Bur 5 Five Folksong Settings for two piano duet

Contents

1. The Spanish Lady (FS 24) *

2. Through the Wood (Three Scottish Airs No. 3)

3. The Irish Cry (Three Irish Airs No. 3)

4. Greensleeves (FS 19) *

5. The Three Dukes (FS 16) *

* Numbers given by the composer in Burrows's Folk Song Settings series.

Editor's Notes

Benjamin Burrows' first twenty four folksong settings for two pianos were written separately, but between 1952 and 1955 he embarked on three groups: Three Irish Airs (1952) Three Scottish Airs (1954) and Three Welsh Airs (1954). Not his first efforts at writing for two keyboards, they do however represent an absorbing interest that this medium held for him between 1940 and 1954. While studying with Charles Kitson, whose distinguished mantle as a theory teacher he himself later so uniquely wore, he had transcribed Delius's Brigg Fair for two pianos and in 1934 he composed a Rhapsody and an Intermezzo, much influenced by popular music of the day, and Gershwin in particular. Later, interspersed among the folk song settings, are a Rumba (1944) which owes something to the more noted Jamaican Rumba of Arthur Benjamin, Five Waltzes (1947/8) and Three Fugues (1951). These last reveal the contrapuntal ingenuity that earned him first prize in a nationwide fugue competition.
His virtuosity as a keyboard player ensured a highly effective piano style, and these works for two pianos are a delight for players and listeners alike. One other work is worth a mention since it is an example of the rare combination of organ and piano. Variations on an Original Theme was written in 1948 for Elsie Everett, a Leicester pianist and the composer's secretary. (Green Man Press, Catalog ref. Bur 7).

The sources for the first twenty four folk songs Burrows chose were Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Times, Journals of the Folk Song Society and Folk Song Collections (Novello). When he decided to add his three settings from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, he turned to volume one of 12 Twelve Scotch and Irish Airs with Variations set for the German Flute, Violin or Harpsichord by Mr Buck (Thunott Simpson, London 1742) and Minstrelsy of Wales (Augener 1906). For this series of publications of Burrows’ music, we have selected eleven which seem to us representative of the best.

In some of the settings, Burrows is content to provide a simple harmonic frame for the melody: O Waly Waly , Through the Wood and, exquisitely, The Spanish Lady exemplify this type. Others are more elaborate, achieving considerable dramatic excitement by the use of imitation, canon and fughetta.
One of the simplest settings, The Spanish Lady, (no. 1) sustains a mood of gentle tranquillity, the serene tune moving steadily over a tonic pedal that is twice interrupted very briefly, and a two beat accompaniment that cuts across the three beat melody. Of all the modest settings, this is one of the most appealing. Through the Wood, (no 2) is a simple folk tune, this time from Scotland, treated to suitably simple decorations. The Irish Cry, (no. 3) third of ‘Three Irish Airs’, is another gentle melody displaying that type of ornamentation so familiar in the singing of native Irish singers.
Though Burrows generally chose his folk tunes personally, twice he was persuaded to use tunes suggested by others. One was Greensleeves, (no. 4) which, surprisingly, was not only new to him, but one which he did not, it seems, highly regard. He gives it a swift, galloping treatment, far removed from the pastoral beauty of Vaughan Williams's familiar and well-loved version; it certainly gives a fresh face to this old tune, relating it more to the "hunt" than to the "home".
In the late forties and early fifties, The Three Dukes (no. 5) received several broadcasts by the celebrated piano duo, Olive Rees and Mary Madden. A braw, bouncy melody, Burrows chose it for the opportunity to explore the unusual cadence of mediant - tonic as a change from the standard dominant - (or sub-dominant -) tonic (see final bar). It was the composer's usual practice to select his melodies for some such device that fascinated his intensely analytical mind. At one point there is a sequence of five clangorous chords (bar 36 Piano II) which Burrows, revealing his considerable imagination for orchestral colour, described as suggesting to him a quartet of saxophones.