper [from Soliloquy upon a dead child] Op.13a [song] trans Richard le Galliene [sop or ten, pno] (1906†) rev 1972 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records

[1 work]


Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber [Bishop of Calcutta] (1783–1826)

[English poet and hymnodist; Church of England Bishop of Calcutta (Wikipedia)]

Farewell Op.6 [song] [alto or bar, pno] (?1904-06†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[1 work]


Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick (1591–1674)

[English poet (Wikipedia)]

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree [song] [SA, piano] (1919†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Grace for a child in C major [‘… a two-part easy school song’ - HB] Noble numbers (1647) no 95 Another grace for a child [SA, piano] (1914†) – 1´ 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Choral pieces for female voices and orchestra (or piano) »The hag« [SSAA, orch] (1912†) – 2½´ 2017 – The Vision of Cleopatra – Dutton Vocalion 1979 – The Complete Early Orchestral Works – Cameo Classics
The mad maid’s song [song] [mezzo, pno or orch] (1910†) orch score lost 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records
The night piece [song] [tenor, pno or orch] (1910†) orch score lost 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records
Choral pieces for female voices and orchestra (or piano) »Requiem for the rose« [SSAA, orch] (1912†) – 9½´ 2017 – The Vision of Cleopatra – Dutton Vocalion 1979 – The Complete Early Orchestral Works – Cameo Classics
To daffodils [song] [SA, piano] (1919†)
Violets [song] [SSA, piano] (1914†)
Why dost thou wound and break my heart? [song] [tenor, piano] (1910†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[9 works]


Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood (c1570s–1641)

[English playwright, actor, and author (Wikipedia)]

Pack clouds away [song] [SSA, piano] (1919†)

[1 work]


Portrait of John Keats by William Hilton, after Joseph Severn, c1822

John Keats (1795–1821)

[English Romantic poet (Wikipedia)]

Meg Merrilies [song] Old Meg she was a gypsy [male voices] (1914†)

[1 work]


Charles Kingsley

Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)

[English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist (Wikipedia)]

The lost doll [song] [voice, piano] (1914†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records
Sands of Dee [Sands o’ Dee] [mixed voices] (1914†)

[2 works]


Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, photogravure from photograph by Hanstaingl, after portrait by Kramer

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

[American poet, translator, and educator (Wikipedia)]

Daybreak [song] [SATB] (1910†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Stars of a summer night Op.1 [song] [SSAATTBB] (1905†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs

[2 works]


George MacDonald

George MacDonald (1824–1905)

[Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister (Wikipedia)]

Little white lily [song] [SSA, piano] (1914†)

[1 work]


Christopher M. Masterman

[Brian’s landlord in Brighton between 1920 and 1922]

The soul of steel [song] [voice, piano] (1920-21) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics

[1 work]


Thomas Moore by unknown artist, c1800-05

Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

[Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer (Wikipedia)]

Come o’er the sea [song] [SATB] (1906†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs

[1 work]


Hannah More by Henry William Pickersgill, 1821

Hannah More (1745–1833)

[English religious writer, poet, playwright, and philanthropist (Wikipedia)]

O happiness, celestial fair [choral canon] [SATB] (1924†)
Shall I then be spared? [choral canon] [SATB] (1924†)
Sweet solitude [choral canon] [SATB] (1924†)

[3 works]


Thomas Nash

Thomas Nash [or Nashe] (1567–c1601)

[English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist (Wikipedia)]

Spring, the sweet spring [song] [SA, piano] (1919†)

[1 work]


Alexander Pope, painting by Michael Dahl, c1727

Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

[English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer (Wikipedia)]

Vital spark of heavenly flame [choral canon] [SSAA] (1924†)

[1 work]


Friedrich von Schiller

Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

[German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright (Wikipedia)]

Turandot, prinzessin von China [music drama; 3 acts] abridged by the composer; set in German; no English translation [soli, orch] (1950-51†) – 155´

[1 work]


Sir Walter Scott, portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

[Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet (Wikipedia)]

Ah! County guy! [serenade] [equal voices] (1919†)
Lullaby of an infant chief [song] [SATB] (1906†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs

[2 works]


William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564–1618)

[English poet and playwright (Wikipedia)]

