DORSET COMPOSER - RICK BIRLEY
  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert

Seven Folksong Ballads

The Seven Folksong Ballads owe their existence to a casual, a verbal promise to “write something” for a charity concert. I thought no more of it, until I saw a bill advertising the forthcoming concert, with my aim amongst the composers! I had always wanted to set some folksongs for string quartet and voice, and here was my opportunity. In fact, except for no.1 and the lament at the end of no.4, all the music is newly composed. The soprano is Christine Page, once my colleague and always a very good friend. The string quartet is the Cleyndert Quartet led by Brian Howells. I am very grateful to these wonderful musicians for playing my work:


The Old Man From Lee

The Old Man from Lee - this freely arranged melody was originally sung by an unnamed singer from Coggeshall (Essex) in this version. The theme is a very common one in folklore, and widespread…..




I Wish, I Wish

I Wish, I Wish - this is a set song about betrayal of love; the singer has been loved and left for a younger woman. There is the common “apron-low”, “apron-high” motif - the maid’s slim belly and the mother-to-be’s rounded form. The accompaniment is upper strings only.




The Loyal Lover

The Loyal Lover - this is a song of love and devotion for a lover who is away at sea. While the cello’s ostinato represents some (imaginary) mundane task being undertaken, the rich imagery of the poem is reflected in the first violin’s music.




Bonnie George Campbell

Bonnie George Campbell rides out on his mount, but only his “guid horse” comes home. The Scottish dialect is mostly understandable, but here are some translations for some of the harder phrases: “out came his mother dear greeting fu’ sair” (crying sorely); “And out cam his bonnie bride riving her hair” (tearing her hair); ” But toom (empty) cam his saddle to see”. At the end I have set a magnificent Scottish lament - Lady MacRobert’s Lament, sometimes known as The Flight of the Eaglets.




Rare Willie Drowned in Yarrow

Rare Willie Drowned into Yarrow - verses alternate between a suspension of belief, and hard realisation of Rare Willie’s tragic fate.




The Unquiet Grave

The Unquiet Grave is a ghost story in verse/song. I have changed the words slightly to have the woman sitting on her lover's grave, rather than vice versa. She sits there for so long – twelve months and a day - that “the dead began to speak”…..




The Miller's Daughter

The Miller's Daughter is a saucy tale was a quite unexpected conclusion!




​Live performance (September 2018) - Abbi Temple (soprano)



In September 2018 an ensemble of ten players invited by Richard Hosford and led by Marieke Blankenstijn accompanied Abbi Temple in the Ashton Barn:
​ 

  • HOME [and contact form]
  • CONCERT
  • Rick Birley biography
  • Compositions [Orchestral works]
    • Peterloo
    • Bishops & Clerks >
      • The Flow
      • These Distracted Times
      • The Rechabite
      • Sunset Island
    • Chamber Symphony [No.1] in Five Movements
    • Symphony No.2 ["little bird"]
    • Hebrew Songs of Love, Faith & Survival
    • Piano Concerto
    • Symphonic Suite for Piano & Orchestra
    • Tanquam Sponsus [piano & orchestra]
    • Spanish Folksongs
    • Chansons de France
    • A Dorset Rhapsody
    • Call to Remembrance - a meditation on The Last Post
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope
    • Latin Primer
    • Olympian Glories
    • Sar-planina - a Macedonian folksong
    • Marat/Sade Suite >
      • Marat/Sade notes
    • Maverick
    • Variations on a Plainsong
    • Eight Orchestral Studies
    • Christmas Exultation
    • Romney Facets
    • A Little English Folksong Suite/ The Ploughboy
    • English Folksong Suite No.2
    • Movement for String Orchestra "magnas inter opes inops"
    • Lord of the Dance
    • Sea Song
    • Greensleeves
  • Piano Music (solo & 2-piano)
    • Piano Sonata
    • Toccata: "On the Edge"
    • March Wind
    • Donegal - a choral fantasy transcribed for piano
    • Butterfly in the Breeze
    • Variations on a Plainsong - piano transcription
    • Ten Preludes for Piano
    • Carol Preludes [piano]
    • Salutation Carol Prelude [piano]
    • Preludes [piano] >
      • 3 Preludes for Piano
    • Papillons
    • Spanish Folksongs [2 piano version]
    • Marat/Sade Suite [2-piano transcription]
    • Drink Old England Dry: a Folksong Frolic for Busy Fingers
    • Nursery Rhymes Kaleidoscope [2-piano transcription]
    • Minimalism
  • Compositions [Vocal]
    • Edges
    • Seven Folksong Ballads
    • Hardy Songs
  • Choral Music
    • Advent Carol Succession >
      • Advent Carol Succession notes
    • Songs of Time
    • Fern Hill
    • Universal Truth
    • The Virgin's Song
    • Nine Welsh Folksong Arrangements
    • The Jackdaw of Rheims
    • The Birds’ Mass
    • Three Motets
    • My Love in her Attire
    • Gaudete, gaudete!
    • Three Hardy Settings for unaccompanied choir
    • The Cuckoo
    • In Vernali Tempore
    • The Willow Song
    • Dance to your Daddy
    • Drill, Ye Terriers, Drill
    • Carol: I Sing of a Maiden
  • Compositions [chamber/instrumental]
    • Quintet "magnas inter opes inops"
    • String Quartet No.1
    • String Quartet No.2
    • Austerity
    • Your Presence [piano/violin]
    • in memoriam G B
    • Past Tense
    • "Conversing with a Silent Marsh Harrier" for string quintet
    • Five Folksong Arrangements (for the Crucible)
    • Latin Primer [Septet]
    • Latin Primer [violin/piano]
    • Variations on a Plainsong - original version for solo clarinet
    • Blaydon Races
    • Folksong Dance Suite for Cello & Piano
    • Dance to Your Daddy [piano]
    • Grazioso (guitar solo)
    • Dorset Suite (guitar duo)
    • Sonatina for Violin & Piano [1979]
    • the Cuckoo - 'cello & chamber orchestra
    • The Phoenix
  • Compositions [jazz/light]
    • Funked-up Bach
    • Basement Jazz
    • Too Darn Hot
  • A Dorset Affair
  • Compositions [Pastiche]
    • La Ronde
    • Zartom: Symphony
    • Hornby: Exultate Jubilate
  • The case for a National Rehearsal Orchestra for New Music
  • ARTWORK
    • Gallery - Room 1 Life Underwater
    • Gallery - Room 2 Life around us
    • Gallery - Room 3 [flowers]
    • Gallery - Room 4 [SEASCAPES & LANDSCAPE]S + Mika]
    • Rogues gallery....
    • Pembrokeshire scenes i
    • Pembrokeshire scenes ii
    • Durham 'prints'
    • Picture Dorchester....
    • Italy October 2010
    • Paris
    • Prague
  • Miscellaneous art works
  • Poems
    • We English - a historical rhyme
    • Touching His Face
    • Commanded Time
    • Master of my Fate?
    • Alas, poor Ludo!
    • New Co-op Party Anthem
  • Rick Birley Blog
    • Hobie Adventure Island >
      • Maiden Voyage 12.iii.11
  • Miscellaneous
    • Maverick
  • Compositions [Miscellaneous]
    • Music Hall for Westfield
    • 60th birthday concert: May 24th 2014 Orchestral Concert