Price: £10.00
Item code: MM118| Lyrics from the Chinese Seven Songs for High Voice and String Orchestra |
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| Date of composition | Winter 1957/1958 |
| Opus number | 16b |
| Type of work | Concert music |
| Duration | 18 mins |
| Musical forces | High Voice and String Orchestra |
| Words | trans. Helen Waddell |
| First performance | 15th July 1967 |
| First performance information | Jack Irons (tenor) with the Midland (now English) Sinfonia conducted by Neville Dilkes, University of Nottingham |
| Publisher | Modus Music |
| Archive location | Trinity Laban (Jerwood Library) |
| Archive contents | MS / BLYTON 13 • MS / BLYTON 34 • MS / BLYTON 92 • MS / BLYTON 93 • MS / BLYTON 96 |
| Notes | Movements are: 1. Prelude; 2. Song 1: Aubade; 3. Song 2: Drinking Song; 4. Song 3: Song against the Duke Seuen; 5. Song 4: Song at Evening; 6. Interlude; 7. Song 5: Flower Song; 8. Song 6: Sacrificial Song; 9. Song 7: Nocturne; 10. Postlude |
| Listen… COMMERCIAL RECORDING Ian Partridge, Tenor • Britten Sinfonia conducted by Nicholas Cleobury |
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| I: Prelude |
| II: Song 1: Aubade |
| III: Song 2: Drinking Song |
| IV: Song 3: Song against the Duke Seuen |
| V: Song 4: Song at Evening |
| VI: Interlude—VII: Song 5: Flower Song |
| VIII: Song 6: Sacrificial Song |
| IX: Song 7: Nocturne—X: Postlude |
| From the CD Carey Blyton: Lyrics from the Chinese |
| Listen… HISTORIC RECORDING Jack Irons, Tenor • Guildhall School of Music & Drama Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Wishart Recorded at a concert in the Dartford Rural District Arts Festival, 4th April 1970 |
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| I: Prelude |
| II: Song 1: Aubade |
| III: Song 2: Drinking Song |
| IV: Song 3: Song against the Duke Seuen |
| V: Song 4: Song at Evening |
| VI: Interlude—VII: Song 5: Flower Song |
| VIII: Song 6: Sacrificial Song |
| IX: Song 7: Nocturne—X: Postlude |
| We apologise for the poor sound quality; the original recording was made on low-grade cassette tape. |
Reviews
…ranking the composer as a song writer with the same kind of evocative power and feeling as Benjamin Britten.
—John Coggan, Nottingham Guardian Journal, 17th July 1967
Blyton seems to be that rare thing among modern composers, a craftsman who has a great sense of beauty coupled with an inspirational gift for a virile tune.
—Richard Terry, Kentish Times, 21st July 1967
The “Chines Lyrics”, as the songs of “Lachrymae”, possess enormous popular appeal because they have good, strong, virile melodies … Mr Blyton scored an immediate success at Nottingham … many in the audience demanded an immediate encore of the “Chinese Lyrics”.
—Richard Terry, The Croydon Advertiser, 27th July 1967
…often highly eloquent and extremely beautiful. Blyton’s music, particularly his vocal writings, where perhaps he is at his most assured and captivating, is basically very easily approachable.
—David Mottley, The Croydon Advertiser, 9th April 1970
The whole cycle is deeply felt and attractive, well laid out for voice and strings…
—Norman Harvey, Kentish Times, 10th April 1970
I have no doubt that these two song-cycles [Lyrics from the Chinese and Lachrymae—In Memoriam John Dowland] for voice and strings are Carey’s masterpieces. They have a magic about them that glows from every bar and the word settings truly illuminate the poems.