And will he not come again? [song] [SSAA, piano] (1914†)
Blow, blow thou winter wind [song] from As You Like It [SATB] (1925†) 1982 – Sain Records
Clown’s song [song] from Twelfth night (c1600), Act 5, scene 1 ‘When that I was and a little tiny boy’ [partsong] (1914†)
Come away, death [song] [TbarB, piano] (1925†)
Fear no more the heat of the sun [song] [SATB] (1919†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Full fathom five [song] [SSAA, piano] (1921†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
It was a lover and his lass [song] [SSA] (1919†)
O mistress mine [song] [partsong] (1915†)
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Op.5 [song] Sonnet 18 (pub 1609) [SATB] (1903†) 1982 – Sain Records 1977
A song of willow [song] [SSA, piano] (1914†)
Take, O take those lips away [song] from Measure for Measure [voice, piano] (1919-21) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Tell me, where is fancy bred [song] from The Merchant of Venice [SSAA] (?1910s/20s) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Under the greenwood tree [song] [SSA] (1919†)
When icicles hang by the wall [song] from Love’s Labours Lost [voice, piano] (1919†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Ye spotted snakes [song] [SSAA] (1914†)

[15 works]


Percy Bysshe Shelley by Alfred Clint, after Amelia Curran, and Edward Ellerker Williams, 1819

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

[English Romantic poet (Wikipedia)]

The Cenci [music drama; overture, 8 scenes] abridged by the composer [soli, orch] (1951-52†) – 103´
Chorus [from Prometheus unbound Chorus from Act I] [song] [unaccompanied] (1937-44†)
Three semichoruses [from Prometheus unbound Act II scene 2] [song] [1,3 unacc; 2 acc fl, hp] (1937-44†) – 15´

[3 works]


Temple Keble [nom de plume of Wilhelmina Mary Ayrston]

[poet; an intimate friend of Brian’s during his sojourn in Birmingham (Malcolm MacDonald)]

Lady Ellayne [song] [medium voice, piano] (1918-19†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Love is a merry game [song] [voice, piano] (1918†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
On parting [song] [voice, piano] (1918†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
Renunciation [song] [medium voice, piano] (1918-19†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records 1982 – Havergal Brian: Songs, _Legend_ for violin and piano – Toccata Classics
When the sun goes down [song] [voice, piano] (1918†) 2012 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 2 – Stone Records

[5 works]


Alfred, Lord Tennyson, carbon print by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1869

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

[English Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria’s reign (Wikipedia)]

What does little birdie say? [song] from Sea dreams (1860) [unison or solo, piano] (1914†) – 1´ 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records

[1 work]


James Thomson

James Thomson (1700–1748)

[Scottish poet and playwright (Wikipedia)]

Tell me, thou soul of her I love Op.13d/1 [song] [SATB] (1906†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs

[1 work]


Bernard Weller

In a fairy boat [rondel] [SSAA] (1906†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs

[1 work]


William Butler Yeats; photo by George Charles Beresford, 1911

William Butler Yeats (1868–1939)

[Irish poet and playwright (Wikipedia)]

A faery song Op.13c [song] [mezzo, piano] (1906†) 2011 – The complete Havergal Brian songbook - volume 1 – Stone Records

[1 work]


religious sources

Introit Amen [sic] [chorus on ‘Amen’] [SATB] (1924†) 1975 – Havergal Brian 13 Part Songs – British Music Society Environs
Psalm 23 Op.9 Book of Common Prayer, trans Miles Coverdale (1535) [ten, chor, orch] (c.1904,1944–45†) reconstructed 1944-45 – 15½´ 2002 – Elgar and the English Choral Tradition – Classico Records 1974 – Havergal Brian: The First Commercial Recordings – Heritage Records 1974 – Havergal Brian: Symphony No. 22 and other works – Klassic Haus Restorations
Symphony 1 »The Gothic« in D minor [2 parts, 6 movements] text in Part 2: Te Deum laudamus [SATB soli, child chor, 2 dble chors, orch] (?1919-27†) – 105´ 2011 – _The Gothic_ Symphony – Hyperion 1989 – The Best of Marco Polo – Marco Polo 1989 – ‘Gothic’ Symphony – Naxos 1966 – Aries 1966 – Symphony No. 1 _The Gothic_ – Testament
Symphony 4 »Das Siegeslied« in C major [3 movements] Psalm 68, ‘Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered…’, sung in German [sop, dble chor, orch] (1932-33†) Psalm 68 'Let God arise' – 48´ 1992 – Symphonies Nos. 4 and 12 – Naxos 1974 – Aries

[4 works]


author unknown

Legend of Altenahr [song] [male voices] (1914†)
The owl [song] [female voices] (1914†)

[2 works]


anonymous

Absence [song] [SSAA] (1919†)
He was a rat [song] [SATB] (1914†)

[2 works]