THE CHAMBER Music TRIO
ALBERT SAMMONS (Violin). CEDRIC SHARPE
(Violoncello), WILLIAM MURDOCH (Pianoforte)
Tom GOODEY (Tenor) Tom GOODEY Three Songs by Wolf : Coptisehes Lied (Coptic Song)
Wenn du zu den Blumen gehst (When amidst the flowers you walk)
Fussreise (' Wandering ')
WOLF, in a short life of only forty-three years, wrote over two hundred and fifty songs.
These, indeed, constituted almost the whole of his output. There are two ' Coptic Songs,' to words by Goethe. The first of these has a firm, measured tread, like that of a processional hymn. Wolf's mind-picture of the scene in the second Coptic Song was that of a banquet of the wise men of all the earth singing a gay, proud song and emptying their glasses at each verse's end. Its philosophy is thus wound up-in this world ' You must either be hammer or anvil.' The second of our three songs praises the beauty of one who is the sweetest flower of all, in whose presence all blossoms fade. Wandering tells us of the sweet emotions awakened by the sight of Nature's beauties; that still appeal to all that is good and tender in man. How happy could one be if the whole of life might partake of the spirit aroused on such a lovely morning !-thus runs the song's sentiment.
ONE Spring day in 1873 the Professors of the Moscow
Conservatoire, Tchaikovsky and Nicholas Rubinstein among them, shut up their books and pianos and had a jolly trip into the country, hearing, during the day, some folk songs, sung by village lads and lasses. When Rubinstein died.
Tchaikovsky commemorated his friend in a Trio, inscribed 'To the memory of a great artist,' and, with the recollection of their happy picnic in mind, used one of the folk-songs they had heard that day as the theme of the extensive Last Movement of the Trio. All the resources of the three instruments are used, with remarkable effect. One, almost feels, at times, that a whole Orchestra is at work. The Theme is varied in many styles, appearing now as the basis of a Waltz (Variation VI), now as the ' Subject ' of a Fugue (Variation X), and sometimes in more sombrely expression forms. Variation XII, the last (Quick, resolute and fiery), is extended almost to the proportions of a separate Movement, and at the-final page we have the sad rhythm of a Funeral March.