JAN VAN DER GUCHT (tenor)
A Roger Quilter Programme
QUINTET
Three English Dances Two Old English Tunes
I. Drink to me only with thine eyes ; 2. Three Poor Mariners
JAN VAN DER GUCHT AND QUINTET
Song Cycle, To Julia
QUINTET
Spirit of the Lake
Dance (Where the Moonlight } Rainbow Ends) Fairy Frolic
THERE are two. Christmas plays for children which are staged with unfailing regularity every Christmas, and have been for some years-Peter Pan and Where the Rainbow Ends. Some of the success, at least of the latter play, is due to the very charming music which Roger Quilter wrote for it and which, in the form of a suite, is well known on the concert platform. The titles of the excerpts from the incidental music in this programme show pretty well what kind of a play it is, and there are others, equally descriptive, which appear in the suite, such as ' Rainbow End ’, Will o' the Wisp ', and ‘ Goblin Forest '. Quilter combines with his own special talent a gift of writing for children in a manner that they themselves understand and find particularly pleasing. His very popular ' Children's Overture ', which is full of tunes that appeal to children, testifies to this gift.
JAN VAN DER GUCHT
The Jealous Lover Damask Roses
My Life's Delight
QUINTET
Gypsies
JAN VAN DER GUCHT AND QUINTET
Come away, Death.
Heigh Ho , the Wind and the Rain
QUINTET
Country Pieces
Dance, As You Like It
ROGER QUILTER was born at Brighton in 1877, and educated at Eton, where he remained until his twentieth or twenty-first year, when he went to the Hoch Conservatorium , Frankfort, to study composition under Ivan Knorr. It is interesting to note that his fellow-students were Cyril Scott , Percy Grainger , Norman O'Neill , and Balfout Gardiner. On Quilter's return to England it was not long before he began to make a name for himself with his songs and incidental music to plays. In 1905 Gervase Elwes introduced to the public Quilter's song-cycle ' To Julia,' and three years later the Seven Elizabethan Lyrics. Roger Quilter has for a long time deservedly held a place in the front rank of modem British song composers, and as a com-poser of incidental music he has become no less distinguished. His style is so refined and polished, and his muse so delicate and winning, that his music is equally attractive to both the musician and the ordinary listener.