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Six Studies in English Folksong (WB) - Vaughan Williams/arr. Vertommen |
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In stockThe Euphonium Virtuoso Collection is a new series of euphonium solos arranged by Luc Vertommen especially for Steven Mead and offers exciting study and performance opportunities for every aspiring soloist.
Top quality arrangements available in different versions for soloist and brass band, symphonic wind band or piano accompaniment.
By the time Ralph Vaughan Williams had created his Six Studies in English Folk-Song in 1926 he had been travelling around the country collecting English folk songs for a quarter of a century. Along with Cecil Sharp, he preserved for posterity many examples of this great English musical tradition. These small studies are jewels and were originally written for the cellist May Mukle, who gave first performance at the Scala Theatre in London on 4 June 1926. The touching lyricism of these short and beautiful studies, so fresh and loving, are perhaps an off-shoot of his preoccupation with some of the best folk songs in his opera Sir John in Love (1929). These slight but attractive pieces are not literal transcriptions of folk-melodies, but are based on well-known tunes, freely treated and ornamented, whose identity can be easily traced. The first study is a setting of the Norfolk tune Lovely on the Water , in which the tune emerges naturally from the accompaniment , well suited to the lyrical qualities of the euphonium. Spurn Point is a fine tribute to this unique place with sand and shingle banks in the Britsh Islands on the Yorkshire coast. Van Dieman's Land is another fine slow melody and the original name used by Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Lady and the Dragoon is another tune in a slow tempo. In the fourth study 'She borrowed some of her mother's gold', the arpeggio accompaniment rocks gently back and forth, occasionally acting as a kind of descant for the euphonium. The last of the set, As I walked over London bridge ('Geordie') is a 'rum-ti-tum' affair with its air of innocent jollity, its varied accompanying texture, and its surprising ending, is so terse that one regrets the composer did not treat the tune more expansively. But then perhaps the succinct wit of the setting would have been lost.
difficulty rating: 2/3 (1-6)
duration: 7:45 solo parts included: BC, TC, BC Bb
All Brass, Wind & Fanfare Band arrangements in the Euphonium Virtuoso series are shipped directly from the publisher.
