Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

's ''Five Flower Songs'', Op. 47, is a set of five

part song A part song, part-song or partsong is a form of choral music that consists of a song to a secular or non-liturgical sacred text, written or arranged for several vocal parts. Part songs are commonly sung by an SATB choir, but sometimes for an all ...

s to poems in English by four authors which mention flowers, composed for four voices (

SATB SATB is an initialism that describes the scoring of compositions for choirs, and also choirs (or consorts) of instruments. The initials are for the voice types: S for soprano, A for alto, T for tenor and B for bass. Choral music Four-part harm ...

) in 1950 as a gift for the 25th wedding anniversary of

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek Λέων ("lion") through the Latin '' L ...

and Dorothy Elmhirst. It was first performed in the open air at the couple's estate

Dartington Hall Dartington Hall in Dartington, near Totnes, Devon, England, is an historic house and country estate of dating from medieval times. The group of late 14th century buildings are Grade I listed; described in Pevsner's Buildings of England as "on ...

, with

Imogen Holst Imogen Clare Holst (; 12 April 1907 – 9 March 1984) was a British composer, arranger, conductor, teacher, musicologist, and festival administrator. The only child of the composer Gustav Holst, she is particularly known for her education ...

conducting a student choir. The set has been frequently recorded by English and foreign chamber choirs and ensembles, including

Polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, ...

Cambridge Singers The Cambridge Singers is an English mixed voice chamber choir formed in 1981 by their director John Rutter with the primary purpose of making recordings under their own label Collegium Records. The group initially comprised former singers from ...

and the

RIAS Kammerchor The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public bro ...

History

Britten composed the music as a contribution to commemorate the 25th wedding anniversary of Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst, who were both botanists, philanthropists, and fond of flowers. Leonard Elmhirst was an agronomist who developed depressed rural regions such as in India and Devon county. Dorothy Elmhirst was a wealthy American, supporting education and women's rights. They had gardens at their estate,

. Britten wrote the part songs in the tradition of Edward Elgar, Parry and

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...

. He scored the works for a four-part unaccompanied choir. He took into account that a student choir would perform the premiere on 23 July 1950 in the open air. The first performance was conducted at Dartington Hall by

. It was published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Texts and music

The music is based on five poems by four different authors, all related to flowers: # ''To Daffodils'', by Robert Herrick # ''The Succession of the Four Sweet Months'', by Herrick # ''Marsh Flowers'', by

George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...

# ''The Evening Primrose'', by

John Clare John Clare (13 July 1793 – 20 May 1864) was an English poet. The son of a farm labourer, he became known for his celebrations of the English countryside and sorrows at its disruption. His work underwent major re-evaluation in the late 20th ce ...

# ''The Ballad of Green Broom'', anon. The music is in five

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

, which Britten designed to be in that order, with mood-changes in mind. It has been named a song cycle. The duration is given as around 11 minutes. ''To Daffodils'' is marked '' Allegro impetuoso''. The text by Robert Herrick is a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

of life passing. In ''The Succession of the Four Sweet Months'', also by Herrick, each month is assigned a voice part to begin a fugal setting. ''Marsh Flowers'' is a setting of a poem by George Crabbe who had also written the poems on which Britten's opera ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional ...

'' was based. Britten created "a slightly menacing atmosphere", giving individual identity to flowers described as "slimy", "faded" or with "sickly scent". ''Evening Primrose'', on a poem by

, serves as the set's slow movement, depicting a nightscape, with the music turning to slumber. The anonymous ''The Ballad of Green Broom'' has been described as "a tour-de-force of humour", with a gradual

accelerando ''Accelerando'' is a 2005 science fiction novel consisting of a series of interconnected short stories written by British author Charles Stross. As well as normal hardback and paperback editions, it was released as a free e-book under the CC ...

, as an exciting closing movement. The tempo at the beginning is ''Cominciando esitando'' ("Beginning hesitantly"), the tenors begin as a ballad singer, while the other voices imitate guitar sounds, introducing a young lazy flower-cutter. The voices take turns telling the story, with increasing tempo, up to a final wedding to a rich woman, marked ''Vivace'', with the first "guitar" chords as joyous and sonorous wedding bells.

Recordings

''Five Flower Songs'' was recorded by the Elizabethan Singers conducted by Louis Halsey in 1965. It became part of the composer's complete recordings.

Paul Spicer Paul Spicer (born August 18, 1975) is an American football coach and former defensive end who is the defensive line coach for the San Antonio Brahmas of the XFL. He played college football at Saginaw Valley State. He then played 12 seasons in ...

conducted the Finzi Singers in a 1997 recording of ''Five Flower Songs'' as vol. 3 of the series ''Britten / The Choral Edition'' for the Chandos label. The cycle was recorded in 2000 by

, conducted by Stephen Layton, together with other choral music by Britten. The

, conducted by

John Rutter John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music. Biography Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutte ...

, recorded the songs as the conclusion of a collection ''There is sweet music'' of English part songs, by Stanford,

Frederick Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

, Elgar,

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

and

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

, among others. The

, conducted by

Justin Doyle Justin Doyle (born 6 April 1978) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s, in the Australasian National Rugby League (NRL) for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in 1998 and 1999 before moving to th ...

, recorded the cycle, along with other Britten works.

References

External links

Five Flower Songs
Britten Thematic Catalogue *
Listening to Britten – ''Five Flower Songs'', Op. 47
Goodmorningbritten website 4 November 2013 * Stirling, Christian Damon
A Study of Britten's Unaccompanied Choral Cycles
(dissertation)

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

2015 * Barker, David; Barnett, Rob
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) / Works D to K
musicweb-international.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Flower Songs, Five Song cycles by Benjamin Britten 1950 compositions 20th-century songs Songs about flowers Part songs